I Have already configured this setup using heartbeat and virtual IP mechanism on the Non VM setup.
I am using hadoop 1.0.3 and using shared directory for the Namenode metadata sharing. Problem is that on the amazon cloud there is nothing like virtual Ip to get the High Availibility using Linux-ha.
Has anyone been able to achieve this. Kindly let me the know the steps required?
For now I am using the Hbase replication WAL on hbase. Hbase later than 0.92 supports this.
For the hadoop clustering on cloud , I will wait for the 2.0 release getting stable.
Used the following
http://hbase.apache.org/apidocs/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/replication/package-summary.html#requirements
On the client Side I added the logic to have 2 master servers , used alternatively to reconnect in case of network disruption.
This thing worked for a simple 2 machines backking up each other , not recommended for higher number of server.
Hope it helps.