Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Setting Up and Administering an HP-UX NFS Diskless Cluster

Setting Up NFS Cluster Hardware

Chapter 10 905

Setting Up NFS Cluster Hardware

Peripherals

A cluster-wide resource, such as a printer, is generally one that must

be conﬁgured as local to one cluster member and as remote on the other

members. When a cluster-wide resource is deﬁned or modiﬁed, SAM

performs the appropriate tasks on each member of the cluster to achieve

the required results. If a member is not currently active (for example, not

booted), the task is deferred until it becomes active again. When a new

system is added to the cluster, all cluster-wide resources are

automatically conﬁgured on the system. If a system is removed from the

cluster, any cluster-wide resources that are local to that system are

automatically removed from all other systems in the cluster.

If a resource is not managed cluster-wide, it must be managed on a

system-by-system basis.

Disk Drives

Disks can be physically attached to any cluster member. The disks on

cluster clients can hold swap/dump areas and/or ﬁle systems. The ﬁle

systems can be used locally and/or by other cluster members.

Whether you are booting a system as a standalone or as a cluster client,

there can be a disk attached to the system that contains system software.

If you are booting the system as a standalone, the system software can be

used to boot the system. However, if the system is booted as a diskless

cluster client, it cannot use that disk for its system ﬁles.

Backup Devices

If a backup device, such as a tape drive, is accessed remotely across the

LAN, it can be attached to the cluster server, a client, or even a system

that is not part of the cluster. If possible, the backup device should be

attached to the cluster server because it is typically much faster.

A backup of the server can include all ﬁles in the cluster if the clients

have local ﬁle systems that are available to the cluster server or if the

clients do not have local ﬁle systems.