Selecting Servers and Enclosures

Selecting Servers and Enclosures

This section contains descriptions of IBM servers, storage enclosures, and optional devices that you can use to configure a shared-disk cluster. This section also contains some tips to help make the task of configuring your cluster a little easier.

The hardware needed to configure a dual-node, high-availability, shared-disk cluster generally consists of the following basic elements:

•  Two identical (or very similar) servers
•  Two or more RAID controllers of the same type (1)
•  One or more storage expansion enclosures
•  Eight or more hard disk drives
   (two local drives in each server and a minimum of four shared drives of the same capacity in the expansion enclosure)
•  Two or more IBM 100/10 PCI EtherJet Adapters or IBM 10/100 PCI EtherJet Adapters (2)
   (one in each server to provide the dedicated link between the servers, and additional network adapters  to connect the servers to the public network)

  Note: Some server models have integrated Ethernet controllers, which you can use to connect the  servers to the public network.

•  A variety of cables to connect the clustering elements together
•  Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to keep the servers and expansion enclosures available, should  a power fluctuation or outage occur
•  Additional microprocessors for the servers, as required
•  Additional memory for the servers, as required

Together, these basic elements provide the flexibility you need to design a dual-node cluster that will meet both your current and future needs.

This section does not provide information about all IBM PC Server and Netfinity products available for clustering.
To obtain information about earlier PC Server models and other products that IBM has tested in a clustered environment, visit one or more of the following World Wide Web pages:

http://www.pc.ibm.com
http://www.pc.ibm.com/support
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/options/
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/netfinity/
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/netfinity/clustering.html

(1) The cluster software packages for the shared-disk cluster examples described in this reference were designed and tested for use with the high-availability functions provided by the IBM Netfinity ServeRAID-3H Ultra2 SCSI Adapter, the IBM ServeRAID II Ultra SCSI Adapter, and the IBM Netfinity Fibre Channel RAID Controller.
(2) The shared-disk cluster packages require that you use IBM 100/10 or 10/100 PCI EtherJet Adapters for the dedicated link between the two servers.

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