4. Configure heartbeat And ldirectord

We have to create 3 configuration files for heartbeat.

lb01/lb02

pico /etc/ha.d/ha.cf

logfacility        local0
bcast        eth0                # Linux
mcast eth0 225.0.0.1 694 1 0
auto_failback off
node        lb01
node        lb02
respawn hacluster /usr/lib/heartbeat/ipfail
apiauth ipfail gid=haclient uid=hacluster

Important: As node we must use the output of

uname -n

on lb01 and lb02.

lb01/lb02

pico /etc/ha.d/haresources

lb01        \
        ldirectord::ldirectord.cf \
        LVSSyncDaemonSwap::master \
        IPaddr2::10.253.66.200/24/eth0/10.253.66.255

The first word is the output of

uname -n

on lb01, no matter if you create the file on lb01 or lb02! After IPaddr2 we put our virtual IP address 10.253.66.200.

lb01/lb02

pico /etc/ha.d/authkeys

auth 3
3 md5 secretstring

secretstring is a password which the two heartbeat daemons on lb01 and lb02 use to authenticate against each other. Use your own string here.

/etc/ha.d/authkeys should be readable by root only, therefore we do this:

lb01/lb02

chmod 600 /etc/ha.d/authkeys

ldirectord is the actual load balancer. We are going to configure our two load balancers (lb01.example.com and lb02.example.com) in an active/passive setup, which means we have one active load balancer, and the other one is a secondary and becomes active if the active one [Master] fails. To make it work, we must create the ldirectord configuration file /etc/ha.d/ldirectord.cf which again must be identical on lb01 and lb02.

lb01/lb02

pico /etc/ha.d/ldirectord.cf

checktimeout=10
checkinterval=2
autoreload=no
logfile="local0"
quiescent=yes

virtual=10.253.66.200:80
        fallback=127.0.0.1:80 gate

In the virtual= line type your virtual IP address (10.253.66.200 in this tutorial).

lb01/lb02

update-rc.d heartbeat start 75 2 3 4 5 . stop 05 0 1 6 .

update-rc.d -f ldirectord remove

Finally we start heartbeat (and with it ldirectord):

lb01/lb02

/etc/init.d/ldirectord stop

/etc/init.d/heartbeat start

5. Test The Load Balancers

Let's check if both load balancers work as expected:

lb01/lb02:

ip addr sh eth0

The active load balancer [Master] should list the virtual IP address (10.253.66.200):

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
 link/ether 00:0c:29:b7:56:9c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
 inet 10.253.66.19/24 brd 10.253.66.255 scope global eth0
 inet 10.253.66.200/24 brd 10.253.66.255 scope global secondary eth0 

The secndary one[Backup] should show this:

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UNKNOWN qlen 1000
 link/ether 00:0c:29:b7:56:9c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
 inet 10.253.66.19/24 brd 10.253.66.255 scope global eth0

lb01/lb02:

ldirectord ldirectord.cf status

Output on the active load balancer [Master]:

ldirectord for /etc/ha.d/ldirectord.cf is running with pid: 3728

Output on the secondary [Backup]:

ldirectord is stopped for /etc/ha.d/ldirectord.cf

lb01/lb02:

ipvsadm -L -n

Output on the active load balancer [Master]:

IP Virtual Server version 1.2.1 (size=4096)
Prot LocalAddress:Port Scheduler Flags
  -> RemoteAddress:Port           Forward Weight ActiveConn InActConn
TCP  10.253.66.200:80 wrr
  -> 127.0.0.1:80                 Local   1      0          0

Output on the secondary [Backup]:

IP Virtual Server version 1.2.1 (size=4096)
Prot LocalAddress:Port Scheduler Flags
  -> RemoteAddress:Port           Forward Weight ActiveConn InActConn

lb01/lb02:

/etc/ha.d/resource.d/LVSSyncDaemonSwap master status

Output on the active load balancer [Master]:

master running
 (ipvs_syncmaster pid: 3815)

Output on the secondary [Backup]:

master stopped

To test your virtual ip:

ping -c 4 10.253.66.200

PING 10.253.66.200 (10.253.66.200) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 10.253.66.200: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=1.94 ms
64 bytes from 10.253.66.200: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.110 ms
64 bytes from 10.253.66.200: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.049 ms
64 bytes from 10.253.66.200: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.048 ms
--- 10.253.66.200 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3007ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.048/0.539/1.949/0.814 ms

If your tests went fine, you can now configure the two Apache nodes.

6. Installation Of Apache + PHP With MySQL Support

Installing the packages:

If you do not have PHP installed already, use this to install the necessary packages:

lb01/lb02:

aptitude install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-sqlite

This will install PHP, the Apache webserver and the necessary dependencies onto your system.

1. Optional: If you want to use MySQL as persistence backend you'll also need to install the mysql-pdo driver:

aptitude install php5-mysql

Start (or restart) apache by issuing one of these commands:

/etc/init.d/apache2 start

or

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

7. Testing the installation:

Check that your Apache installation is working. Point a browser to http://10.253.66.200/.

E.g.

lynx http://10.253.66.200/

You should see a page displaying the words "It works!".

Note

Test your PHP installation by creating a phpinfo.php file in your Apache document root, e.g. by issuing the following command:

echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' > /var/www/phpinfo.php

Then fire up your browser and go to:

lynx http://10.253.66.200/phpinfo.php

You should see a phpinfo page with the correct version number (PHP) at the top.

DONE!