Choosing a Local or Shared Disk for Configuration Files and Binaries

Before you begin, you need to decide which of the following deployments best suits your needs. In both environments, shared components are installed locally on every node in the cluster. In addition, in both environments, runtime files are installed on a shared disk.

• Using a local disk for configuration files and binaries. The advantage to this setup is that upgrading Instant Messaging requires minimal downtime because you can upgrade on nodes where Instant Messaging is offline. The disadvantage is that you need to ensure that the same configuration and version of Instant Messaging exists on all nodes in the cluster.

  In addition, if you choose this option, you need to determine whether you will be using HAStoragePlus to mount a file system from a shared disk on each node when Instant Messaging data services are brought online, or if you will be using the cluster file system for global runtime files.

• Using a shared disk for configuration files and binaries. This setup is easier to administer, but you need to bring Instant Messaging down on all nodes in the cluster before upgrading.