What is the fence_daemon "clean_start" option in an RHCS 4 or RHEL 5 or 6 High Availability cluster?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Cluster Suite (RHCS) 4
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 or 6 with the High Availability Add On

Issue

  • What is the "clean_start" option for in the cluster.conf?
  • What is the purpose of the fence_daemon clean_start option in the cluster configuration?
  • I don't want nodes to fence each other on startup. Can I use clean_start for this?

Resolution

Note: Enabling "clean_start" by setting the value to 1 should only be used for debugging purposes. The usage of this option is not supported in any production environment, unless specifically requested or approved by Red Hat. Enabling this option can yield file system corruption on GFS, GFS2, or any cluster-managed file system if not used correctly. The "clean_start" option should be set to 0 or removed after debugging the issue has completed.

The clean_start option is used during cluster-startup to prevent any fencing of cluster members that could not be contacted or joined to the cluster. It indicates that the daemon should assume all nodes are in a clean state to start. If set to "0", which is the default, the cluster will fence any down members after forming a quorum. If it is set to "1", then the cluster will not fence down members when a quorum is formed. See also "man fenced".

   <fence_daemon clean_start="0" post_fail_delay="0" post_join_delay="3"/>
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