Veritas Storage Foundation 5.1 SP1 Cluster File System Administrator"s Guide (5900-1738, April 2011)

■ For single-host applications that must be continuously available, SFCFS can
reduce application failover time because it provides an already-running file
system environment in which an application can restart after a server failure.
■ For parallel applications, such as distributed database management systems
and Web servers, SFCFS provides shared data to all application instances
concurrently. SFCFS also allows these applications to grow by the addition of
servers, and improves their availability by enabling them to redistribute load
in the event of server failure simply by reassigning network addresses.
■ For workflow applications, such as video production, in which very large files
are passed from station to station, the SFCFS eliminates time consuming and
error prone data copying by making files available at all stations.
■ For backup, the SFCFS can reduce the impact on operations by running on a
separate server, accessing data in cluster-shareable file systems.
The following are examples of applications and how they might work with SFCFS:
■ Using Storage Foundation Cluster File System on file servers
Two or more servers connected in a cluster configuration (that is, connected
to the same clients and the same storage) serve separate file systems. If one
of the servers fails, the other recognizes the failure, recovers, assumes the
primaryship, and begins responding to clients using the failed server’s IP
addresses.
■ Using Storage Foundation Cluster File System on web servers
Web servers are particularly suitable to shared clustering because their
application is typically read-only. Moreover, with a client load balancing front
end, a Web server cluster’s capacity can be expanded by adding a server and
another copy of the site. A SFCFS-based cluster greatly simplifies scaling and
administration for this type of application.
19Technical overview of Storage Foundation Cluster File System
Storage Foundation Cluster File System benefits and applications