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NAME

       fence_scsi - I/O fencing agent for SCSI persistent reservations

SYNOPSIS

       fence_scsi [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

       fence_scsi  is  an  I/O  fencing  agent which can be used with the SCSI
       devices that support persistent reservations (SPC-2 or greater).

       SCSI persistent reservations work by having each node  in  the  cluster
       register  with the SCSI device. Registration is done using a unique key
       (based on the node’s IP address).  Each  node  that  will  perform  I/O
       operations to the shared storage must register with the device. This is
       done at system startup with the scsi_reserve init script.  This  script
       will  discover  all  clustered  volumes  as well as the underlying SCSI
       device(s). Device discovery is done via the lvs  command  (see  lvs(8))
       and is subject to any filtering rules defined in the lvm.conf file.

       After  generating  the  node’s unique key, the script will register the
       node with the SCSI device(s) that were discovered.  Once  the  node  is
       registered,  the  script  will  attempt to create a reservation. Unlike
       registrations, of which there are multiple registrants  (one  for  each
       node  in  the  cluster),  there  is  only  one reservation holder. If a
       reservation does not already exist for a device, the script will create
       a reservation using the node’s unique key.

       It  is important to distinguish between registrations and reservations.
       As mentioned above, each node that will perform I/O operations  to  the
       SCSI  device  must  register.  As  a  result,  there  will  be multiple
       registrations for a given SCSI device. In contrast, there can  only  be
       one  reservation  per SCSI device. It is not important which node holds
       the reservation. The  reservation  simply  tells  the  device  how  the
       registrants  are  allowed  to  access the device. For our purposes, the
       reservation type is "write exclusive,  registrants  only".   With  this
       reservation  type,  only  registered nodes will be able to write to the
       device.

       When the cluster  must  fence  a  node,  it  simply  revokes  a  node’s
       registration,  or  "unregisters" the node. This operation also uses the
       node’s unique key. By deriving the  unique  key  based  on  the  errant
       node’s  IP  address, the cluster can "unregister" the key. As a result,
       the errant node will no longer be able to write to the SCSI device.

       Note that the node that holds the reservation for a device must also be
       registered  with  that device. When the situation arises where the node
       that is being fenced is also the reservation  holder,  the  reservation
       must be moved. This is handled by using the "preempt-and-abort command"
       which will transfer the reservation from the node that is being  fenced
       to  the  node  that  is  performing  the  fencing.  This operation will
       maintain the reservation while "unregistering" the node being fenced.

       At  system  shutdown,  the  scsi_reserve   script   will   attempt   to
       "unregister"  the node from all devices. The exception is when the node
       happens to be the reservation holder. In this  case,  the  script  does
       nothing, due to the fact that there may be other nodes using the device
       and the reservation must remain intact.

       fence_scsi accepts options on the command line as well as  from  stdin.
       fenced  sends  parameters  through  stdin  when  it  execs  the  agent.
       fence_scsi can be run by itself with command  line  options.   This  is
       useful for testing and for turning outlets on or off from scripts.

OPTIONS

       -n node
              Name of the node to be fenced.

       -h     Print  out  a  help  message  describing available options, then
              exit.

       -s self
              Name of the node that will perform the fencing operation.

       -v     Verbose output.

       -V     Print out a version message, then exit.

STDIN PARAMETERS

       agent = < param >
              This  option  is  used  by  fence_node(8)  and  is  ignored   by
              fence_scsi.

       nodename = < hostname | ip >
              Name of the node to be fenced.

       self = < nodename >
              Name of the node that will perform the fencing operation.

       verbose = < param >
              Verbose output.

LIMITATIONS

       The  fence_scsi  fencing agent requires a minimum of three nodes in the
       cluster to operate.  For SAN devices connected via fiber channel, these
       must  be  physical  nodes.   SAN  devices  connected  via iSCSI may use
       virtual or physical nodes.  In addition, fence_scsi cannot be  used  in
       conjunction with qdisk.

SEE ALSO

       fence(8), fence_node(8), sg_persist(8), lvs(8), lvm.conf(5)

                                                                 fence_scsi(8)