Stonebeat FAQ

FAQ & Support Tips

Most Recent Version: 3.1.4 (as of: 5/6/2000)

Stonebeat Support
Stonebeat Full Cluster

Questions:

1) MAC addresses are not being replicated.
2) Secondary continually takes over and I don't know why.
3) I am running multi-ping tests and the secondary won't take over.
4) I can't alias interfaces for HP-UX.
5) How do I install (on UNIX)?
6) Which version is the most stable (in order of best to worst)?
7) What are typical problems your customers are having and how are they resolved?

Answers:

1) MAC addresses are not being replicated.
Make sure that in your $SBHOME/etc/interfaces file, you have the same MAC addresses on both the primary and secondary.

2) Secondary continually takes over and I don't know why.
The secondary takes over when a test fails. You should check your heartbeat (control GUI should be good enough- look for green link). If that is good, verify that you have defined your $SBHOME/etc/checklist file correctly. Firstly, it should ONLY exist on the secondary. Comment out your tests and see if things still die.

3) I am running multi-ping tests and the secondary won't take over.
Remember, muti-ping tests only need to ping one of the list members to succeed. If you want to fail in an either-or interface situation, you need two single ping tests.

4) I can't alias interfaces for HP-UX.
True, at least not in version 2.1.3. Workaround is to add host routes on directly connected routers.

5) How do I install (on UNIX)?

Install software via instructions (for HPUX, use swinstall).
Set $SBHOME, add $SBHOME/bin to $PATH and $SBHOME/man to $MANPATH
Run sbconfig
Configure following files in $SBHOME/etc: systems, interfaces, routes, checklist (secondary only, optional)

6) Which version is the most stable (in order of best to worst)?
On platform, SUN and HP are equally good and stable. From customer's point of view SUN's Quad Ethernet Cards make it more favored. Installation and setup can be done in an hour. I have heard that configuring IBM platform is more difficult, but that is more FireWall & HW thanStoneBeat issue. NT version is more time-consuming to install and requires more understanding of the product and specially user must follow the manual exactly as it is. We do not think that NT is that good idea as a Firewall platform as the NT itself is the weak point. I have no opinion on X86 Solaris version as I've not got that much feedback on it. So to answer the question:

SUN & HP
IBM (AIX)
NT

7) What are typical problems your customers are having and how are they resolved?
Typical problem is lack of understanding how the product works and thus resulted misconfigurations. Usually our support is able to solve the problems with the first call. It is very typical that people installing on NT don't follow the manual and do exactly as described there. (NT installation starts from re-installing the OS)