HP ProLiant Storage Server User Guide (440584-001, February 2007)

• All nod es must be on the same subnet.
Cluster groups
and resources, including file shares
The Cluster Adm
inistrator tool provides complete online help for all cluster administration activities.
Cluster resources include administrative types of resources as well as fi le shares. The following p aragraphs
include overview and planning issues for cluster groups, cluster resources, and clustered file shares.
Creating and managing these resources and groups must be managed through Cluster Administrator.
Cluster group o verview
A default cluster g roup is automatically cre ated when the cluster is first created. This default cluster group
contains an Internet Protocol (IP) Address resource, a Net work Name resource, and the Quorum disk
resource. When the new cluster is created, the (IP) address and the cluster name that were specified
during setup are set up as the IP ad dress and network name of this default cluster group.
CAUTION:
Do not delete or rename the Cluster Group or IP Address. Doing so results in losing the cluster and
requires reinstallation of the cluster.
When creating groups, the administrator's first priority is to gain an understanding of how to manage the
groupsandtheirresources.Administratorsmaychoosetocreatearesourcegroupandavirtualserverfor
each node that will contain all resources owned by that node, or the administrator may choose to create
a resource group and virtual server for e ach physical d isk resource. Additionally, the administrator should
try to balance the load of the groups and their resources on the cluster between the nodes.
Node-based cluster groups
Creating only one resource group and one virtual ser ver for each node facilitates group an d resource
administration. This setup allows administrators to include all file share resources under one group.
Clients access all of the resources owned by one node through a virtual ser ver name.
In node-based cluster groups, each group has its own network name and IP address. The administrator
decides on which node to place each physical disk resource. This configuration provides a very coarse
level of granularity. All resources within a group must remain on the same node. Only two IP addresses
and net work names are required. This configuration creates less overhead for resource and network
administration. A possible disadvantage of this approach is that the resource groups can potentially
grow large when many file shares are created.
Load balancing
The creation of separate cluster groups for each virtual server provides more flexibility in balancing the
processing load on the cluster between the two nodes. Each cluster group can be assigned to a cluster
node with the preferred owner parameter. For example, if there are two cluster groups, the cluster could
besetuptohavethefirst cluster group owned by Node A and the second cluster group owned by Node
B. This allows the network load to be handled by both devices simultaneously. If only one cluster g roup
exists, it can only be owned by one node and the other node would not serve any network traffic.
File share resource planning issues
CIFS and NFS are cluster-aware protocols that support the Active/Active cluster model, a llowing resources
to be distributed and processed on b oth nodes at the same time. For example, some NFS file share
resources can be assigned to a group owned by a virtual server for Node A and additional NFS file
share resources can be assigned to a group owned by a virtual server for Node B.
Configuring the file shares as cluster resources provides for high availability of file shares. Because the
resources a re placed into groups, ownership of the files can e asily move from one node to the other,
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