How to configure Apache Web Server 2 Nodes High Availability Cluster with Pacemaker and Corosync on CentOS 7

High Availability (HA) Cluster (active-passive) provides the continued availability of services without failure for a long period of time. If one of the cluster nodes fails, the pacemaker service will start the services on another node. Pacemaker and Corosync are open source and widely used software for service high availability in production.
This article describes How to configure Apache Web Server 2 Nodes High Availability Cluster with Pacemaker and Corosync with iSCSI shared storage on CentOS 7

Shared Storage Configuration:

Step 1. Shared storage configuration: Follow the article How to configure iSCSI Target and Initiator on CentOS 7 to configure iSCSI target and create lvm volume with the shared volume on all the nodes. Here the iSCSI target is mapped with /dev/sdb.

[root@lc-node1 ~]# lsscsi …………….. [3:0:0:0]    disk    LIO-ORG  iscsi-disk1      4.0   /dev/sdb [root@lc-node1 ~]#

[root@lc-node2 ~]# lsscsi ……………... [3:0:0:0]    disk    LIO-ORG  iscsi-disk1      4.0   /dev/sdb [root@lc-node2 ~]#

Step 2. LVM of the Shared Volume: iSCSI initiator mapped the volume with /dev/sdb disk on all the cluster nodes. Create LVM volume with disk /dev/sdb and create a filesystem from any one cluster node as shown below:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pvcreate /dev/sdb; vgcreate vg_data /dev/sdb; lvcreate -n lv_apache -L 5G vg_data; lvs                                                                   Physical volume "/dev/sdb" successfully created.   Volume group "vg_data" successfully created   Logical volume "lv_apache" created.   LV        VG      Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert   root      centos  -wi-ao---- 21.99g   swap      centos  -wi-ao----  2.00g   lv_apache vg_data -wi-ao----  5.00g [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Create a XFS file system with the volume from a node:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/vg_data-lv_apache meta-data=/dev/mapper/vg_data-lv_apache isize=512    agcount=4, agsize=327680 blks          =                       sectsz=512   attr=2, projid32bit=1          =                       crc=1        finobt=0, sparse=0 data     =                       bsize=4096   blocks=1310720, imaxpct=25          =                       sunit=0      swidth=0 blks naming   =version 2              bsize=4096   ascii-ci=0 ftype=1 log      =internal log           bsize=4096   blocks=2560, version=2          =                       sectsz=512   sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1 realtime =none                   extsz=4096   blocks=0, rtextents=0 [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Run the following command to get access the share volume on other cluster nodes:

[root@lc-node2 ~]# iscsiadm --mode node -R ; pvscan ; vgscan ; lvscan Rescanning session [sid: 1, target: iqn.2019-10.local.linuxcnf.iscsi-target:iscsi-disk1, portal: 192.168.43.45,3260]   PV /dev/sdb    VG vg_data         lvm2 [<10.00 GiB / <5.00 GiB free]   PV /dev/sda2   VG centos          lvm2 [<24.00 GiB / 4.00 MiB free]   Total: 2 [33.99 GiB] / in use: 2 [33.99 GiB] / in no VG: 0 [0   ]   Reading volume groups from cache.   Found volume group "vg_data" using metadata type lvm2   Found volume group "centos" using metadata type lvm2   inactive          '/dev/vg_data/lv_apache' [5.00 GiB] inherit   ACTIVE            '/dev/centos/swap' [2.00 GiB] inherit   ACTIVE            '/dev/centos/root' [21.99 GiB] inherit [root@lc-node2 ~]#

Note: Incase facing issue in scanning lvm, run the following command to restart lvm service. It would affect existing lvm configuration.

[root@lc-node2 ~]# systemctl restart lvm2-lvmetad.service [root@lc-node2 ~]#

Cluster Configuration:

Step 1. Cluster Configuration: In next step follow the article How to Configure High Availability Cluster with Pacemaker and Corosync on CentOS 7 and the cluster is look like the below output:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs cluster status Cluster Status:  Stack: corosync  Current DC: lc-node2.linuxcnf.local (version 1.1.20-5.el7_7.1-3c4c782f70) - partition with quorum  Last updated: Thu Oct 10 03:04:55 2019  Last change: Thu Oct 10 01:52:55 2019 by hacluster via crmd on lc-node1.linuxcnf.local  2 nodes configured  0 resources configured PCSD Status:   lc-node2.linuxcnf.local: Online   lc-node1.linuxcnf.local: Online [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Note: - Here, I am not using any fencing device in the cluster so we have to disable it. Run the following command to disable the fencing:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs property set stonith-enabled=false [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Step 2. Apache Package installation: Follow the article How to Install Apache/httpd Web Server on CentOS 7 to install Apache Web server on all the cluster nodes and web server document root before adding into the cluster.

Step 3. Apache Server Configuration: Mount the shared storage and create directories on any one of cluster node:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# mount /dev/mapper/vg_data-lv_apache /var/www/ [root@lc-node1 ~]# mkdir -p /var/www/html [root@lc-node1 ~]# mkdir -p /var/www/cgi-bin [root@lc-node1 ~]# mkdir -p /var/www/error

Configure SE Linux to allow access to access contents from the new created directory on the share storage.

[root@lc-node1 ~]# restorecon -R /var/www/ [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Create a sample page and put the below contents in the index.html file and umount the /var/www directory:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# vi /var/www/html/index.html <html> <center> <body><b/> Welcome!!! This is a sample page for testing Red hat Hight Availability Cluster. </body> </center> </html> [root@lc-node1 ~]# umount /var/www/ [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Add to below contents at the end of Apache configuration file /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf for cluster to check Apache server status.

[root@lc-node1 ~]# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf ……………………. <Location /server-status>   SetHandler server-status   Order deny,allow   Deny from all   Allow from 127.0.0.1 </Location>

[root@lc-node2 ~]# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf ……………………. <Location /server-status>   SetHandler server-status   Order deny,allow   Deny from all   Allow from 127.0.0.1 </Location>

Step 4. Create Resource: Run the following command to create resources for pcs cluster from any one of the cluster nodes.

Create a file system resource to save web server data:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs resource create apache_fs Filesystem device="/dev/mapper/vg_data-lv_apache" directory="/var/www" fstype="xfs" --group webserver Assumed agent name 'ocf:heartbeat:Filesystem' (deduced from 'Filesystem') [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Create an IP address resource to use as a virtual IP address. All cluster nodes are running behind that VIP:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs resource create apache_vip IPaddr2 ip=192.168.43.50 cidr_netmask=24 --group webserver Assumed agent name 'ocf:heartbeat:IPaddr2' (deduced from 'IPaddr2') [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Create an httpd service resource to serve the Apache web contents:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs resource create web_server apache configfile="/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf" statusurl="http://127.0.0.1/server-status" --group webserver Assumed agent name 'ocf:heartbeat:apache' (deduced from 'apache') [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Step 5. Verify the Cluster Status: Run the following commands to verify cluster status:

[root@lc-node1 ~]# pcs status Cluster name: apache_cluster Stack: corosync Current DC: lc-node2.linuxcnf.local (version 1.1.20-5.el7_7.1-3c4c782f70) - partition with quorum Last updated: Mon Oct 14 03:59:23 2019 Last change: Mon Oct 14 03:37:57 2019 by root via cibadmin on lc-node1.linuxcnf.local 2 nodes configured 3 resources configured Online: [ lc-node1.linuxcnf.local lc-node2.linuxcnf.local ] Full list of resources:  Resource Group: webserver      apache_fs  (ocf::heartbeat:Filesystem):    Started lc-node2.linuxcnf.local      apache_vip (ocf::heartbeat:IPaddr2):       Started lc-node2.linuxcnf.local      web_server (ocf::heartbeat:apache):        Started lc-node2.linuxcnf.local Daemon Status:   corosync: active/enabled   pacemaker: active/enabled   pcsd: active/enabled [root@lc-node1 ~]#

Hit the virtual IP from any browser to access Apache/httpd Web Server using PCS High Available Cluster services.

Done!!! 2 Nodes PCS Cluster configuration has been finished.