Three Views of Sun Cluster

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

• Hardware installation and service personnel

• System administrators

• Application programmers. Sun Cluster provides a set of highly available data services. These services are applications such as Oracle, Apache Web Server, and DNS that have been configured to become highly available data services running on a cluster. Other applications can be made into highly available data services using the Sun Cluster API. Application programmers can write shell scripts or C programs that use the API.

Hardware Installation and Service Viewpoint

To hardware service people, Sun Cluster 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 - 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 Sun Cluster Documentation

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

• Sun Cluster 3.0 Hardware Guide

System Administrator Viewpoint

To the system administrator, Sun Cluster 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 to monitor the health of user application programs running on the cluster nodes

• Volume management software to set up and administer disks

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

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

Key Concepts - 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

  • 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 and Resource Types"

• "Public Network Management (PNM) and Network Adapter Failover (NAFO)"

• Chapter 4, Frequently Asked Questions

Relevant Sun Cluster Documentation - System Administrator

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

• Sun Cluster 3.0 Installation Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.0 System Administration Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.0 Error Messages Manual

Application Programmer Viewpoint

Sun Cluster provides several highly available data services for such applications as Oracle, NFS, DNS, iPlanet Web Server, Apache Web Server, and Netscape Directory Server.If a site has to make another application run on a cluster, it can use the Sun Cluster Application Programming Interface (API) and the Data Service Development Library API (DSDL API) to develop the necessary data service software that enables its application to run as a highly available data service on the cluster.

Key Concepts - Application Programmer

Application programmers need to understand the following:

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

• The Sun Cluster API, DSDL 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 and Resource Types"

• Chapter 4, Frequently Asked Questions

Relevant Sun Cluster Documentation - Application Programmer

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

• Sun Cluster 3.0 Data Services Developers' Guide

• Sun Cluster 3.0 Data Services Installation and Configuration Guide