[ale] Linux-HA to convert a slave to a master

[cfowler at outpostsentinel.com (Chris Fowler)]

I've loaded Heartbeat from the Linux-HA project and I'm starting to
think it is overkill for what I'm trying to do.

I have a 2 server configuration running in our data center.   One is a
master and one a slave.  I want to have a heartbeat between them using a
x-over ethernet cable on eth1 and if the master  is no longer responsive
I want the heartbeat program to execute a perl script that I write.  I
started compiling Heartbeat and Glue from the Linux-HA project and I
believe it is a bit much for what I want.  

Any suggestions?   I can easily write a perl ping daemon but I've ran
into situations where the Linux kernel would respond to ping but be
blocking in disk IO due to a failed drive.  

Chris