Three Viewpoints of the SunPlex System

This section describes three different viewpoints on the SunPlex system and the key concepts and documentation relevant to each viewpoint. These viewpoints come from:

• Hardware installation and service personnel

• System administrators

• Application programmers

Hardware Installation and Service Viewpoint

To hardware service people, the SunPlex system looks like a collection of off-the-shelf hardware that includes servers, networks, and storage. These components are all cabled together so that every component has a backup and no single point of failure exists.

Key Concepts for Hardware

Hardware service people need to understand the following cluster concepts.

• Cluster hardware configurations and cabling

• Installing and servicing (adding, removing, replacing):

  • Network interface components (adapters, junctions, cables)

  • Disk interface cards

  • Disk arrays

  • Disk drives

  • The administrative console and the console access device

• Setting up the administrative console and console access device

Suggested Hardware Conceptual References

The following sections contain material relevant to the preceding key concepts:

• Cluster Nodes

• Multihost Disks

• Local Disks

• Cluster Interconnect

• Public Network Interfaces

• Client Systems

• Administrative Console

• Console Access Devices

• Clustered Pairs Topology

• N+1 (Star) Topology

Relevant SunPlex Documentation

The following SunPlex document includes procedures and information associated with hardware service concepts:

• Sun Cluster 3.x Hardware Administration Collection at http://docs.sun.com/db/coll/1024.1

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Release Notes Supplement

System Administrator Viewpoint

To the system administrator, the SunPlex system looks like a set of servers (nodes) cabled together, sharing storage devices. The system administrator sees:

• Specialized cluster software integrated with Solaris software to monitor the connectivity between cluster nodes

• Specialized software that monitors the health of user application programs running on the cluster nodes

• Volume management software that sets up and administers disks

• Specialized cluster software that enables all nodes to access all storage devices, even those not directly connected to disks

• Specialized cluster software that enables files to appear on every node as though they were locally attached to that node

Key Concepts for System Administration

System administrators need to understand the following concepts and processes:

• The interaction between the hardware and software components

• The general flow of how to install and configure the cluster including:

  • Installing the Solaris operating environment

  • Installing and configuring Sun Cluster software

  • Installing and configuring a volume manager

  • Installing and configuring application software to be cluster ready

  • Installing and configuring Sun Cluster data service software

• Cluster administrative procedures for adding, removing, replacing, and servicing cluster hardware and software components

• Configuration modifications to improve performance

Suggested System Administrator Conceptual References

The following sections contain material relevant to the preceding key concepts:

• Administrative Interfaces

• High-Availability Framework

• Global Devices

• Disk Device Groups

• Global Namespace

• Cluster File Systems

• Quorum and Quorum Devices

• Volume Managers

• Data Services

• Resources, Resource Groups, and Resource Types

• Public Network Adapters and IP Network Multipathing

• Chapter 4, Frequently Asked Questions

Relevant SunPlex Documentation for System Administrators

The following SunPlex documents include procedures and information associated with the system administration concepts:

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Software Installation Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.1 System Administration Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Data Service Planning and Administration Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Error Messages Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Release Notes

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Release Notes Supplement

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Data Service Release Notes

Application Programmer Viewpoint

The SunPlex system provides data services for such applications as Oracle, NFS, DNS, Sun^TM ONE Web Server, Apache Web Server, and Sun^TM ONE Directory Server. Data services are created by configuring an off-the-shelf applications to run under control of the Sun Cluster software. The Sun Cluster software provides configuration files and management methods that start, stop, and monitor the applications. If you need to create a new failover or scalable service, you can use the SunPlex Application Programming Interface (API) and the Data Service Enabling Technologies API (DSET API) to develop the necessary configuration files and management methods that enable its application to run as a data service on the cluster.

Key Concepts for Application Programmers

Application programmers need to understand the following:

• The characteristics of their application to determine whether it can be made to run as a failover or scalable data service.

• The Sun Cluster API, DSET API, and the “generic” data service. Programmers need to determine which tool is most suitable for them to use to write programs or scripts to configure their application for the cluster environment.

Suggested Application Programmer Conceptual References

The following sections contain material relevant to the preceding key concepts:

• Data Services

• Resources, Resource Groups, and Resource Types

• Chapter 4, Frequently Asked Questions

Relevant SunPlex Documentation for Application Programmers

The following SunPlex documents include procedures and information associated with the application programmer concepts:

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Data Service Collection at http://docs.sun.com/db/coll/573.10

• Sun Cluster 3.1 Data Service Planning and Administration Guide