HP V5. 1B-1 - Manual

HP TruCluster Server Version 5.1B-1 for HP Tru64 UNIX Version 5.1B-1 provides highly available and scalable solutions for mission-critical computing
environments. TruCluster Server delivers powerful but easy-to-use UNIX clustering capabilities, allowing AlphaServer systems and storage devices to operate
as a single virtual system.
By combining the advantages of symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), distributed computing, and fault resilience, a cluster running TruCluster Server offers high
availability while providing scalability beyond the limits of a single system. On a single-system server, a hardware or software failure can severely disrupt a
client's access to critical services. In a TruCluster Server cluster, a hardware or software failure on one member system results in the other members providing
these services to clients.
TruCluster Server reduces the effort and complexity of cluster administration by extending single-system management capabilities to clusters. It provides a
clusterwide namespace for files and directories, including a single root file system that all cluster members share. A common cluster address (cluster alias) for
the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) makes the cluster appear as a single system to its network clients while load balancing client connections across member
systems.
A single system image allows a cluster to be managed more easily than distributed systems. TruCluster Server cluster members share a single root file system
and common system configuration files. Therefore, most management tasks need to be done only once for the entire cluster rather than repeatedly for each
cluster member. The cluster can be managed either locally from any of its members or remotely using Tru64 UNIX Web-based management tools. Tru64
UNIX and TruCluster Server software, and applications, are installed only once. Most network applications, such as the Apache Web server, need to be
configured only once in the cluster and can be managed more easily in a cluster than on distributed systems.
A choice of graphical, Web-based, or command-line user interfaces makes management tasks easier for the administrator, flexible for those with large
configurations, and streamlined for expert users.
TruCluster Server facilitates deployment of services that remain highly available even though they have no embedded knowledge they are running in a
cluster. Applications can access their disk data from any cluster member. TruCluster Server also provides the support for components of distributed
applications to run in parallel, providing high availability while taking advantage of cluster-specific synchronization mechanisms and performance
optimizations.
TruCluster Server allows the processing components of an application to concurrently access raw devices or files, regardless of where the storage is located in
the cluster. Member-private storage and clusterwide shared storage are equally accessible to all cluster members. Using either standard UNIX file locks or the
distributed lock manager (DLM), an application can synchronize clusterwide access to shared resources, maintaining data integrity.
TruCluster Server is an efficient and reliable platform for providing services to networked clients. To a client, the cluster appears to be a powerful single-server
system; a client is impacted minimally, if at all, by hardware and software failures in the cluster.
TruCluster Server simplifies the mechanisms of making applications highly available. A cluster application availability (CAA) facility records the
dependencies of, and transparently monitors the state of, registered applications. If a hardware or software failure prevents a system from running a service,
the failover mechanism automatically relocates the service to a viable system in the cluster, which maintains the availability of applications and data.
Administrators can manually relocate applications for load balancing or hardware maintenance.
TCP-based and UDP-based applications can also take advantage of the cluster alias subsystem. These applications, depending on their specific
characteristics, can run on a single cluster member or simultaneously on multiple members. The cluster alias subsystem routes client requests to any member
participating in that cluster alias. During normal operations, client connections are dynamically distributed among multiple service instances according to
administrator-provided metrics.
TruCluster Server supports a variety of hardware configurations that are cost-effective and meet performance needs and availability requirements. Hardware
configurations can include different types of systems and storage units, and can be set up to allow easy maintenance. In addition, administrators can set up
hardware configurations that allow the addition of a system or storage unit without shutting down the cluster.
For the fastest communication with the lowest latency, use the PCI-based Memory Channel cluster interconnect for communication between cluster members.
TruCluster Server Version 5.1B-1 also supports the use of 100 Mbps Ethernet or 1000 Mbps Ethernet hardware as a private LAN cluster interconnect. The LAN
interconnect is suitable for clusters with low-demand workloads generated by a cluster running failover style, with highly available applications in which
there is limited application data being shared between the nodes over the cluster interconnect. Refer to the Cluster Technical Overview manual for a
discussion of the merits of each cluster interconnect.
QuickSpecs
HP TruCluster Server V5.1B-1 HP TruCluster Server V5.1B-1 HP TruCluster Server V5.1B-1 HP TruCluster Server V5.1B-1
Overview
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