Server Cluster Configuration: The Most Challenging Exercise Yet

This exercise is the most interesting exercise for me yet. Maybe because I am into web development and I want to learn how servers are configured. But life has its own way of saying "You can't always get what you want!". Hehe. I tried to make this work for three times. The first trial was by using our family desktop computer and my laptop. I searched for tutorials online and tried to implement it on my own. The screen shots below show the steps I made in my first trial.

Installing Ubuntu

Two computers that will serve as servers

This exercise suggests to have at least three computers configured to share a network. But I only have two available computers at our home so I decided to just use our iPad if ever I had successfully configured the server.

(Screen shots below show installation of heartbeat and pacemaker.)

Figure 1: Heartbeat Installation

Figure 2: Pacemaker Installation

So in my first trial, I used the video that can be watched in youtube to setup DHCP Server. The goal of this exercise is easy to understand but the underlying concepts are hard to implement. Here is the link to video I have watched in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-StF7ovKA

Figure 3: Install DHCP3 Server

Figure 4: Ifconfig Server 1

Figure 5: Ifconfig Server 2

Figure 6: Editing DHCP.conf

Figure 7: DHCP Restart in Server1

FIgure 7: Restarting DHCP Server in Server2

Figure 8: Configuration Failed

It was already 3 am in the morning last Monday when I decided to give up on this exercise. I have no time to do the task since I'm already working. I decided to just make the blog and share my experiences.

The first trial was not even close to the expected output. :)) But, I seriously tried. 


The second trial was during the lab. I teamed up with Noel Baylosis and Marian Bundalian. It was very frustrating because there are so many PC's in the lab but we were'nt able to configure it correctly because previous configuration of students got in the way.


(Screenshots below show the step by step configuration based from the handout.)

Figure 9: Server 2 Step 2

Figure 10: Server 2 Step 4.1

Figure 11: Server 2 Step 4.2

Figure 12: Server 2 Step 4.3

Figure 13: Server 2 Step 9

Figure 14: Our group's annoying problem

We were stuck because of the problem encountered in figure 14. We even changed role playing. We changed servers to configure but the result didn't change.


And for the third trial, the trial I did before I finished this blog was through the desktop and laptop once again. We have a router and many LAN cables so I didn't think that there will be a problem in connecting the computers. I have never been so wrong. Hehe. 

The first I did was to connect the computers using a LAN Cable. My plan is to connect the two computers using a LAN cable and through the router, I will fetch the website using the iPad. The idea is not complicated but the implementation is very difficult.

(Screenshots below show the manual configuration of server 1 for eth0.)

Figure 15: Server 1 - Manual Configuration of ipv4 in Network Connections

The same was done to server 2, only with different ip address of course.

Figure 16: Server 1 pings server 2

I stopped the configuration when I encountered again the error in the second trial. :)) And it's 3am again in the morning. I can only do this task late at night after my work :))


So after 3 attempts, the problems encountered are mainly  about configuration. Hehe. Of course. I just really hope that there are published books for ubuntu programming because books can be so reliable. And one thing is, there are a lot of versions of ubuntu and a lot of incompatibility issues so it is not safe to just choose a tutorial and expect it to be successful.

Well Ha-Hb is not user friendly. The idea of having multiple servers is good because there are things that are expected to be always up. But having multiple servers can dangerous or hard to maintain. Multiple servers increase the chance of having inconsistencies in the data. Some of the real world applications are social media sites and online gaming.


Allowing myself first to discover firsthand the configuration for HA-HB is not that bad but it is very difficult because my resources are limited. Hehe. I don't have three computers which is the desirable number of computers for the exercise.  And our desktop only supports wired connections so it is an additional hassle. Good thing we have a router though :))

 To wrap all things up, this has been the most challenging and the most exhausting exercise in this subject so far. Even though I was not able to configure the connections successfully, I am happy because I was able to learn by myself and my resourcefulness was also exercised too. :)