1.2.7 Terminal Concentrator or System Service Processor and Administrative Workstation

The Terminal Concentrator is a device used to connect all cluster node console serial ports to a single workstation. The Terminal Concentrator turns the console serial ports on cluster nodes into telnet-accessible devices. You can telnet to an address on the Terminal Concentrator, and see a boot-PROM-prompt capable console window.

The System Service Processor (SSP) provides console access for Sun Enterprise 10000 servers. The SSP is a Solaris workstation on an Ethernet network that is especially configured to support the Sun Enterprise 10000. The SSP is used as the administrative workstation for Sun Cluster configurations using the Sun Enterprise 10000. Using the Sun Enterprise 10000 Network Console feature, any workstation in the network can open a host console session.

The Cluster Console connects a telnet(1M) session to the SSP, allowing you to log into the SSP and start a netcon session to control the domain. Refer to your Sun Enterprise 10000 documentation for more information on the SSP.

The Terminal Concentrator and System Service Processor are used to shut down nodes in certain failure scenarios as part of the failure fencing process. See "1.3.4.1 Failure Fencing (SSVM and CVM)", for more details.

The administrative workstation is used to provide console interfaces from all of the nodes in the cluster. This can be any workstation capable of running a Cluster Console session.

See the Sun Cluster 2.2 System Administration Guide and the Terminal Concentrator documentation for further information on these interfaces.

Figure 1-8 Terminal Concentrator and Administrative Workstation