Sun Cluster 3.1 Data Services Developer's Guide

Sun Cluster Application Environment

The Sun Cluster system enables applications to be run and administered as highly available and scalable resources. The cluster facility known as the Resource Group Manager, or RGM, provides the mechanism for high availability and scalability. The elements that form the programming interface to this facility include the following.

The following figure shows the interrelationship of these elements.

Figure 1–1 Programming Architecture

Diagram showing interrelationship between callback methods, RMAPI, process management facility, and DSDL

Included in the Sun Cluster package is SunPlex Agent BuilderTM, a tool that automates the process of creating a data service (see Chapter 9, SunPlex Agent Builder). Agent Builder generates data service code in either C (using DSDL functions to write the callback methods) or in Korn shell (ksh) (using low-level API commands to write the callback methods).

The RGM runs as a daemon on each cluster node and automatically starts and stops resources on selected nodes according to preconfigured policies. The RGM makes a resource highly available in the event of a node failure or reboot by stopping the resource on the affected node and starting it on another. The RGM also automatically starts and stops resource-specific monitors that can detect resource failures and relocate failing resources onto another node or can monitor other aspects of resource performance.

The RGM supports both failover resources, which can be online on at most one node at a time, and scalable resources, which can be online on multiple nodes simultaneously.