A TruCluster Server cluster acts as a single virtual system, even though it is made up of multiple systems. Cluster members can share resources, data, and clusterwide file systems under a single security and management domain, yet they can boot or shut down independently without disrupting the cluster.

The Cluster File System (CFS) makes all files, including the root (/), /usr, and /var file systems, visible to and accessible by all cluster members. It does not matter whether a file is stored on a device connected to all cluster members or on one that is private to a single member. Each file system is served by a single-cluster member; other members access that file system as CFS clients with significant optimizations for shared access. CFS preserves full X/Open and POSIX semantics for file system access and maintains cache coherency across cluster members. For instance, an application can use standard UNIX file locks to synchronize access to shared files.

CFS supports the Advanced File System (AdvFS) for both read and write access and supports AdvFS with BSD-type user and group quotas. NFS client and NFS server are supported for both read and write access, and NFS services are accessible to clients through cluster aliases in addition to the default cluster alias. The UNIX File System (UFS) is supported for read and write access from the CFS server or for read only access on client members. The Memory File System (MFS) is supported for read and write access on the CFS server. The CD-ROM File System (CDFS) and Digital Video Disc File System (DVDFS) are supported for read access only. For higher performance, applications can use direct I/O through the file system to bypass the buffer cache.

The device request dispatcher supports clusterwide access to character and block disk devices, and to tape and tape changer devices. All local and remote cluster disk and tape I/O passes through the device request dispatcher. A member does not need a direct connection to a disk, or tape, or tape changer device to access data on that device. This permits great flexibility in selecting a hardware configuration that is both economical and useful.

A cluster alias is an IP address that makes the cluster look like a single system to clients and other hosts on the network. Cluster aliases free clients from having to connect to specific members for services. If the member providing the service goes down, a client reconnects to another member elected by the cluster alias to provide the service. With applications that run concurrently on multiple members, scaling is achieved by permitting multiple clients to connect to instances of the service on multiple cluster members, each using a cluster alias to address the service.

The cluster alias subsystem provides an optional virtual MAC (vMAC) address that can be associated with each cluster alias IP address. When configured, the same MAC address is used in all Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) responses for the cluster alias address, independent of which cluster node is responding to cluster alias ARP requests. This permits faster failover when a new node assumes responsibility for responding to cluster alias ARP requests.

The cluster application availability (CAA) facility delivers the ability to deploy highly available single instance applications in a cluster by providing resource monitoring and application relocation, failover, and restart capabilities. CAA is used to define which members can run a service, the criteria under which to relocate a service, and the location of an application-specific action script. Monitored resources include network adapters, tape devices, media changers, and applications. CAA allows services to manage and monitor resources by using entry points within their action scripts. Applications do not need to be modified in any way to utilize CAA.

TruCluster Server allows rolling upgrade from the previous version of the base operating system and the TruCluster software to the next subsequent release of the base operating system and TruCluster software. It also allows the rolling of patches into the cluster. Updating the operating system and cluster software does not require a shutdown of the entire cluster. A utility is provided to roll the cluster in a controlled and orderly fashion. The upgrade procedure allows the monitoring of the status of the upgrade while it is in progress. Clients accessing services are not aware that a rolling upgrade is in progress.
See the Cluster Installation manual for recommended and supported paths to upgrade or roll to the latest version of TruCluster Server.

The SysMan system management utilities provide a graphical view of the cluster configuration, and can be used to determine the current state of availability and connectivity in the cluster. The administrator can invoke management tools from SysMan, allowing the cluster to be managed locally or remotely.

Clusterwide signaling allows applications to send UNIX signals to processes operating on other members.

The performance management capability of Tru64 UNIX has been modified from one large performance management tool (pmgr) to several smaller and more versatile tools. The performance management tool suite consists of: Collect, Collgui, and the two SNMP agents pmgrd and clu_mibs.

Collect is a tool that collects operating system and process data under HP Tru64 UNIX Versions 4.x and 5.x. Any subset of the 'subsystems' (Process, Memory, Disk, LSM Volumes, Network, CPU, Filesystems), and Header can be defined for which data is to be collected. Collect is designed for high reliability and low system-resource overhead. Accompanying collect are two highly integrated tools, collgui, a graphical front-end, and cfilt, which allows completely arbitrary extraction of data from the output of collect to standard output. collgui is a laborsaving tool that allows a user to quickly analyze collect data. The Performance Manager metrics server (pmgrd) is a UNIX daemon process that provides general UNIX performance metrics on request. The pmgrd metrics server supports the extensible Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent mechanism (eSNMP).

TruCluster Server supports the HP Common Cluster MIB. The HP Insight Manager uses this Cluster MIB to discover cluster member relationships, and to provide a coherent view of clustered systems across supported platforms.

When configured as an NFS server, a TruCluster Server cluster can provide highly available access to the file systems it exports. There are no special cluster management operations required to configure the cluster as a highly available NFS server. In the event of a system failure, another cluster member will become the NFS server for the file system, transparent to external NFS clients. NFS file locking is supported, as are both NFS V2 and V3 with UDP and TCP.

TruCluster Server allows NFS file systems to be served from the cluster through both the default cluster alias and alternate aliases. Alternate cluster aliases can be defined to limit NFS server activity to those members that are actually connected to the storage that contains the exported file systems. NFS clients can use this alternate alias when they mount the file systems served by the cluster.

The Advanced File System (AdvFS) log-based file system provides higher availability and greater flexibility than traditional UNIX file systems. AdvFS journaling protects file system integrity. TruCluster Server supports AdvFS for both read and write access.

An optional, separately licensed product, the Advanced File System Utilities, performs online file system management functions. See the OPTIONAL SOFTWARE section of this document for more information on the AdvFS utilities.

Tru64 UNIX Logical Storage Manager (LSM) is a cluster-integrated, host-based solution to data storage management. In a TruCluster Server cluster, LSM operations continue despite the loss of cluster members, as long as the cluster itself continues operation and a physical path to the storage is available. LSM disk groups can be used simultaneously by all cluster members and the LSM configuration can be managed from any cluster member.

Basic LSM functionality, including disk spanning and concatenation, is provided with the Tru64 UNIX operating system. Extended functions, such as striping (RAID 0), mirroring (RAID 1), and online management, are available with a separate license. Mirroring of LSM is RAID Advisory Board (RAB) certified for RAID Levels 0 and 1.

LSM is supported for use in a TruCluster Server cluster and will support any volume in a cluster, including swap and cluster root and excluding the quorum disk and member boot disks. Hardware mirroring is supported for all volumes in a cluster without exception.

LSM RAID 5 volumes are not supported in clusters. See the OPTIONAL SOFTWARE section of this document for more information on LSM.

TruCluster Server can log messages about events that occur in the TruCluster environment to one or more systems. Cluster administrators can also receive notification through electronic mail when critical problems occur.

TruCluster Server provides two levels of protection in the event of storage interconnect failure. When configured with redundant storage adapters, the storage interconnect will be highly available. Should one interconnect fail, traffic will transparently fail over to the surviving adapter. When a member system is connected to shared storage with a single storage interconnect and it fails, transactions are transparently performed via the cluster interconnect to another cluster member with a working storage interconnect.

TruCluster Server supports highly available client network interfaces via the Tru64 UNIX redundant array of independent network adapters (NetRAIN) feature.

TruCluster Server allows the elimination of the cluster interconnect as a single point of failure by supporting redundant cluster interconnect hardware. You can configure dual-rail Memory Channel, allowing the cluster to survive the failure of a single rail. For LAN interconnect, two or more network adapters on each member are configured as a NetRAIN virtual interface. When properly configured across two or more switches, the cluster will survive any LAN component failure. This not only guards against rare network hardware failures, but also facilitates the upgrade and maintenance of the network without disrupting the cluster.

TruCluster Server provides the software infrastructure to support parallelized database applications, such as Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) and Informix Extended Parallel Server (XPS) to achieve high performance and high availability. OPS and XPS are offered and supported separately by Oracle Corporation and Informix Software, Inc., respectively.

The distributed lock manager (DLM) synchronizes access to resources that are shared among cooperating processes throughout the cluster. DLM provides a software library with an expansive set of lock modes that applications use to implement complex resource-sharing policies. DLM provides services to notify a process owning a resource that it is blocking another process requesting the resource. An application can also use DLM routines to efficiently coordinate the application's activities within the cluster.

TruCluster Server provides a special application programming interface (API) library for high-performance data delivery over Memory Channel by giving access to Memory Channel data transfer and locking functions. This Memory Channel API library enables highly optimized applications that require high-performance data delivery over the Memory Channel interconnect. This library is supported solely for use with Memory Channel.

High performance within the cluster is achieved by providing user applications with direct access to the capabilities of the Memory Channel. For example, a single store instruction on the sending host is sufficient for the data to become available for reading in the memory of another host.

The Memory Channel API library allows a programmer to create and control access to regions of the clusterwide address space by specifying UNIX style protections. Access to shared data can be synchronized using Memory Channel spin locks for clusterwide locking.

The Memory Channel API library facilitates highly optimized implementations of Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM), Message Passing Interface (MPI), and High Performance Fortran (HPF), providing seamless scalability from SMP systems to clusters of SMP machines. This provides the programmer with comprehensive access to the current and emerging de facto standard software development tools for parallel applications while supporting portability of existing applications without source code changes.

The connection manager is a distributed kernel component that ensures that cluster members communicate with each other and enforces the rules of cluster membership. The connection manager forms a cluster, and adds and removes cluster members. It tracks whether members in a cluster are active and maintains a cluster membership list that is consistent on all cluster members.

TruCluster Server supports the Enhanced Security option on all cluster members. This includes support for features for enhanced login checks and password management. Audit and access control list (ACL) support can also be enabled independently of the Enhanced Security option on cluster members.

TruCluster Server Version 5.1A requires the Tru64 UNIX Version 5.1A operating system. The Tru64 UNIX operating system is a separately licensed product. See the Tru64 UNIX operating system QuickSpec for more information.

TruCluster Server Version 5.1A requires that additional software subsets be installed. See the TruCluster Server Software Installation manual for more information.

QP-6R9AC-AA

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AlphaServer 8200, 8400, GS60, GS140, GS160, GS320

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TruCluster Server is licensed as a standard HP software layered product and is provided only under a license. Each system in the TruCluster Server environment requires separate Tru64 UNIX and TruCluster Server licenses. Hard partitions of GS80, GS160 and GS320 can be clustered together either across separate systems or within systems and only one TruCluster license is required per system. For more information about the HP licensing terms and policies, contact your local HP representative or reseller.

This product supports the Tru64 UNIX License Management Facility (LMF). License units for the TruCluster Server product are allocated on an unlimited-system-use basis.

For more information on the License Management Facility, see the Tru64 UNIX Operating System QuickSpec or the Tru64 UNIX operating system documentation.

TruCluster Server is a separately licensed product and is distributed on the Tru64 UNIX Associated Products Volume 2 CD-ROM. The TruCluster Documentation is available on-line at http://www.tru64unix.hp.com/docs/.

A variety of service options are available from HP. For more information, contact your local HP service representative.

HP Advanced Server for UNIX (ASU) provides Windows networking services, such as file sharing, print sharing, and security for Tru64 UNIX. In addition to basic file and print services, ASU provides full Windows domain controller support, support for enterprise-wide trust relationships, and support for Windows security - including file permissions and Windows local and global groups.

Additionally, you can manage users, file shares, and printers using native Windows administrative tools. When combined with TruCluster Server software, ASU provides highly available and highly scalable file shares, print shares, and even Primary Domain Controller resources to Windows clients. For more information on ASU, visit the HP Advanced Server for UNIX Web site at:
www.tru64unix.hp.com/products/adv_server

See the NetWorker Read This First letter for information on evaluating or purchasing a version of NetWorker that supports TruCluster Server.

SANworks Data Replication Manager (DRM) is controller-based data replication software for disaster tolerance and data movement solutions. DRM works with the new StorageWorks Fibre Channel MA8000 /EMA12000 Storage Solutions by HP. The RAID Array 8000 (RA8000) and Enterprise Storage Array 12000 (ESA12000) are also supported.

Multiple clusters or standalone systems can be connected using DRM to replicate application data. DRM within a single cluster is supported only through Custom Special Systems' "Campus-Wide Disaster Tolerant Cluster" product offering.

For more information about DRM, see the SANworks Data Replication Manager QuickSpec. For more information about the Campus-Wide DisasterTolerant Product, see http://www.hp.com/solutions/customsystems/ha/tru64_campus_clusters.html.

The Advanced File System (AdvFS) log-based file system provides flexibility, compatibility, high availability, and high performance for files and filesets, up to 16 terabytes (TB). Administrators can add, remove, reconfigure, tune, and defragment files - and back up storage - without unmounting the file system or halting the operating system. By supporting multivolume file systems, AdvFS enables file-level striping to improve file transfer rates, and integrates with the functionality provided by the Logical Storage Manager (LSM).

A graphical user interface simplifies management tasks to dynamically resize file systems, load balance, undelete files, and clone files for hot backup.

The AdvFS Utilities is a separately licensed software product for Tru64 UNIX. See the AdvFS Utilities QuickSpec for more information.

The Tru64 UNIX Logical Storage Manager (LSM) is an integrated, host-based solution to data storage management. Concatenation, striping, mirroring, hot-sparing, and a graphical user interface allow data storage management functions to be done online, without disrupting users or applications. LSM manages storage as a single entity in both cluster and single node environments. LSM is a separately licensed software product for Tru64 UNIX. For more information, see the Logical Storage Manager QuickSpec.

The StorageWorks Software package includes the licenses for Tru64 UNIX Logical Storage Manager and the Advanced File System Utilities. The part number for the StorageWorks software package is QB-5RXA*-AA.

The TruCluster Plus Software package includes the licenses for TruCluster Server, Tru64 UNIX Logical Storage Manager, and the Advanced File System Utilities. The part number for the TruCluster Plus software package is QP-6R9A*-AA.

WEB-Based Enterprise Service (WEBES) tools integrate a high availability system fault management architecture, Distributed Enterprise Service Tools Architecture (DESTA), with HPs architecture for distributed, Web-Based System Management. The tool functionality contained in the WEBES kit includes the following: HP Analyze (symptom directed hardware diagnosis tool), HP Crash Analysis Tool [CCAT] (symptom directed operating system software diagnosis tool), and Revision and Configuration Management [RCM] tool (collects system configuration and revision data).

HP Analyze is a hardware diagnosis software tool that provides analysis for single errors or fault events at a rudimentary level, as well as multiple event and complex analysis. HP Analyze provides automatic notification and isolation of hardware components to quickly identify areas of the system that may be having problems. HP Analyze is the successor to DECevent and supports the newer EV6 based systems. Refer to the release notes for the products that are supported.

CCAT is a software application tool that helps service engineers and system managers to analyze operating system crashes. This tool collects data that describes system crashes and matches that data against a set of operating specific rules.

The RCM tool collects system configuration and revision data information. The data is stored in the RCM Server at HP Services and the server is then used to create detailed revision and configuration reports.

Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) technology is a relational database management system that capitalizes on the benefits of high availability, performance, and expandability made possible by Tru64 UNIX clusters. Oracle Parallel Server must be ordered separately through Oracle Corporation.

Informix Dynamic Server with the Extended Parallel Option delivers high performance while supporting commercially available cluster systems used for data warehousing and decision support applications. Informix Dynamic Server with the Extended Parallel Option must be ordered through Informix Software, Inc.

Use of dedicated LAN is supported for use as a cluster interconnect. A LAN interconnect must be private to cluster members. As long as any packet that is transmitted by a cluster member's interconnect adapter can only be received by interconnect adapters of other members of the same cluster, the interconnect meets the privacy requirement.

A LAN interconnect can be a direct connection between two cluster members or can employ hubs or switches. In general, any Ethernet adapter, switch, or hub that works in a standard LAN at 100 Mbps or 1000 Mbps should work within a LAN interconnect. (Adapters on combo cards such as the KZPCM, DEPVD, and the DEPVZ are not supported.) Check the supported options list for the hardware platform in question to verify if the DEGXA-SA/TA is supported for LAN interconnect. Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), ATM LAN Emulation (LANE), and 10 Mbps Ethernet are not supported.

Although hubs and switches are interchangeable in most LAN interconnect configurations, switches are recommended for performance and scalability. Most hubs run in half-duplex mode and do not detect network collisions, so their use in a LAN interconnect may limit cluster performance. Overall, using a switch, rather than a hub, provides greater scalability for clusters with three or more members.

Adapters and switch ports must be configured compatibly with respect to speed (100 Mbps or 1000 Mbps) and operational mode (full-duplex). A maximum of three hops is allowed between cluster members, where a hop means passing from a system, switch, hub, or router, to another system, switch, hub, or router. That is, any combination of up to two hubs, switches, or routers is supported between two cluster members. You must not introduce unacceptable latencies by using, for example, a satellite uplink or a wide area network (WAN) in the path between two components of a LAN interconnect.

A fully redundant LAN interconnect configuration employs two or more Ethernet adapters in a NetRAIN set on each member, with redundant wiring to two or more switches interlinked by two crossover cables. These Ethernet switches must be capable of one of the follow mechanisms for managing traffic across parallel inter-switch links: link aggregation (also known as port trunking), resilient links, or per-port-enabled spanning tree algorithm.

TruCluster Server supports the following Fibre Channel hardware. For more information on the supported Fibre Channel solutions, see the TruCluster Server Release Notes and the Cluster Hardware Configuration manual.

TruCluster Server supports Fibre Channel arbitrated loop for clusters with a maximum of two members only.

The systems are connected to shared SCSI buses using an adapter from the following list. The TruCluster Server Cluster Hardware Configuration manual and Release Notes provide more information regarding SCSI controller configuration, respectively:

TruCluster Server supports the following SCSI signal converters. The TruCluster Server Hardware Configuration manual provides information regarding supported SCSI signal converters configuration.