Managing HP Serviceguard A.11.20.00 for Linux, June 2012

1 Serviceguard for Linux at a Glance
This chapter introduces Serviceguard for Linux and shows where to find different kinds of information
in this book. It includes the following topics:
• What is Serviceguard for Linux?
• Using Serviceguard Manager (page 19)
• Configuration Roadmap (page 20)
If you are ready to start setting up Serviceguard clusters, skip ahead to Chapter 4 (page 70).
Specific steps for setup are in Chapter 5 (page 121).
What is Serviceguard for Linux?
Serviceguard for Linux allows you to create high availability clusters of HP ProLiant server. A high
availability computer system allows application services to continue in spite of a hardware or
software failure. Highly available systems protect users from software failures as well as from failure
of a system processing unit (SPU), disk, or local area network (LAN) component. In the event that
one component fails, the redundant component takes over. Serviceguard and other high availability
subsystems coordinate the transfer between components.
A Serviceguard cluster is a networked grouping of HP ProLiant server (host systems known as nodes
) having sufficient redundancy of software and hardware that a single point of failure will not
significantly disrupt service. Application services (individual Linux processes) are grouped together
in packages; in the event of a single service, node, network, or other resource failure, Serviceguard
can automatically transfer control of the package to another node within the cluster, allowing
services to remain available with minimal interruption.
Figure 1 Typical Cluster Configuration
In the figure, node 1 (one of two SPU's) is running package A, and node 2 is running package B.
Each package has a separate group of disks associated with it, containing data needed by the
package's applications, and a copy of the data. Note that both nodes are physically connected
What is Serviceguard for Linux? 17