3.1.2 Matrix Server Administration Guide

Chapter 1: Introduction 9

Matrix Server includes several built-in service monitors for monitoring

well-known network services. You can also configure custom monitors

for other services.

A device monitor is similar to a service monitor; however, it is designed

either to watch a part of a server such as a local disk drive or to monitor a

PSFS filesystem. A device monitor is assigned to one or more servers.

Matrix Server provides several built-in device monitors. You can also

define your own custom device monitors.

When a device monitor is assigned to a server, you can select the virtual

hosts that will be dependent on the device monitor. If a device monitor

indicates that a device is not functioning properly on the primary server,

Matrix Server transfers the dependent virtual host addresses from the

primary server to a backup server.

Event Notification

A notifier defines how the matrix handles state transition, error, warning,

and informational messages. You can configure a notifier with a

combination of events and originating matrix entities and then supply a

script that specifies the action the notifier should take. For example, you

could forward events to e-mail or to any other user-defined process.

A Sample Configuration

This sample configuration is for a matrix providing a Web site. Matrix

Server ensures high availability of the Web data for incoming client

requests and also guarantees that the site administrator can access the

Web logs and update the Web data as needed.

The matrix includes four servers and two networks. The public network,

99.10.20, carries the traffic for client requests. The private network,

99.120.0, is used as the administrative network. (The administrative

network will fail over to the public network temporarily if the private

network should become unavailable.)

DNS round robin is used to rotate the incoming client requests among the

four servers in the matrix. Clients access the web site via the address

www.xvz.com. These requests are routed in turn to four virtual hosts that