Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS

Preface

The Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS contains conceptual and reference information about the SunTM Cluster product on both SPARC® and x86 based systems.


Note –

This Sun Cluster release supports systems that use the SPARC and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC, SPARC64, AMD64, and Intel 64. In this document, x86 refers to the larger family of 64-bit x86 compatible products. Information in this document pertains to all platforms unless otherwise specified.


Who Should Use This Book

This document is intended for the following audiences:

To understand the concepts that are described in this book, you need to be familiar with the Solaris Operating System and also have expertise with the volume manager software that you can use with the Sun Cluster product.

Before reading this document, you need to have already determined your system requirements and purchased the equipment and software that you need. The Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS contains information about how to plan, install, set up, and use the Sun Cluster software.

How This Book Is Organized

The Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introduction and Overview provides an overview of the overall concepts that you need to know about Sun Cluster.

Chapter 2, Key Concepts for Hardware Service Providers describes the concepts with which hardware service providers need to be familiar. These concepts can help service providers understand the relationships between hardware components. These concepts can also help service providers and cluster administrators better understand how to install, configure, and administer cluster software and hardware.

Chapter 3, Key Concepts for System Administrators and Application Developers describes the concepts with which system administrators and developers who intend to use the Sun Cluster application programming interface (API) need to know. Developers can use this API to turn a standard user application, such as a web browser or database into a highly available data service that can run in the Sun Cluster environment.

Chapter 4, Frequently Asked Questions provides answers to frequently asked questions about the Sun Cluster product.

Related Documentation

Information about related Sun Cluster topics is available in the documentation that is listed in the following table. All Sun Cluster documentation is available at http://docs.sun.com.

Topic 

Documentation 

Overview 

Sun Cluster Overview for Solaris OS

Sun Cluster 3.2 11/09 Documentation Center

Concepts 

Sun Cluster Concepts Guide for Solaris OS

Hardware installation and administration 

Sun Cluster 3.1 - 3.2 Hardware Administration Manual for Solaris OS

Individual hardware administration guides 

Software installation 

Sun Cluster Software Installation Guide for Solaris OS

Sun Cluster Quick Start Guide for Solaris OS

Data service installation and administration 

Sun Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide for Solaris OS

Individual data service guides 

Data service development 

Sun Cluster Data Services Developer’s Guide for Solaris OS

System administration 

Sun Cluster System Administration Guide for Solaris OS

Sun Cluster Quick Reference

Software upgrade 

Sun Cluster Upgrade Guide for Solaris OS

Error messages 

Sun Cluster Error Messages Guide for Solaris OS

Command and function references 

Sun Cluster Reference Manual for Solaris OS

Sun Cluster Data Services Reference Manual for Solaris OS

Sun Cluster Quorum Server Reference Manual for Solaris OS

For a complete list of Sun Cluster documentation, see the release notes for your release of Sun Cluster software at http://wikis.sun.com/display/SunCluster/Home/.

Getting Help

If you have problems installing or using the Sun Cluster software, contact your service provider and provide the following information:

Use the following commands to gather information about your systems for your service provider.

Command 

Function 

prtconf -v

Displays the size of the system memory and reports information about peripheral devices 

psrinfo -v

Displays information about processors 

showrev -p

Reports which patches are installed 

SPARC: prtdiag -v

Displays system diagnostic information 

/usr/cluster/bin/clnode show-rev

Displays Sun Cluster release and package version information 

Also have available the contents of the /var/adm/messages file.

Documentation, Support, and Training

The Sun web site provides information about the following additional resources:

Sun Welcomes Your Comments

Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions. To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Feedback.

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface 

Meaning 

Example 

AaBbCc123

The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output 

Edit your .login file.

Use ls -a to list all files.

machine_name% you have mail.

AaBbCc123

What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output 

machine_name% su

Password:

aabbcc123

Placeholder: replace with a real name or value 

The command to remove a file is rm filename.

AaBbCc123

Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized 

Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide.

A cache is a copy that is stored locally.

Do not save the file.

Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX® system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts

Shell 

Prompt 

C shell 

machine_name%

C shell for superuser 

machine_name#

Bourne shell and Korn shell 

$

Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser 

#