OCFS2 1.2 - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (Doc ID 391771.

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Modified:29-May-2014 Type:FAQ

In this Document

Purpose
Questions and Answers
  GENERAL
  DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL
  CONFIGURE
  O2CB CLUSTER SERVICE
  FORMAT
  RESIZE
  MOUNT 
  ORACLE RAC
  MIGRATE DATA FROM OCFS (RELEASE 1) TO OCFS2 
  COREUTILS 
  EXPORTING VIA NFS
  TROUBLESHOOTING 
  LIMITS 
  SYSTEM FILES
  HEARTBEAT 
  QUORUM AND FENCING 
  NOVELL'S SLES9 and SLES10 
  RELEASE 1.2 
  UPGRADE TO THE LATEST RELEASE 
  PROCESSES 
  BUILD RPMS FOR HOTFIX KERNELS 
  BACKUP SUPER BLOCK
  CONFIGURING CLUSTER TIMEOUTS 
  ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 
APPLIES TO:

Linux OS - Version 1.2.0-1 and later

Linux Itanium
IBM: Linux on System z
Linux x86
IBM: Linux on POWER Systems
Linux x86-64

PURPOSE

This Metalink Note duplicates the OCFS2 FAQ that can be found at the following URL:

http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/documentation/v1.2/ocfs2_faq.html

The intent is to make the OCFS2 FAQ searchable by Metalink when customers are creating SRs and also for Oracle Support analysts when researching OCFS2
issues.

This note will be compared periodically against the master document on the oss.oracle.com website and will be updated as needed to remain accurate with that
document.

Users of this note are encourage to refer to http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/documentation/v1.2/ocfs2_faq.html for the latest updates.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

GENERAL

1. How do I get started?

* Download and install the module and tools rpms.
* Create cluster.conf and propagate to all nodes.
* Configure and start the O2CB cluster service.
* Format the volume.
* Mount the volume.
2. How do I know the version number running?

# cat /proc/fs/ocfs2/version
OCFS2 1.2.8 Tue Feb 12 20:22:48 EST 2008 (build 9c7ae8bb50ef6d8791df2912775adcc5)

3. How do I configure my system to auto-reboot after a panic?

To auto-reboot system 60 secs after a panic, do:

# echo 60 > /proc/sys/kernel/panic

To enable the above on every reboot, add the following to /etc/sysctl.conf:

kernel.panic = 60

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

4.  Where do I get the packages from? 

For Oracle Enterprise Linux 4 and 5, use the up2date command as follows: 

# up2date --install ocfs2-tools ocfs2console 

# up2date --install ocfs2-`uname -r` 

For Novell's SLES9, use yast to upgrade to the latest SP3 kernel to get the required modules installed. Also, install the ocfs2-tools and ocfs2console packages. 
For Novell's SLES10, install ocfs2-tools and ocfs2console packages. For Red Hat's RHEL4 and RHEL5, download and install the appropriate module package
and the two tools packages, ocfs2-tools and ocfs2console. Appropriate module refers to one matching the kernel version, flavor and architecture. Flavor refers
to smp, hugemem, etc.

5. What are the latest versions of the OCFS2 packages? 

The latest module package version is 1.2.9-1 for both Enterprise Linux 4 and 5. 
The latest tools/console package version is 1.2.7-1 for both Enterprise Linux 4 and 5.6.

6. How do I interpret the package name ocfs2-2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp-1.2.1-1.i686.rpm?

The package name is comprised of multiple parts separated by '-'.
* ocfs2 - Package name
* 2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp - Kernel version and flavor
* 1.2.1 - Package version
* 1 - Package subversion
* i686 - Architecture

7. How do I know which package to install on my box?

After one identifies the package name and version to install, one still needs to determine the kernel version, flavor and architecture.
To know the kernel version and flavor, do:

# uname -r
2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp

To know the architecture, do:

# rpm -qf /boot/vmlinuz-`uname -r` --queryformat "%{ARCH}\n"

i686

8. Why can't I use uname -p to determine the kernel architecture?

uname -p does not always provide the exact kernel architecture. Case in point the RHEL3 kernels on x86_64. Even though Red Hat has two different kernel
architectures available for this port, ia32e and x86_64, uname -p identifies both as the generic x86_64.

9. How do I install the rpms?

First install the tools and console packages:

# rpm -Uvh ocfs2-tools-1.2.1-1.i386.rpm ocfs2console-1.2.1-1.i386.rpm

Then install the appropriate kernel module package:

# rpm -Uvh ocfs2-2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp-1.2.1-1.i686.rpm

10. Do I need to install the console?

No, the console is not required but recommended for ease-of-use.

11. What are the dependencies for installing ocfs2console?

ocfs2console requires e2fsprogs, glib2 2.2.3 or later, vte 0.11.10 or later, pygtk2 (RHEL4) or python-gtk (SLES9) 1.99.16 or later, python 2.3 or later and
ocfs2-tools.

12. What modules are installed with the OCFS2 1.2 package?
* configfs.ko
* ocfs2.ko
* ocfs2_dlm.ko
* ocfs2_dlmfs.ko
* ocfs2_nodemanager.ko
* debugfs 
The kernel shipped along with Enterprise Linux 5 includes configfs.ko and debugfs.ko.

13. What tools are installed with the ocfs2-tools 1.2 package?
* mkfs.ocfs2
* fsck.ocfs2
* tunefs.ocfs2
* debugfs.ocfs2
* mount.ocfs2
* mounted.ocfs2
* ocfs2cdsl
* ocfs2_hb_ctl
* o2cb_ctl
* o2cb - init service to start/stop the cluster
* ocfs2 - init service to mount/umount ocfs2 volumes
* ocfs2console - installed with the console package

14. What is debugfs and is it related to debugfs.ocfs2?

debugfs is an in-memory filesystem developed by Greg Kroah-Hartman. It is useful for debugging as it allows kernel space to easily export data to userspace. It
is currently being used by OCFS2 to dump the list of filesystem locks and could be used for more in the future. It is bundled with OCFS2 as the various
distributions are currently not bundling it. While debugfs and debugfs.ocfs2 are unrelated in general, the latter is used as the front-end for the debugging info
provided by the former. For example, refer to the troubleshooting section.

CONFIGURE

15. How do I populate /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf?

If you have installed the console, use it to create this configuration file. For details, refer to the user's guide. If you do not have the console installed, check the
Appendix in the User's guide for a sample cluster.conf and the details of all the components. Do not forget to copy this file to all the nodes in the cluster. If you
ever edit this file on any node, ensure the other nodes are updated as well.

16. Should the IP interconnect be public or private?

Using a private interconnect is recommended. While OCFS2 does not take much bandwidth, it does require the nodes to be alive on the network and sends
regular keepalive packets to ensure that they are. To avoid a network delay being interpreted as a node disappearing on the net which could lead to a node-self-
fencing, a private interconnect is recommended. One could use the same interconnect for Oracle RAC and OCFS2.

17. What should the node name be and should it be related to the IP address?
The node name needs to match the hostname. The IP address need not be the one associated with that hostname. As in, any valid IP address on that node can be
used. OCFS2 will not attempt to match the node name (hostname) with the specified IP address.

18. How do I modify the IP address, port or any other information specified in cluster.conf?
While one can use ocfs2console to add nodes dynamically to a running cluster, any other modifications require the cluster to be offlined. Stop the cluster on all
nodes, edit /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf on one and copy to the rest, and restart the cluster on all nodes. Always ensure that cluster.conf is the same on all the nodes in
the cluster.

19. How do I add a new node to an online cluster?

You can use the console to add a new node. However, you will need to explicitly add the new node on all the online nodes. That is, adding on one node and
propagating to the other nodes is not sufficient. If the operation fails, it will most likely be due to bug#741. In that case, you can use the o2cb_ctl utility on all
online nodes as follows:

# o2cb_ctl -C -i -n NODENAME -t node -a number=NODENUM -a ip_address=IPADDR -a ip_port=IPPORT -a cluster=CLUSTERNAME

20. # How do I add a new node to an offline cluster? 

You can either use the console or use o2cb_ctl or simply hand edit cluster.conf. Then either use the console to propagate it to all nodes or hand copy using scp
or any other tool. The o2cb_ctl command to do the same is: 

# o2cb_ctl -C -n NODENAME -t node -a number=NODENUM -a ip_address=IPADDR -a ip_port=IPPORT -a cluster=CLUSTERNAME 

Notice the "-i" argument is not required as the cluster is not online.

O2CB CLUSTER SERVICE

21. How do I configure the cluster service?

# /etc/init.d/o2cb configure

Enter 'y' if you want the service to load on boot and the name of the cluster (as listed in /etc/ocfs2/cluster.conf) and the cluster timeouts

.
22. How do I start the cluster service?
* To load the modules, do:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb load

* To Online it, do:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb online [cluster_name]

If you have configured the cluster to load on boot, you could combine the two as follows:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb start [cluster_name]

The cluster name is not required if you have specified the name during configuration.

23. How do I stop the cluster service?

* To offline it, do:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb offline [cluster_name]

* To unload the modules, do:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb unload

If you have configured the cluster to load on boot, you could combine the two as follows:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb stop [cluster_name]

The cluster name is not required if you have specified the name during configuration.
24. How can I learn the status of the cluster?
To learn the status of the cluster, do:

# /etc/init.d/o2cb status

25. I am unable to get the cluster online. What could be wrong?

Check whether the node name in the cluster.conf exactly matches the hostname. One of the nodes in the cluster.conf need to be in the cluster for the cluster to
be online.

FORMAT

26.  Should I partition a disk before formatting? 

Yes, partitioning is recommended even if one is planning to use the entire disk for ocfs2. Apart from the fact that partitioned disks are less likely to be "reused"
by mistake, some features like mount-by-label only work with partitioned volumes. 
Use fdisk or parted or any other tool for the task.

27. How do I format a volume? 

You could either use the console or use mkfs.ocfs2 directly to format the volume. For console, refer to the user's guide. 

mkfs.ocfs2 -L "oracle_home" /dev/sdX 

The above formats the volume with default block and cluster sizes, which are computed based upon the size of the volume. 

# mkfs.ocfs2 -b 4k -C 32K -L "oracle_home" -N 4 /dev/sdX 

The above formats the volume for 4 nodes with a 4K block size and a 32K cluster size. 

28. What does the number of node slots during format refer to? 
The number of node slots specifies the number of nodes that can concurrently mount the volume. This number is specified during format and can be increased
using tunefs.ocfs2. This number cannot be decreased. 

29.  What should I consider when determining the number of node slots? 
OCFS2 allocates system files, like Journal, for each node slot. So as to not to waste space, one should specify a number within the ballpark of the actual number
of nodes. Also, as this number can be increased, there is no need to specify a much larger number than one plans for mounting the volume.

30. Does the number of node slots have to be the same for all volumes? 
No. This number can be different for each volume.

31. What block size should I use? 

A block size is the smallest unit of space addressable by the file system. OCFS2 supports block sizes of 512 bytes, 1K, 2K and 4K. The block size cannot be
changed after the format. For most volume sizes, a 4K size is recommended. On the other hand, the 512 bytes block is never recommended.

32. What cluster size should I use? 

A cluster size is the smallest unit of space allocated to a file to hold the data. OCFS2 supports cluster sizes of 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K, 64K, 128K, 256K, 512K and
1M. For database volumes, a cluster size of 128K or larger is recommended. For Oracle home, 32K to 64K. 

33. Any advantage of labelling the volumes? 

As in a shared disk environment, the disk name (/dev/sdX) for a particular device be different on different nodes, labelling becomes a must for easy
identification. You could also use labels to identify volumes during mount. 

# mount -L "label" /dir 

The volume label is changeable using the tunefs.ocfs2 utility. 

RESIZE

34. Can OCFS2 file systems be grown in size? 

Yes, you can grow an OCFS2 file system using tunefs.ocfs2. It should be noted that the tool will only resize the file system and not the underlying partition.
You can use fdisk(8) (or any appropriate tool for your disk array) to resize the partition.

35.What do I need to know to use fdisk(8) to resize the partition? 

To grow a partition using fdisk(8), you will have to delete it and recreate it with a larger size. When recreating it, ensure you specify the same starting disk
cylinder as before and a ending disk cylinder that is greater than the existing one. Otherwise, not only will the resize operation fail, but you may lose your entire
file system. Backup your data before performing this task. 

36. Short of reboot, how do I get the other nodes in the cluster to see the resized partition? 
Use blockdev(8) to rescan the partition table of the device on the other nodes in the cluster. 

# blockdev --rereadpt /dev/sdX 

37. What is the tunefs.ocfs2 syntax for resizing the file system? 
To grow a file system to the end of the resized partition, do: 
# tunefs.ocfs2 -S /dev/sdX 

For more, refer to the tunefs.ocfs2 manpage.

38. Can the OCFS2 file system be grown while the file system is in use? 
No. tunefs.ocfs2 1.2.2 only allows offline resize. i.e., the file system cannot be mounted on any node in the cluster. The online resize capability will be added
later. 

39. Can the OCFS2 file system be shrunk in size? 

No. We have no current plans on providing this functionality. However, if you find this feature useful, file an enhancement request on bugzilla listing your
reasons for the same. 

MOUNT 

40. How do I mount the volume? 

You could either use the console or use mount directly. For console, refer to the user's guide. 

# mount -t ocfs2 /dev/sdX /dir 

The above command will mount device /dev/sdX on directory /dir.

41. How do I mount by label? 

To mount by label do: 

# mount -L "label" /dir 

42. What entry to I add to /etc/fstab to mount an ocfs2 volume? 

Add the following: 

/dev/sdX /dir ocfs2 _netdev 0 0 

The _netdev option indicates that the devices needs to be mounted after the network is up. 

43. What do I need to do to mount OCFS2 volumes on boot? 

* Enable o2cb service using: 

# chkconfig --add o2cb 

* Enable ocfs2 service using: 

# chkconfig --add ocfs2 

* Configure o2cb to load on boot using: 

# /etc/init.d/o2cb configure 

* Add entries into /etc/fstab as follows: 

/dev/sdX /dir ocfs2 _netdev 0 0 

44. How do I know my volume is mounted? 

* Enter mount without arguments, or, 

# mount 

* List /etc/mtab, or, 

# cat /etc/mtab 

* List /proc/mounts, or, 

# cat /proc/mounts 

* Run ocfs2 service. 

# /etc/init.d/ocfs2 status 

mount command reads the /etc/mtab to show the information. 

45. What are the /config and /dlm mountpoints for? 
OCFS2 comes bundled with two in-memory filesystems configfs and ocfs2_dlmfs. configfs is used by the ocfs2 tools to communicate to the in-kernel node
manager the list of nodes in the cluster and to the in-kernel heartbeat thread the resource to heartbeat on. ocfs2_dlmfs is used by ocfs2 tools to communicate
with the in-kernel dlm to take and release clusterwide locks on resources.

46. Why does it take so much time to mount the volume? 

It takes around 5 secs for a volume to mount. It does so so as to let the heartbeat thread stabilize. In a later release, we plan to add support for a global heartbeat,
which will make most mounts instant. 

47. Why does it take so much time to umount the volume? 

During umount, the dlm has to migrate all the mastered lockres' to an another node in the cluster. In 1.2, the lockres migration is a synchronous operation. We
are looking into making it asynchronous so as to reduce the time it takes to migrate the lockres'. (While we have improved this performance in 1.2.5, the task of
asynchronously migrating lockres' has been pushed to the 1.4 time frame.) To find the number of lockres in all dlm domains, do: 

# cat /proc/fs/ocfs2_dlm/*/stat 
local=60624, remote=1, unknown=0, key=0x8619a8da 

local refers to locally mastered lockres'. 

ORACLE RAC

48. Any special flags to run Oracle RAC? 

OCFS2 volumes containing the Voting diskfile (CRS), Cluster registry (OCR), Data files, Redo logs, Archive logs and Control files must be mounted with the
datavolume and nointr mount options. The datavolume option ensures that the Oracle processes opens these files with the o_direct flag. The nointr option
ensures that the ios are not interrupted by signals. 

# mount -o datavolume,nointr -t ocfs2 /dev/sda1 /u01/db 

49. What about the volume containing Oracle home? 

Oracle home volume should be mounted normally, that is, without the datavolume and nointr mount options. These mount options are only relevant for Oracle
files listed above. 

# mount -t ocfs2 /dev/sdb1 /software/orahome 

# Also as OCFS2 does not currently support shared writeable mmap, the health check (GIMH) file $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/hc_ORACLESID.dat and the ASM
file $ASM_HOME/dbs/ab_ORACLESID.dat should be symlinked to local filesystem. We expect to support shared writeable mmap in the OCFS2 1.4 release.

50. Does that mean I cannot have my data file and Oracle home on the same volume? 
Yes. The volume containing the Oracle data files, redo-logs, etc. should never be on the same volume as the distribution (including the trace logs like,
alert.log). 

51. Any other information I should be aware off? 

The 1.2.3 release of OCFS2 does not update the modification time on the inode across the cluster for non-extending writes. However, the time will be locally
updated in the cached inodes. This leads to one observing different times (ls -l) for the same file on different nodes on the cluster. 
While this does not affect most uses of the filesystem, as one variably changes the file size during write, the one usage where this is most commonly
experienced is with Oracle datafiles and redologs. This is because Oracle rarely resizes these files and thus almost all writes are non-extending. 
In OCFS2 1.4, we intend to fix this by updating modification times for all writes while providing an opt-out mount option (nocmtime) for users who would
prefer to avoid the performance overhead associated with this feature. 

MIGRATE DATA FROM OCFS (RELEASE 1) TO OCFS2 

52. Can I mount OCFS volumes as OCFS2? 

No. OCFS and OCFS2 are not on-disk compatible. We had to break the compatibility in order to add many of the new features. At the same time, we have
added enough flexibility in the new disk layout so as to maintain backward compatibility in the future. 

53. Can OCFS volumes and OCFS2 volumes be mounted on the same machine simultaneously? 
No. OCFS only works on 2.4 linux kernels (Red Hat's AS2.1/EL3 and SuSE's SLES8). OCFS2, on the other hand, only works on the 2.6 kernels (RHEL4,
SLES9 and SLES10). 

54. Can I access my OCFS volume on 2.6 kernels (SLES9/SLES10/RHEL4)? 

Yes, you can access the OCFS volume on 2.6 kernels using FSCat tools, fsls and fscp. These tools can access the OCFS volumes at the device layer, to list and
copy the files to another filesystem. FSCat tools are available on oss.oracle.com. 

55. Can I in-place convert my OCFS volume to OCFS2? 

No. The on-disk layout of OCFS and OCFS2 are sufficiently different that it would require a third disk (as a temporary buffer) inorder to in-place upgrade the
volume. With that in mind, it was decided not to develop such a tool but instead provide tools to copy data from OCFS without one having to mount it.

56. What is the quickest way to move data from OCFS to OCFS2? 

Quickest would mean having to perform the minimal number of copies. If you have the current backup on a non-OCFS volume accessible from the 2.6 kernel
install, then all you would need to do is to retore the backup on the OCFS2 volume(s). If you do not have a backup but have a setup in which the system
containing the OCFS2 volumes can access the disks containing the OCFS volume, you can use the FSCat tools to extract data from the OCFS volume and copy
onto OCFS2. 

COREUTILS 

57. Like with OCFS (Release 1), do I need to use o_direct enabled tools to perform cp, mv, tar, etc.? 
No. OCFS2 does not need the o_direct enabled tools. The file system allows processes to open files in both o_direct and bufferred mode concurrently. 

EXPORTING VIA NFS

58. Can I export an OCFS2 file system via NFS? 

Yes, you can export files on OCFS2 via the standard Linux NFS server. Please note that only NFS version 3 and above will work. In practice, this means clients
need to be running a 2.4.x kernel or above. 

59. Is there no solution for the NFS v2 clients? 

NFS v2 clients can work if the server exports the volumes with the no_subtree_check option. However, this has some security implications that is documented
in the exports manpage. 

TROUBLESHOOTING 

60. How do I enable and disable filesystem tracing? 

To list all the debug bits along with their statuses, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l 

To enable tracing the bit SUPER, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l SUPER allow 

To disable tracing the bit SUPER, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l SUPER off 

To totally turn off tracing the SUPER bit, as in, turn off tracing even if some other bit is enabled for the same, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l SUPER deny 

To enable heartbeat tracing, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l HEARTBEAT ENTRY EXIT allow 

To disable heartbeat tracing, do: 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -l HEARTBEAT off ENTRY EXIT deny 

61. How do I get a list of filesystem locks and their statuses? 

OCFS2 1.0.9+ has this feature. To get this list, do: 

* Mount debugfs is mounted at /debug (EL4) or /sys/kernel/debug (EL5). 

# mount -t debugfs debugfs /debug 

- OR - 
# mount -t debugfs debugfs /sys/kernel/debug 

* Dump the locks. 

# echo "fs_locks" | debugfs.ocfs2 /dev/sdX >/tmp/fslocks 

62. How do I read the fs_locks output? 

Let's look at a sample output: 

Lockres: M000000000000000006672078b84822 Mode: Protected Read 

Flags: Initialized Attached 
RO Holders: 0 EX Holders: 0 
Pending Action: None Pending Unlock Action: None 
Requested Mode: Protected Read Blocking Mode: Invalid 

First thing to note is the Lockres, which is the lockname. The dlm identifies resources using locknames. A lockname is a combination of a lock type (S
superblock, M metadata, D filedata, R rename, W readwrite), inode number and generation. 
To get the inode number and generation from lockname, do: 

#echo "stat " | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

Inode: 419616 Mode: 0666 Generation: 2025343010 (0x78b84822) 
.... 
To map the lockname to a directory entry, do: 

# echo "locate " | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

419616 /linux-2.6.15/arch/i386/kernel/semaphore.c 

One could also provide the inode number instead of the lockname. 

# echo "locate <419616>" | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

419616 /linux-2.6.15/arch/i386/kernel/semaphore.c 

To get a lockname from a directory entry, do: 

# echo "encode /linux-2.6.15/arch/i386/kernel/semaphore.c" | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

M000000000000000006672078b84822 D000000000000000006672078b84822 W000000000000000006672078b84822 

The first is the Metadata lock, then Data lock and last ReadWrite lock for the same resource. 

The DLM supports 3 lock modes: NL no lock, PR protected read and EX exclusive. 

If you have a dlm hang, the resource to look for would be one with the "Busy" flag set. 

The next step would be to query the dlm for the lock resource. 

Note: The dlm debugging is still a work in progress. 

To do dlm debugging, first one needs to know the dlm domain, which matches the volume UUID. 

# echo "stats" | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX | grep UUID: | while read a b ; do echo $b ; done 
82DA8137A49A47E4B187F74E09FBBB4B 

Then do: 

# echo R dlm_domain lockname > /proc/fs/ocfs2_dlm/debug 

For example: 
# echo R 82DA8137A49A47E4B187F74E09FBBB4B M000000000000000006672078b84822 > /proc/fs/ocfs2_dlm/debug 
# dmesg | tail 
struct dlm_ctxt: 82DA8137A49A47E4B187F74E09FBBB4B, node=79, key=965960985 
lockres: M000000000000000006672078b84822, owner=75, state=0 last used: 0, on purge list: no 
granted queue: 
type=3, conv=-1, node=79, cookie=11673330234144325711, ast=(empty=y,pend=n), bast=(empty=y,pend=n) 
converting queue: 
blocked queue: 

It shows that the lock is mastered by node 75 and that node 79 has been granted a PR lock on the resource. 

This is just to give a flavor of dlm debugging. 

LIMITS 

63.  Is there a limit to the number of subdirectories in a directory? 

Yes. OCFS2 currently allows up to 32000 subdirectories. While this limit could be increased, we will not be doing it till we implement some kind of efficient
name lookup (htree, etc.).

64. Is there a limit to the size of an ocfs2 file system? 

Yes, current software addresses block numbers with 32 bits. So the file system device is limited to (2 ^ 32) * blocksize (see mkfs -b). With a 4KB block size
this amounts to a 16TB file system. This block addressing limit will be relaxed in future software. At that point the limit becomes addressing clusters of 1MB
each with 32 bits which leads to a 4PB file system. 

SYSTEM FILES

65.What are system files? 

System files are used to store standard filesystem metadata like bitmaps, journals, etc. Storing this information in files in a directory allows OCFS2 to be
extensible. These system files can be accessed using debugfs.ocfs2. To list the system files, do: 

# echo "ls -l //" | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

18 16 1 2 . 
18 16 2 2 .. 
19 24 10 1 bad_blocks 
20 32 18 1 global_inode_alloc 
21 20 8 1 slot_map 
22 24 9 1 heartbeat 
23 28 13 1 global_bitmap 
24 28 15 2 orphan_dir:0000 
25 32 17 1 extent_alloc:0000 
26 28 16 1 inode_alloc:0000 
27 24 12 1 journal:0000 
28 28 16 1 local_alloc:0000 
29 3796 17 1 truncate_log:0000 

The first column lists the block number.

66. Why do some files have numbers at the end? 

There are two types of files, global and local. Global files are for all the nodes, while local, like journal:0000, are node specific. The set of local files used by a
node is determined by the slot mapping of that node. The numbers at the end of the system file name is the slot#. To list the slot maps, do: 

# echo "slotmap" | debugfs.ocfs2 -n /dev/sdX 

Slot# Node# 
0 39 
1 40 
2 41 
3 42 

HEARTBEAT 

67. How does the disk heartbeat work? 

Every node writes every two secs to its block in the heartbeat system file. The block offset is equal to its global node number. So node 0 writes to the first
block, node 1 to the second, etc. All the nodes also read the heartbeat sysfile every two secs. As long as the timestamp is changing, that node is deemed alive. 

68. When is a node deemed dead? 

An active node is deemed dead if it does not update its timestamp for O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD (default=31) loops. Once a node is deemed dead,
the surviving node which manages to cluster lock the dead node's journal, recovers it by replaying the journal. 

69. What about self fencing? 

A node self-fences if it fails to update its timestamp for ((O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD - 1) * 2) secs. The [o2hb-xx] kernel thread, after every
timestamp write, sets a timer to panic the system after that duration. If the next timestamp is written within that duration, as it should, it first cancels that timer
before setting up a new one. This way it ensures the system will self fence if for some reason the [o2hb-x] kernel thread is unable to update the timestamp and
thus be deemed dead by other nodes in the cluster. 

70. How can one change the parameter value of O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD? 

This parameter value could be changed by adding it to /etc/sysconfig/o2cb and RESTARTING the O2CB cluster. This value should be the SAME on ALL the
nodes in the cluster. 

71. What should one set O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD to? 

It should be set to the timeout value of the io layer. Most multipath solutions have a timeout ranging from 60 secs to 120 secs. For 60 secs, set it to 31. For 120
secs, set it to 61. 

O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD = (((timeout in secs) / 2) + 1) 

72. How does one check the current active O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD value? 

# cat /proc/fs/ocfs2_nodemanager/hb_dead_threshold 
7 

73. What if a node umounts a volume? 

During umount, the node will broadcast to all the nodes that have mounted that volume to drop that node from its node maps. As the journal is shutdown before
this broadcast, any node crash after this point is ignored as there is no need for recovery. 

74. I encounter "Kernel panic - not syncing: ocfs2 is very sorry to be fencing this system by panicing" whenever I run a heavy io load? 
We have encountered a bug with the default CFQ io scheduler which causes a process doing heavy io to temporarily starve out other processes. While this is
not fatal for most environments, it is for OCFS2 as we expect the hb thread to reading from and writing to the hb area atleast once every 12 secs (default). This
bug has been addressed by Red Hat in RHEL4 U4 (2.6.9-42.EL) and Novell in SLES9 SP3 (2.6.5-7.257). If you wish to use the DEADLINE io scheduler, you
could do so by appending "elevator=deadline" to the kernel command line as follows: 

* For SLES9, edit the command line in /boot/grub/menu.lst. 

title Linux 2.6.5-7.244-bigsmp (with deadline) 

kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.5-7.244-bigsmp root=/dev/sda5 
vga=0x314 selinux=0 splash=silent resume=/dev/sda3 elevator=deadline showopts console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200 noexec=off 
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd-2.6.5-7.244-bigsmp 

* For RHEL4, edit the command line in /boot/grub/grub.conf: 

title Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (2.6.9-22.EL) (with deadline) 
root (hd0,0) 
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-22.EL ro root=LABEL=/ console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 elevator=deadline noexec=off 
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-22.EL.img 

To see the current kernel command line, do: 

# cat /proc/cmdline 

QUORUM AND FENCING 

75. What is a quorum? 
A quorum is a designation given to a group of nodes in a cluster which are still allowed to operate on shared storage. It comes up when there is a failure in the
cluster which breaks the nodes up into groups which can communicate in their groups and with the shared storage but not between groups. 

76. How does OCFS2's cluster services define a quorum? 

The quorum decision is made by a single node based on the number of other nodes that are considered alive by heartbeating and the number of other nodes that
are reachable via the network. 
A node has quorum when: 

* it sees an odd number of heartbeating nodes and has network connectivity to more than half of them. 
OR, 
* it sees an even number of heartbeating nodes and has network connectivity to at least half of them *and* has connectivity to the heartbeating node with the
lowest node number. 

77. What is fencing? 

Fencing is the act of forecefully removing a node from a cluster. A node with OCFS2 mounted will fence itself when it realizes that it doesn't have quorum in a
degraded cluster. It does this so that other nodes won't get stuck trying to access its resources. Currently OCFS2 will panic the machine when it realizes it has to
fence itself off from the cluster. As described above, it will do this when it sees more nodes heartbeating than it has connectivity to and fails the quorum test. 
Due to user reports of nodes hanging during fencing, OCFS2 1.2.5 no longer uses "panic" for fencing. Instead, by default, it uses "machine restart". This should
not only prevent nodes from hanging during fencing but also allow for nodes to quickly restart and rejoin the cluster. While this change is internal in nature, we
are documenting this so as to make users aware that they are no longer going to see the familiar panic stack trace during fencing. Instead they will see the
message "*** ocfs2 is very sorry to be fencing this system by restarting ***" and that too probably only as part of the messages captured on the
netdump/netconsole server. 
If perchance the user wishes to use panic to fence (maybe to see the familiar oops stack trace or on the advise of customer support to diagnose frequent
reboots), one can do so by issuing the following command after the O2CB cluster is online. 
# echo 1 > /proc/fs/ocfs2_nodemanager/fence_method 

Please note that this change is local to a node.

78. How does a node decide that it has connectivity with another? 
When a node sees another come to life via heartbeating it will try and establish a TCP connection to that newly live node. It considers that other node connected
as long as the TCP connection persists and the connection is not idle for O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS. Once that TCP connection is closed or idle it will not
be reestablished until heartbeat thinks the other node has died and come back alive. 

79. How long does the quorum process take? 

First a node will realize that it doesn't have connectivity with another node. This can happen immediately if the connection is closed but can take a maximum of
O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS idle time. Then the node must wait long enough to give heartbeating a chance to declare the node dead. It does this by waiting
two iterations longer than the number of iterations needed to consider a node dead (see the Heartbeat section of this FAQ). The current default of 31 iterations
of 2 seconds results in waiting for 33 iterations or 66 seconds. By default, then, a maximum of 96 seconds can pass from the time a network fault occurs until a
node fences itself. 

80. How can one avoid a node from panic-ing when one shutdowns the other node in a 2-node cluster? 
This typically means that the network is shutting down before all the OCFS2 volumes are being umounted. Ensure the ocfs2 init script is enabled. This script
ensures that the OCFS2 volumes are umounted before the network is shutdown. To check whether the service is enabled, do: 

# chkconfig --list ocfs2 

ocfs2 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 

81. How does one list out the startup and shutdown ordering of the OCFS2 related services? 

* To list the startup order for runlevel 3 on RHEL4, do: 

# cd /etc/rc3.d 
# ls S*ocfs2* S*o2cb* S*network* 
S10network S24o2cb S25ocfs2 

* To list the shutdown order on RHEL4, do: 

# cd /etc/rc6.d 
# ls K*ocfs2* K*o2cb* K*network* 
K19ocfs2 K20o2cb K90network 

* To list the startup order for runlevel 3 on SLES9/SLES10, do: 

# cd /etc/init.d/rc3.d 
# ls S*ocfs2* S*o2cb* S*network* 
S05network S07o2cb S08ocfs2 

* To list the shutdown order on SLES9/SLES10, do: 

# cd /etc/init.d/rc3.d 
# ls K*ocfs2* K*o2cb* K*network* 
K14ocfs2 K15o2cb K17network 

Please note that the default ordering in the ocfs2 scripts only include the network service and not any shared-device specific service, like iscsi. If one is using
iscsi or any shared device requiring a service to be started and shutdown, please ensure that that service runs before and shutsdown after the ocfs2 init service. 

NOVELL'S SLES9 and SLES10 

82. Why are OCFS2 packages for SLES9 and SLES10 not made available on oss.oracle.com? 
OCFS2 packages for SLES9 and SELS10 are available directly from Novell as part of the kernel. Same is true for the various Asianux distributions and for
ubuntu. As OCFS2 is now part of the mainline kernel, we expect more distributions to bundle the product with the kernel. 

83. What versions of OCFS2 are available with SLES9 and how do they match with the Red Hat versions available on oss.oracle.com? 
As both Novell and Oracle ship OCFS2 on different schedules, the package versions do not match. We expect to resolve itself over time as the number of patch
fixes reduce. Novell is shipping two SLES9 releases, viz., SP2 and SP3. 

* The latest kernel with the SP2 release is 2.6.5-7.202.7. It ships with OCFS2 1.0.8. 
* The latest kernel with the SP3 release is 2.6.5-7.283. It ships with OCFS2 1.2.3. Please contact Novell to get the latest OCFS2 modules on SLES9 SP3. 

84. What versions of OCFS2 are available with SLES10? 

SLES10 is currently shipping OCFS2 1.2.3. SLES10 SP1 is currently shipping 1.2.5-1. 

RELEASE 1.2 

85. What is new in OCFS2 1.2? 

OCFS2 1.2 has two new features: 
* It is endian-safe. With this release, one can mount the same volume concurrently on x86, x86-64, ia64 and big endian architectures ppc64 and s390x. 
* Supports readonly mounts. The fs uses this feature to auto remount ro when encountering on-disk corruptions (instead of panic-ing). 

86. Do I need to re-make the volume when upgrading? 

No. OCFS2 1.2 is fully on-disk compatible with 1.0. 

87. Do I need to upgrade anything else? 

Yes, the tools needs to be upgraded to ocfs2-tools 1.2. ocfs2-tools 1.0 will not work with OCFS2 1.2 nor will 1.2 tools work with 1.0 modules. 

UPGRADE TO THE LATEST RELEASE 

88. How do I upgrade to the latest release? 

* Download the latest ocfs2-tools and ocfs2console for the target platform and the appropriate ocfs2 module package for the kernel version, flavor and
architecture. (For more, refer to the "Download and Install" section above.) 

* Umount all OCFS2 volumes. 

# umount -at ocfs2 

* Shutdown the cluster and unload the modules. 

# /etc/init.d/o2cb offline 
# /etc/init.d/o2cb unload 

* If required, upgrade the tools and console. 

# rpm -Uvh ocfs2-tools-1.2.2-1.i386.rpm ocfs2console-1.2.2-1.i386.rpm 

* Upgrade the module. 

# rpm -Uvh ocfs2-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp-1.2.4-2.i686.rpm 

* Ensure init services ocfs2 and o2cb are enabled. 

# chkconfig --add o2cb 

# chkconfig --add ocfs2 

* To check whether the services are enabled, do: 

# chkconfig --list o2cb 

o2cb 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 
# chkconfig --list ocfs2 
ocfs2 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off 

* To update the cluster timeouts, do: 

# /etc/init.d/o2cb configure 

* At this stage one could either reboot the node or simply, restart the cluster and mount the volume. 

89. Can I do a rolling upgrade from 1.2.3 to 1.2.4? 

No. The network protocol had to be updated in 1.2.4 to allow for proper reference counting of lockres' across the cluster. This fix was necessary to fix races
encountered during lockres purge and migrate. Effectively, one cannot run 1.2.4 on one node while another node is still on an earlier release (1.2.3 or older). 

90. Can I do a rolling upgrade from 1.2.4 to 1.2.5? 

No. The network protocol had to be updated in 1.2.5 to ensure all nodes were using the same O2CB timeouts. Effectively, one cannot run 1.2.5 on one node
while another node is still on an earlier release. (For the record, the protocol remained the same between 1.2.0 to 1.2.3 before changing in 1.2.4 and 1.2.5.)

91. Can I do a rolling upgrade from 1.2.6 to 1.2.7 on EL5? 

Yes. The network protocol is fully compatible across both releases.

92. Can I do a rolling upgrade from 1.2.5 to 1.2.7 on EL4? 

Yes. However, there is a catch. While the network protocol is fully compatible across the two releases, the default cluster timeouts are not. So if you were using
the default timeouts, you will have to specifically set those timeouts on the new nodes using service o2cb configure command. Use service o2cb status to
review current timeouts. 
# Users that are not careful with the above are likely to encounter failed mounts on the upgraded node. dmesg will indicate the differing timeout values.

93. Can I do a rolling upgrade from 1.2.7 to 1.2.8 or 1.2.9 on EL4 and EL5? 
Yes. OCFS2 1.2.7, 1.2.8 and 1.2.9 are fully compatible. Users upgrading to 1.2.8/9 from 1.2.5/1.2.6 can expect the same behaviour as described above for
upgrading to 1.2.7. 
94. After upgrade I am getting the following error on mount "mount.ocfs2: Invalid argument while mounting /dev/sda6 on /ocfs". 
Do "dmesg | tail". If you see the error: 

ocfs2_parse_options:523 ERROR: Unrecognized mount option "heartbeat=local" or missing value 

it means that you are trying to use the 1.2 tools and 1.0 modules. Ensure that you have unloaded the 1.0 modules and installed and loaded the 1.2 modules. Use
modinfo to determine the version of the module installed and/or loaded.

95. The cluster fails to load. What do I do? 

Check "demsg | tail" for any relevant errors. One common error is as follows: 

SELinux: initialized (dev configfs, type configfs), not configured for labeling audit(1139964740.184:2): avc: denied { mount } for ... 

The above error indicates that you have SELinux activated. A bug in SELinux does not allow configfs to mount. Disable SELinux by setting
"SELINUX=disabled" in /etc/selinux/config. Change is activated on reboot. 

PROCESSES 

96. List and describe all OCFS2 threads? 

[o2net] 
One per node. Is a workqueue thread started when the cluster is brought online and stopped when offline. It handles the network communication for all threads.
It gets the list of active nodes from the o2hb thread and sets up tcp/ip communication channels with each active node. It sends regular keepalive packets to
detect any interruption on the channels. 
[user_dlm] 
One per node. Is a workqueue thread started when dlmfs is loaded and stopped on unload. (dlmfs is an in-memory file system which allows user space
processes to access the dlm in kernel to lock and unlock resources.) Handles lock downconverts when requested by other nodes. 
[ocfs2_wq] 
One per node. Is a workqueue thread started when ocfs2 module is loaded and stopped on unload. Handles blockable file system tasks like truncate log flush,
orphan dir recovery and local alloc recovery, which involve taking dlm locks. Various code paths queue tasks to this thread. For example, ocfs2rec queues
orphan dir recovery so that while the task is kicked off as part of recovery, its completion does not affect the recovery time. 
[o2hb-14C29A7392] 
One per heartbeat device. Is a kernel thread started when the heartbeat region is populated in configfs and stopped when it is removed. It writes every 2 secs to
its block in the heartbeat region to indicate to other nodes that that node is alive. It also reads the region to maintain a nodemap of live nodes. It notifies o2net
and dlm any changes in the nodemap. 
[ocfs2vote-0] 
One per mount. Is a kernel thread started when a volume is mounted and stopped on umount. It downgrades locks when requested by other nodes in reponse to
blocking ASTs (BASTs). It also fixes up the dentry cache in reponse to files unlinked or renamed on other nodes. 
[dlm_thread] 
One per dlm domain. Is a kernel thread started when a dlm domain is created and stopped when destroyed. This is the core dlm which maintains the list of lock
resources and handles the cluster locking infrastructure. 
[dlm_reco_thread] 
One per dlm domain. Is a kernel thread which handles dlm recovery whenever a node dies. If the node is the dlm recovery master, it remasters all the locks
owned by the dead node. 
[dlm_wq] 
One per dlm domain. Is a workqueue thread. o2net queues dlm tasks on this thread. 
[kjournald] 
One per mount. Is used as OCFS2 uses JDB for journalling. 
[ocfs2cmt-0] 
One per mount. Is a kernel thread started when a volume is mounted and stopped on umount. Works in conjunction with kjournald. 
[ocfs2rec-0] 
Is started whenever another node needs to be be recovered. This could be either on mount when it discovers a dirty journal or during operation when hb detects
a dead node. ocfs2rec handles the file system recovery and it runs after the dlm has finished its recovery. 

BUILD RPMS FOR HOTFIX KERNELS 

97 How to build OCFS2 packages for a hotfix kernel? 

* Download and install all the kernel-devel packages for the hotfix kernel. 
* Download and untar the OCFS2 source tarball. 

# cd /tmp 
# wget http://oss.oracle.com/projects/ocfs2/dist/files/source/v1.2/ocfs2-1.2.3.tar.gz 
# tar -zxvf ocfs2-1.2.3.tar.gz 
# cd ocfs2-1.2.3 

* Ensure rpmbuild is installed and ~/.rpmmacros contains the proper links. 

# cat ~/.rpmmacros 
%_topdir /home/jdoe/rpms 
%_tmppath /home/jdoe/rpms/tmp 
%_sourcedir /home/jdoe/rpms/SOURCES 
%_specdir /home/jdoe/rpms/SPECS 
%_srcrpmdir /home/jdoe/rpms/SRPMS 
%_rpmdir /home/jdoe/rpms/RPMS 
%_builddir /home/jdoe/rpms/BUILD 

* Ensure you have all kernel-*-devel packages installed for the kernel version you wish to build for. If so, then the following command will list it as a possible
target. 

# ./vendor/rhel4/kernel.guess targets 
rhel4_2.6.9-67.EL_rpm 
rhel4_2.6.9-67.0.1.EL_rpm 
rhel4_2.6.9-55.0.12.EL_rpm 

* Configure and make. 

# ./configure --with-kernel=/usr/src/kernels/2.6.9-67.EL-i686 
# make rhel4_2.6.9-67.EL_rpm 

# The packages will be in %_rpmdir.

98. Are the self-built packages officially supported by Oracle Support? 

No. Oracle Support does not provide support for self-built modules. If you wish official support, contact Oracle via Support or the ocfs2-users mailing list with
the link to the hotfix kernel (kernel-devel and kernel-src rpms). 

BACKUP SUPER BLOCK

99. What is a Backup Super block? 

A backup super block is a copy of the super block. As the super block is typically located close to the start of the device, it is susceptible to be overwritten, say,
by an errant write (dd if=file of=/dev/sdX). Moreover, as the super block stores critical information that is hard to recreate, it becomes important to backup the
block and use it when the super block gets corrupted. 

100. Where are the backup super blocks located? 

In OCFS2, the super blocks are backed up to blocks at the 1G, 4G, 16G, 64G, 256G and 1T byte offsets. The actual number of backups depend on the size of
the device. It should be noted that the super block is not backed up on devices smaller than 1G. 

101. How does one enable this feature? 

mkfs.ocfs2 1.2.3 or later automatically backs up super blocks on devices larger than 1G. One can disable this by using the --no-backup-super option. 

102. How do I detect whether the super blocks are backed up on a device? 

# debugfs.ocfs2 -R "stats" /dev/sdX | grep "Feature Compat" 

Feature Compat: 1 BackupSuper 

103. How do I backup the super block on a device formatted by an older mkfs.ocfs2? 
tunefs.ocfs2 1.2.3 or later can attempt to retroactively backup the super block. 

# tunefs.ocfs2 --backup-super /dev/sdX 

tunefs.ocfs2 1.2.3 
Adding backup superblock for the volume 
Proceed (y/N): y 
Backed up Superblock. 
Wrote Superblock 

However, it is quite possible that one or more backup locations are in use by the file system. (tunefs.ocfs2 backs up the block only if all the backup locations are
unused.) 

# tunefs.ocfs2 --backup-super /dev/sdX 

tunefs.ocfs2 1.2.3 
tunefs.ocfs2: block 262144 is in use. 
tunefs.ocfs2: block 4194304 is in use. 
tunefs.ocfs2: Cannot enable backup superblock as backup blocks are in use 

If so, use the verify_backup_super script to list out the objects using these blocks. 

# ./verify_backup_super /dev/sdX 
Locating inodes using blocks 262144 1048576 4194304 on device /dev/sdX 
Block# Inode Block Offset 
262144 27 65058 
1048576 Unused 
4194304 4161791 25 
Matching inodes to object names 
27 //journal:0003 
4161791 /src/kernel/linux-2.6.19/drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c 

# If the object happens to be user created, move that object temporarily to an another volume before re-attempting the operation. However, this will not work if
one or more blocks are being used by a system file (shown starting with double slashes //), say, a journal.

104. How do I ask fsck.ocfs2 to use a backup super block? 

To recover a volume using the second backup super block, do: 

# fsck.ocfs2 -f -r 2 /dev/sdX 
[RECOVER_BACKUP_SUPERBLOCK] Recover superblock information from backup block#1048576? n 
Checking OCFS2 filesystem in /dev/sdX 
label: myvolume 
uuid: 4d 1d 1f f3 24 01 4d 3f 82 4c e2 67 0c b2 94 f3 
number of blocks: 13107196 
bytes per block: 4096 
number of clusters: 13107196 
bytes per cluster: 4096 
max slots: 4 

/dev/sdX was run with -f, check forced. 

Pass 0a: Checking cluster allocation chains 
Pass 0b: Checking inode allocation chains 
Pass 0c: Checking extent block allocation chains 
Pass 1: Checking inodes and blocks. 
Pass 2: Checking directory entries. 
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity. 
Pass 4a: checking for orphaned inodes 
Pass 4b: Checking inodes link counts. 
All passes succeeded. 

For more, refer to the man pages.

CONFIGURING CLUSTER TIMEOUTS 

105. List and describe all the configurable timeouts in the O2CB cluster stack? 
OCFS2 1.2.5 has 4 different configurable O2CB cluster timeouts: 

* O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD - The Disk Heartbeat timeout is the number of two second iterations before a node is considered dead. The exact
formula used to convert the timeout in seconds to the number of iterations is as follows: 

O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD = (((timeout in seconds) / 2) + 1) 

For e.g., to specify a 60 sec timeout, set it to 31. For 120 secs, set it to 61. The current default for this timeout is 60 secs (O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD
= 31). In releases 1.2.5 and earlier, it was 12 secs (O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD = 7).

* O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS - The Network Idle timeout specifies the time in miliseconds before a network connection is considered dead. The current
default for this timeout is 30000 ms. In releases 1.2.5 and earlier, it was 10000 ms. 
* O2CB_KEEPALIVE_DELAY_MS - The Network Keepalive specifies the maximum delay in miliseconds before a keepalive packet is sent. As in, a
keepalive packet is sent if a network connection between two nodes is silent for this duration. If the other node is alive and is connected, it is expected to
respond. The current default for this timeout is 2000 ms. In releases 1.2.5 and earlier, it was 5000 ms. 
* O2CB_RECONNECT_DELAY_MS - The Network Reconnect specifies the minimum delay in miliseconds between connection attempts. The default has
always been 2000 ms. 

106. What are the recommended timeout values? 

# As timeout values depend on the hardware being used, there is no one set of recommended values. For e.g., users of multipath io should set the disk heartbeat
threshold to atleast 60 secs, if not 120 secs. Similarly, users of Network bonding should set the network idle timeout to atleast 30 secs, if not 60 secs.

107. What are the currect defaults for the cluster timeouts? 
The timeouts were updated in the 1.2.6 release to the following: 

O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD = 31 
O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS = 30000 
O2CB_KEEPALIVE_DELAY_MS = 2000 
O2CB_RECONNECT_DELAY_MS = 2000 

108 Can one change these timeout values in a round robin fashion? 
# No. The o2net handshake protocol ensures that all the timeout values for both the nodes are consistent and fails if any value differs. This failed connection
results in a failed mount, the reason for which is always listed in dmesg.
109. How does one set these O2CB timeouts? 
Umount all OCFS2 volumes and shutdown the O2CB cluster. If not already, upgrade to OCFS2 1.2.5+ and Tools 1.2.4+. Then use o2cb configure to set the
new values. Do the same on all nodes. Start mounting volumes only after the timeouts have been set on all nodes. 

# service o2cb configure 

Configuring the O2CB driver. 

This will configure the on-boot properties of the O2CB driver. 

The following questions will determine whether the driver is loaded on 
boot. The current values will be shown in brackets ('[]'). Hitting 
without typing an answer will keep that current value. Ctrl-C 
will abort. 

Load O2CB driver on boot (y/n) [n]: y 

Cluster to start on boot (Enter "none" to clear) []: mycluster 
Specify heartbeat dead threshold (>=7) [7]: 31 
Specify network idle timeout in ms (>=5000) [10000]: 30000 
Specify network keepalive delay in ms (>=1000) [5000]: 2000 
Specify network reconnect delay in ms (>=2000) [2000]: 2000 
Writing O2CB configuration: OK 
Starting O2CB cluster mycluster: OK 

110. How to find the O2CB timeout values in effect? 

# /etc/init.d/o2cb status 
Module "configfs": Loaded 
Filesystem "configfs": Mounted 
Module "ocfs2_nodemanager": Loaded 
Module "ocfs2_dlm": Loaded 
Module "ocfs2_dlmfs": Loaded 
Filesystem "ocfs2_dlmfs": Mounted 
Checking O2CB cluster mycluster: Online 
Heartbeat dead threshold: 31 
Network idle timeout: 30000 
Network keepalive delay: 2000 
Network reconnect delay: 2000 
Checking O2CB heartbeat: Not active 

111. Where are the O2CB timeout values stored? 

# cat /etc/sysconfig/o2cb 
# 
# This is a configuration file for automatic startup of the O2CB 
# driver. It is generated by running /etc/init.d/o2cb configure. 
# Please use that method to modify this file 
# 

# O2CB_ENABELED: 'true' means to load the driver on boot. 

O2CB_ENABLED=true 

# O2CB_BOOTCLUSTER: If not empty, the name of a cluster to start. 

O2CB_BOOTCLUSTER=mycluster 

# O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD: Iterations before a node is considered dead. 

O2CB_HEARTBEAT_THRESHOLD=31 

# O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS: Time in ms before a network connection is considered dead. 

O2CB_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS=30000 

# O2CB_KEEPALIVE_DELAY_MS: Max time in ms before a keepalive packet is sent 

O2CB_KEEPALIVE_DELAY_MS=2000 

# O2CB_RECONNECT_DELAY_MS: Min time in ms between connection attempts 

O2CB_RECONNECT_DELAY_MS=2000

ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 

112. What are the changes in EL5 as compared to EL4 as it pertains to OCFS2? 
The in-memory filesystems, configfs and debugfs, have different mountpoints. configfs is mounted at /sys/kernel/config, instead of /config, while debugfs at
/sys/kernel/debug, instead of /debug. (dlmfs still mounts at the old mountpoint /dlm.)