Providing Open Architecture High Availability Solutions

Providing Open Architecture High Availability Solutions
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The hardware platform consists of the entire set of hardware, firmware, etc., normally provided by
a hardware system vendor, ready to support an operating system like Windows or Linux. For the
purposes of building a high availability system, of particular significance is the platform
management infrastructure which permits fault-management operations on the components in the
hardware.
The small boxes within the hardware platform box indicate that a further degree of open
architecture is desired within the hardware of a system. In addition to providing a platform that
supports the right interfaces to operating system and other building blocks, open systems also
provide a capability to integrate multiple, third-party peripheral cards, power supplies, and
potentially other components. Thus, the interfaces between these components, as well as the
interface between them and other vendor-specific features in the hardware platform, need
standardization. Again, in particular for high availability systems, management interfaces are
important considerations for standardization within the hardware platform.
The operating system provides basic process scheduling and resource control for application
software and middleware. Part of the resource control function is the provision of device drivers for
software access to hardware resources. In this model, the operating system provides the same sorts
of services required in systems that do not have high availability features. That is, additional
services that are specifically designed to provide fault-management of the system as a whole are
considered part of the management middleware building block in this model – even if they are
provided by an operating system vendor as a part of their product. This is why the interface
Figure 13. Open Architecture Building Block in an HA System
Application Software
Operating
System
Management
Middleware
“Other” Middleware
(e.g., DBMS,
Protocol Stack)
Hardware Platform