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Product Description
49475-7 UNIX(r) computer systems are increasingly used for mission-critical applications, data processing organizations are required to provide high levels of availability for these systems and to ensure they maintain the required level of availability over time. Among the most reliable, cost-effective ways to deliver high availability is to use clusters-loosely coupled UNIX computers, each with its own processors, memory, operating system and storage, bound together by special system processes. Clusters for High Availability explains the basic concepts, architectures and terminology of high availability using clusters, and gives a broad outline of how Hewlett-Packard's industry-leading cluster solutions work. The book describes how high-availability clusters can be configured to eliminate single points of failure in power systems, disks, processors, network components, and software. The book features coverage of HP high-availability products, including MC/ServiceGuard, MC/LockManager, mirrored disks and disk arrays, journaled file systems, management tools, and consulting services. Finally, Clusters for High Availability presents suggestions for developing high availability solutions in areas as diverse as publishing, mail order catalog sales, brokerage services, and insurance.
Amazon.com Review
With an increasing share of the world's economy dependent on computer systems, the importance of making them work without interruption is growing. Clusters for High Availability: A Primer of HP Solutions introduces readers to computer system faults and to techniques for designing systems for maximum reliability and fault tolerance. The book emphasizes Hewlett-Packard's line of High Availability (HA) products, but also explains HA problems and solutions so as to provide value to all readers, regardless of whether they're running HP gear. The explanations begin with pretty basic concepts, so this book has value for engineers designing HA strategies from the ground up.
The best part of the book is the discussion on classes of failure and the hardware and software strategies available for dealing with each. The author points out the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, staying completely clear of explicit instructions, which allows the reader to get them from documentation after he or she has chosen a HA strategy and associated products. The book's conceptual diagrams are fun too: Several diagrams indicate the failure of a data center by superimposing giant flames over a diagram of the center's components! --David Wall Topics covered: High availability for data centers and other computer systems via component redundancy, careful software design, and especially server clustering. Event Monitoring Services (EMS), ServiceGuard, and High Availability Observatory (HAO) are among the Hewlett-Packard solutions covered, though the author ranges beyond specific products to cover general design practices.
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