The deadtime directive is used to specify how quickly Heartbeat[1] should decide that a node[2] in a cluster is dead. Setting this value too low will cause the system to falsely declare itself dead. Setting it too high will delay takeover after the failure of a node in the cluster. Please read the FAQ[3] document for more information on how to configure (tune) this important parameter.
The deadtime value is specified according to the HeartbeatTimeSyntax[4]. Two sample deadtime specifications are shown below.
deadtime 10 # 10 seconds deadtime 250ms # 250 milliseconds (1/4 second)
| [1] | http://www.linux-ha.org/HeartbeatProgram |
| [2] | http://www.linux-ha.org/ClusterNode |
| [3] | http://www.linux-ha.org/FAQ#heavy_load |
| [4] | http://www.linux-ha.org/HeartbeatTimeSyntax |
This information provided courtesy of the Linux-HA project at http://linux-ha.org/