6.4. Policy Modes

The dataservice operates using a policy mode, which configures how the dataservice management system responds to different events and operations within the dataservice. The policy mode can be set at will and enables maintenance and administration to be carried out without triggering the automatic failure and recovery procedures for operations that would otherwise trigger an automated response.

The procedure for how these operations are carried out are defined through a series of rules, with different policies applying different sets of the individual rules. The setting of the policy mode is dataservice-wide and instantaneous.

  Policy Mode
Ruleset Automatic Manual Maintenance
Monitoring Yes Yes Yes
Fault Detection Yes Yes No
Failure Fencing Yes Yes No
Failure Recovery Yes No No

The individual policy modes are described below:

  • AUTOMATIC Policy Mode

    In automatic mode, the following operations and status changes happen automatically, managed by the coordinator:

    • Failed Replica datasources are automatically marked as failed, temporarily removed from the dataservice, with application connections redirect to the other nodes in the dataservice. When the datasource becomes available, the node is automatically recovered to the dataservice.

    • Failed Primary datasources are automatically shunned and switched to the most up to date Replica within the dataservice, which becomes the Primary and remaining Replicas point to the newly promoted Primary.

    Note

    Automatic policy mode operates within a single dataservice only. Within a composite dataservice there is no automatic failover.

  • MANUAL Policy Mode

    In the MANUAL policy mode, the dataservice identifies and isolates datasources when they fail, but automatic failover (for Primary datasources) and recovery is disabled.

  • MAINTENANCE Policy Mode

    In MAINTENANCE policy mode all rules are disabled. Maintenance mode should be used when performing datasource or host maintenance that would otherwise trigger an automated fencing or recovery process.

    Maintenance mode should be used when administration or maintenance is required on the datasource, software, or operating system.

6.4.1. Setting Policy Modes

To set the policy, use the set command with the policy option. For example, to switch the current dataservice policy mode to manual:

[LOGICAL:EXPERT] /alpha > set policy manual
policy mode is now MANUAL

Policy mode changes are global, affecting the operation of all the members of the dataservice.

The current policy mode is shown when running ls within cctrl , see Section 6.3, “Checking Dataservice Status” .