Veritas Cluster Server
Veritas Cluster Server ( VCS ) refers to a software product of VERITAS Software Corporation (now Symantec ) to interconnect multiple computers on a computer network ( cluster).
Operation
This software connects two or more computers regardless of the operating system to a so-called computer clusters. Computers are also commonly referred to as nodes in a cluster system. The interconnected to a computer network computer to increase by clustering in general, the reliability of the overall system for the common tasks as a server.
One of the features of the Veritas Cluster is that dependencies between service groups pretty easy (via GUI) can be modeled. About phantom resources can be further dependencies between resources of different service groups formulate.
Another special feature is the independence of a particular operating system. The Veritas Cluster software runs on
- Redhat Linux RHEL 4, 5 and 6
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) ( 9 ) 10 and 11
- Solaris ( 8 ) 9 and 10
- AIX ( 5.2 ) 5.3 and 6.1
- HP- UX 11.11 11:23 and 11:31
- Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008
Be used with the " Veritas Storage Foundation HA". The prerequisite is that the same operating system (one of the above selection) has been installed on all cluster nodes involved. Meanwhile Veritas is also released for VMware ESX 3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.5, VirtualCenter.
The database versions 9i and 10g Oracle are approved for the cluster software version for database " Storage Foundation for RAC " on the part of the Oracle support for Linux operating systems, however, is not intended and is not recommended by Veritas. Moreover, the presence is demanded by two heartbeat links between the involved nodes. The use of other database systems ( such as DB2/MySQL etc. ) is also possible in principle.
The software product runs independently of the operating system kernel (including user-level cluster software called ) in normal system processes. It can (LAN / MAN) used in different configurations and usually be supplemented by application-specific agents. There is also a special version that allows the implementation of Oracle databases in a Veritas cluster ( " Veritas Storage Foundation for Oracle RAC ").
Comparable functionality of a " High Availability ( HA) " - cluster system can be found in IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms ( SA MP IBM ), IBM HACMP, Sun Cluster, Linux -HA, or Microsoft Cluster Server ( MSCS).
Example of a Sun Solaris system with Veritas Cluster
The operating system (eg Sun Solaris, Windows Server 2003) is installed on two host systems (computers or nodes ), which should largely agree in their hardware. For computers with Windows operating system then the version " Veritas Storage Foundation HA" is installed as a combination product of Veritas Cluster Server and Veritas Storage Foundation and configured.
The reason for the two independent network cards is the functionality of each cluster system, the heartbeat. The " heartbeat" refers to the internal communication of the systems that will act as a cluster node. The two computers in this way to inform each other whether the respective other partner (host or cluster member system ) is still functional. If this is no longer true, the other host or part of cluster system does the work.
The hardware should largely correspond to still provide users with the failure of a system ( the so-called failover ) a sufficient system performance available can. It must be observed to increase reliability, that in the selection of hardware at least two independent NICs per cluster node are used. Also, the double ( or multiple ) continuous availability of other critical system components such as storage media (eg NAS, SAN), network components (switches, cabling) or power supply ( multiple hot - swap power supplies, UPS) increases the availability of the system ( see Single Point of Failure).
The function of the software is divided into so-called " service groups " that provide, in most cases, databases, network file systems ( NFS) or critical applications for users.