PC Server 330 Tower Cluster Example
The network-crossover cable, sometimes referred to as the cluster's heartbeat, provides the dedicated,
point-to-point communication link between the servers. This cable connects the IBM 100/10 PCI EtherJet
Adapters (one in each server) and enables the servers to continuously monitor each other's functional
status. The servers connect to the public network using the Ethernet controllers on the system boards.
Using the public-network connection and the dedicated heartbeat link together ensures that a single
network-hardware failure will not initiate a failover situation.
Notes:
To maintain high availability, the two hard disk drives in each server are defined as RAID level-1 logical
drives (Array A) using the single-channel ServeRAID controller on the system board.
Because these nonshared drives store the operating system and shared-disk clustering software needed during startup,
these drives were defined first using the ServeRAID configuration program.
Notice that the ServeRAID adapters are installed in PCI slot 4.
When you use the integrated RAID controller to manage the startup (boot) drives, you must install the ServeRAID adapters
that will manage the shared drives in PCI slot 4, 5, or 6 (respectively) to avoid a PCI bus conflict during startup.
The only difference between the hardware configuration of Server A and the hardware configuration of
Server B is the SCSI ID settings for the ServeRAID adapters.
Channels 1 and 2 of the ServeRAID adapter in Server A are set to SCSI ID 7, and Channels 1 and 2 of the
ServeRAID adapter in Server B are set to SCSI ID 6.
On both ServeRAID adapters, Channel 3 is available for use as a quorum-arbitration link with the
Microsoft Cluster Server software, or for future expansion with the Vinca clustering software.
In this example, the 3518 expansion enclosures have identical hardware configurations.
In addition to the standard features of the 3518, the enclosures each contain a power-supply upgrade option, an additional
backplane, and two enhanced SCSI repeaters.
The maximum achievable hot-swap storage capacity for each enclosure is 163.8 GB using eighteen 9.1 GB drives.
However, this example shows only nine 9.1 GB drives in each enclosure, and provides space for future expansion.
To help maintain high availability, the 18 hard disk drives are defined as four RAID level-5 logical drives (arrays A, B, C, and D).
To further increase the availability of these shared drives, each ServeRAID adapter has its own hot-spare (HSP) drive.
A hot-spare drive is a disk drive that is defined for automatic use in the event of a drive failure.
If a physical drive fails and it is part of a RAID level-1 or RAID level-5 logical drive, the ServeRAID adapter will
automatically start to rebuild the data on the hot-spare drive.
Note: ServeRAID adapters cannot share hot-spare drives. To maintain high availability and enable the
automatic-rebuild feature, you must define a hot-spare drive for each ServeRAID adapter.
In both enclosures, the jumpers on the backplanes in Bank D are set for Bank D and for high addressing
(SCSI IDs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13). A cable connects the Bank C and Bank D backplanes, creating one
continuous SCSI bus in each enclosure.
Channel 1 of the ServeRAID adapter in Server A connects to the enhanced SCSI repeater that connects
to Bank C of expansion unit 1, and Channel 1 of the ServeRAID adapter in Server B connects to the
enhanced SCSI repeater that connects to Bank D of expansion unit 1.
Channel 2 of the ServeRAID adapter in Server A connects to the enhanced SCSI repeater that connects to Bank C of expansion unit 2,
and Channel 2 of the ServeRAID adapter in Server B connects to the enhanced SCSI repeater that
connects to Bank D of expansion unit 2.
The enhanced SCSI repeaters contain circuits that can automatically sense the functional status of the server.
When the SCSI repeater circuitry detects that the server attached to it is failing or offline, the SCSI repeater automatically
enables termination for that end of the SCSI bus.
This helps increase the availability of the shared disks and enables the serviceability of the failing or offline server.
Ideally, the servers and storage enclosures are connected to different electrical circuits, however, this is
rarely possible.
To help prevent the loss of data and to maintain the availability of the shared disks during a power outage or power fluctuation,
always connect the servers and expansion enclosures to uninterruptible power supplies (UPS).
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