FAQ

1. How Does Open HA Cluster Work?

By tightly coupling Sun's servers, storage and networking solutions, this clustering software provides the maximum level of service availability and performance for a cluster system.

The servers (nodes) in a cluster communicate through private interconnects. These interconnects carry important cluster information (data as well as a cluster "heartbeat"). This heartbeat lets the servers in the cluster know the health of the other servers within the cluster, ensuring that each server is "alive". If one of the servers goes offline and ceases its heartbeat, the rest of the devices in the cluster isolate the server and "fail-over" any application or data from the failing node to another node. This failover process is done quickly and transparently to the users of the system. By exploiting the redundancy in the cluster, the software ensures the highest levels of availability.

A typical Cluster configuration has the following components:

Hardware Components:

• • Servers with local storage (storage devices hosted by one node).
• • Shared storage (storage devices hosted by more than one node).
• • Cluster Interconnect for private communication among the cluster nodes.
• • Public Network Interfaces for connectivity to the outside world.
• • Administrative Workstation for managing the cluster.

Software Components:

• • OpenSolaris Operating System running on each cluster node.
• • Cluster software running on each cluster node.
• • Data Services - applications and their corresponding Cluster agents monitor the health of the application and manage their life-cycle (start, stop and failover ) running on one or more cluster nodes.

2. What is a Cluster Agent?

A Cluster agent is a k-sh script, a C-program, or a binary that manages the availability of an application. The agent starts, stops, monitors the health of the application, and takes corrective action to regain application availability upon failure. Applications need not be modified to benefit from the enhanced availability offered by the Cluster agent.

If your application does not have an agent already made for it, you can create your own using the Cluster Agent Builder (included with the Cluster software). This agent builder has an easy to use, "wizard" graphical user interface which leads the user step by step through the process of creating an agent. After the user completes the agent builder process, a ready-to-use agent is created (the whole process takes only a few minutes from start to finish).

3. Are There any Differences Between Open HA Cluster and Solaris Cluster?

Open HA Cluster is the next generation clustering software. It is based on Solaris Cluster and includes a majority of Solaris Cluster high quality HA features. However it runs only on OpenSolaris (and not Solaris). It is delivered as IPS packages and uses some OpenSolaris specific featutes such as COMSTAR and VNICs (form project Crossbow).

4. Can I Install Open HA Cluster on any System?

You can install the software on any OpenSolaris certified systems. However only a selected list of Sun servers are currently supported by Sun with this clustering software:

• – Supported servers:
  SPARC: Sun Enterprise M3000, Sun Enterprise T5120
  X64 : Sun Fire X4170, Sun Fire X4140
  
  
• – Supported Storage:
  Sun StorageTek 2540 Array,
  Sun Storage J4400 Array (SAS)
  
  
• – Supported cluster configuration:
  2 node cluster
  

5. Is There an Open HA Cluster Media Kit Available?

No. The software is only available on the Sun software repository.

6. I've downloaded and evaluated Open HA Cluster and would like to have a supported installation. What are the Licensing and Installation Requirements?

Open HA Cluster is currently only supported with a selected set of servers and agents. You should first verify if your configuration matches these requirements.

You than need to purchase the appropriate Open HA Cluster subscription based licenses for your cluster (1 license per server). This subscription license includes both right to use and support fees. Two levels of support are available : standard or premium. A valid OpenSolaris subscription license is required for the purchase of an Open HA Cluster subscription.