Clusters for High Availability: A Primer of Hp Solutions - Softcover

Weygant, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0130893552 ISBN 13: 9780130893550

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2001

Synopsis

The expert guide to high availability clusters for HP-UX, Linux, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.

• The start-to-finish guide to high availability clustering
• Includes ways to maximize enterprise application availability?and minimize cost
• Completely updated for the latest tools, technologies, and applications
• Describes high availability solutions in HP-UX, Linux, and Windows environments

Business-critical applications require higher availability than ever before-and today's high availability systems rely on clustering as a key strategy for maximizing reliability and robustness. In Clusters for High Availability, Second Edition, Peter S. Weygant covers all three pillars of successful high availability computing: robust technology, sound computing processes, and proactive support. He addresses every aspect of delivering high availability clustered systems: terminology, architecture, implementation, management, monitoring, and beyond. Coverage includes:

• Fundamental concepts and components associated with high availability clustering
• A 14-step checklist for assessing your high availability needs
• Clustering techniques for HP-UX, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Linux
• Clustered storage, backup, and network infrastructure solutions
• Practical techniques for building "disaster-tolerant" systems
• State-of-the-art cluster replication, monitoring, and management tools

Weygant presents several brand-new case studies, including an Oracle Parallel Server application providing 5nines:5minutes protection; a high availability brokerage application built using a continental cluster; and a storage area network solution designed for an Internet service provider. The book also contains an extensive glossary.

If you're responsible for delivering high availability, Clusters for High Availability is the comprehensive, up-to-date blueprint you need.

About this title

About the Author

PETER S. WEYGANT is a Learning Products Engineer for Hewlett-Packard. A technical writer for 17 years, he has developed documentation and managed publication projects in the areas of digital imaging, relational database technology, performance tuning, and high availability systems. He co-authored HP-UX Performance and Tuning: Concepts, Tools, and Methods (Prentice Hall PTR).

From the Back Cover

The expert guide to high availability clusters for HP-UX, Linux, Windows 2000, and Windows NT.

• The start-to-finish guide to high availability clustering
• Includes ways to maximize enterprise application availability—and minimize cost
• Completely updated for the latest tools, technologies, and applications
• Describes high availability solutions in HP-UX, Linux, and Windows environments

Business-critical applications require higher availability than ever before-and today's high availability systems rely on clustering as a key strategy for maximizing reliability and robustness. In Clusters for High Availability, Second Edition, Peter S. Weygant covers all three pillars of successful high availability computing: robust technology, sound computing processes, and proactive support. He addresses every aspect of delivering high availability clustered systems: terminology, architecture, implementation, management, monitoring, and beyond. Coverage includes:

• Fundamental concepts and components associated with high availability clustering
• A 14-step checklist for assessing your high availability needs
• Clustering techniques for HP-UX, Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Linux
• Clustered storage, backup, and network infrastructure solutions
• Practical techniques for building "disaster-tolerant" systems
• State-of-the-art cluster replication, monitoring, and management tools

Weygant presents several brand-new case studies, including an Oracle Parallel Server application providing 5nines:5minutes protection; a high availability brokerage application built using a continental cluster; and a storage area network solution designed for an Internet service provider. The book also contains an extensive glossary.

If you're responsible for delivering high availability, Clusters for High Availability is the comprehensive, up-to-date blueprint you need.

From the Inside Flap

Preface

Since the initial publication of this book in 1996, the installed base of Hewlett-Packard's high availability (HA) clusters has grown to more than 45,000 licenses sold worldwide. The technology itself has matured, incorporating such diverse features as event monitoring, wide area networks (WANs), storage area networks (SANs), clusters of up to 16 nodes, and on-line configuration of most cluster components. Hundreds of thousands of users are employing ServiceGuard clusters for tasks as diverse as Internet access, telecommunications billing, manufacturing process control, and banking, to mention only a few.

Hewlett-Packard HA clusters are now or soon will be available on mul-tiple platforms, including HP-UX, Linux, and Windows. Today, HP's 5nines:5minutes HA continuum provides products, integrated solutions, and reference architectures that allow users to achieve the highest levels of availability-with as little as five minutes of downtime per year. These efforts show a continuing, ongoing commitment to developing tools and products that approach the vision of 99.999% HA.

The three pillars of Hewlett-Packard's HA computing are robust technology, sound computing processes, and proactive customer support. This guide describes these three aspects of HA solutions in the world of enterprise clusters. It presents basic concepts and terms, then describes the use of cluster technology to provide highly available open systems solutions for the commercial enterprise. Here is an overview of each chapter's topics:

Chapter 1, "Basic High Availability Concepts," presents the language used to describe highly available systems and components, and introduces ways of measuring availability. It also highlights the processes needed to keep systems available.

Chapter 2, "Clustering to Eliminate Single Points of Failure," shows how to identify and eliminate single points of failure by implementing a cluster architecture.

Chapter 3, "High Availability Cluster Components," is an overview of HP's current roster of HA software and hardware offerings.

Chapter 4, "Cluster Monitoring and Management," describes a selection of tools for monitoring, mapping, and managing HA clusters.

Chapter 5, "Disaster-Tolerant High Availability Systems," is an introduction to disaster-tolerant cluster architectures, which extend the geographic range of the HA cluster.

Chapter 6, "Enterprise-Wide High Availability Solutions," describes hardware and software components and processes that provide the highest levels of availability for today's environment of e-business, e-commerce, and e-services, including 5nines:5minutes.

Chapter 7, "Sample High Availability Solutions," discusses a few concrete examples of highly available cluster solutions.

Chapter 8, "Glossary of High Availability Terminology," gives definitions of important words and phrases used to describe HA and HP's HA products and solutions.

Additional information is available in the HP publications Managing MC/ServiceGuard and Configuring OPS Clusters with MC/LockManager. The HP 9000 Servers Configuration Guide and the HP Net Servers Configuration Guide contain detailed information about supported HA configurations. These and other more specialized documents on enterprise clusters are available from your HP representative.

Since the initial publication of this book in 1996, the installed base of Hewlett-Packard's high availability (HA) clusters has grown to more than 45,000 licenses sold worldwide. The technology itself has matured, incorporating such diverse features as event monitoring, wide area networks (WANs), storage area networks (SANs), clusters of up to 16 nodes, and on-line configuration of most cluster components. Hundreds of thousands of users are employing ServiceGuard clusters for tasks as diverse as Internet access, telecommunications billing, manufacturing process control, and banking, to mention only a few.

Hewlett-Packard HA clusters are now or soon will be available on mul-tiple platforms, including HP-UX, Linux, and Windows. Today, HP's 5nines:5minutes HA continuum provides products, integrated solutions, and reference architectures that allow users to achieve the highest levels of availability-with as little as five minutes of downtime per year. These efforts show a continuing, ongoing commitment to developing tools and products that approach the vision of 99.999% HA.

The three pillars of Hewlett-Packard's HA computing are robust technology, sound computing processes, and proactive customer support. This guide describes these three aspects of HA solutions in the world of enterprise clusters. It presents basic concepts and terms, then describes the use of cluster technology to provide highly available open systems solutions for the commercial enterprise. Here is an overview of each chapter's topics:

Chapter 1, "Basic High Availability Concepts," presents the language used to describe highly available systems and components, and introduces ways of measuring availability. It also highlights the processes needed to keep systems available.

Chapter 2, "Clustering to Eliminate Single Points of Failure," shows how to identify and eliminate single points of failure by implementing a cluster architecture.

Chapter 3, "High Availability Cluster Components," is an overview of HP's current roster of HA software and hardware offerings.

Chapter 4, "Cluster Monitoring and Management," describes a selection of tools for monitoring, mapping, and managing HA clusters.

Chapter 5, "Disaster-Tolerant High Availability Systems," is an introduction to disaster-tolerant cluster architectures, which extend the geographic range of the HA cluster.

Chapter 6, "Enterprise-Wide High Availability Solutions," describes hardware and software components and processes that provide the highest levels of availability for today's environment of e-business, e-commerce, and e-services, including 5nines:5minutes.

Chapter 7, "Sample High Availability Solutions," discusses a few concrete examples of highly available cluster solutions.

Chapter 8, "Glossary of High Availability Terminology," gives definitions of important words and phrases used to describe HA and HP's HA products and solutions.

Additional information is available in the HP publications Managing MC/ServiceGuard and Configuring OPS Clusters with MC/LockManager. The HP 9000 Servers Configuration Guide and the HP Net Servers Configuration Guide contain detailed information about supported HA configurations. These and other more specialized documents on enterprise clusters are available from your HP representative.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0130893552
• ISBN 13: 9780130893550
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 296