Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 7.5 (Software Release C.75.00) (30216-90336)

Chapter 5
Technical Articles
Announcing Heartbeat High Availability Cluster/iX
101
Announcing Heartbeat High Availability Cluster/iX
By Walter McCullough
Commercial Systems Division
General Information
Cluster/iX for the HP e3000 is an orderable product that allows the user to create a multiple server
configuration with any HP-supported dual-ported array to form a non-complex high availability cluster. The
new Heartbeat enhancement allows the user to create job scripts to automatically control the switchover
process in the event that the primary cluster server aborts or its access to the data becomes unavailable.
Description
The Beat and Listen commands have been incorporated into the Cluster/iX SXOUtil program to allow the
user to set up job scripts on the both the primary and secondary systems. The primary system’s job script is
responsible for calling the Beat command. This command causes the job to wait indefinitely while it “beats”
the heartbeat counter on the cluster volume set owned by this system.
The secondary system is responsible for incorporating a Listen command in its job script that monitors the
heartbeat counter on the cluster volume set. In the event that the heartbeat stops, the secondary system can
detect this change and, depending on the job script, change the ownership of the cluster volume set, open it
and restart the application for users to access from the secondary system.
Who Should Use Cluster/iX
Users who require a non-complex high availability solution that allows the users to access business critical
data from a secondary system within seconds of the primary system experiencing an outage should use
Cluster/iX.
The Cluster/iX solution addresses machine outages typically caused by:
• System Aborts
• Adapter card failures
• Catastrophic server hardware failure
NOTE Failover/iX is not supported in a Cluster/iX configuration.
Required Hardware
• HP e3000
And one or more of the following:
• HP SureStore E Disk Array XP Family
• HP SureStore Virtual Array 7100
• HP SureStore Disk Array 12H (formally AutoRAID)
Required Software
• MPE/iX Version 7.5