Specifications

Chapter 1: Introduction
About SteelEye Protection Suite for Linux
SteelEye Protection Suite (SPS) for Linux integrates high availability clustering with innovative data
replication functionality in a single, enterprise-class solution.
SPSfor Linux Integrated Components
SteelEye LifeKeeper provides a complete fault-resilient software solution to provide high availability
for your servers' file systems, applications,and processes. LifeKeeper does not require any
customized, fault-tolerant hardware. LifeKeeper simply requires two or more systems to be grouped
in a network, and site-specific configuration data is then created to provide automatic fault detection
and recovery.
In the case of a failure, LifeKeeper migrates protected resources from the failed server to a
designated back-up server. Users experience a brief interruption during the actual switchover;
however, LifeKeeper restores operations on the back-up server without operator intervention.
SteelEye DataKeeper provides an integrated data mirroring capability for LifeKeeper environments.
This feature enables LifeKeeper resources to operate in shared and non-shared storage
environments.
SteelEye Protection Suite Software Packaging
The SteelEye Protection Suite (SPS) for Linux software, including Optional SPS Recovery Kits, is
contained within a single image file (sps.img).
SPS for Linux Installation Image File
The SPS for Linux image file (sps.img) provides a set of installation scripts designed to perform user-
interactive system setup tasks that are necessary when installing SPS on your system. The
installation image file identifies what Linux distribution you are running and, through a series of
questions you answer, installs various packages required to ensure a successful SPS installation,
including theLifeKeeper API (steeleye-lkapi), which is used to allow communications between
servers.IMPORTANT NOTE:Currently, this API is reserved for internal use only but may be
opened up to customer and third party usage in a future release.
The type and sequence of the questions is dependent upon your Linux distribution. Read each
question carefully to ensure a proper response. Under normal circumstances, you should be
answering Yes to each question in order to complete all the steps required by the installation image
file.
SteelEye Protection Suite for Linux1