Supporting the Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS)

Introducing and setting up MSCS to support failover of virtual servers.

This information applies to WebSphere® MQ for Windows only.

The Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) enables you to connect servers into a cluster, giving higher availability of data and applications, and making it easier to manage the system. MSCS can automatically detect and recover from server or application failures.

MSCS supports failover of virtual servers, which correspond to applications, Web sites, print queues, or file shares (including, for example, their disk spindles, files, and IP addresses).

Failover is the process by which MSCS detects a failure in an application on one computer in the cluster, and shuts down the disrupted application in an orderly manner, transfers its state data to the other computer, and reinitiates the application there.

This section introduces MSCS clusters and describes setting up MSCS support in the following sections:

Then tells you how to configure WebSphere MQ for MSCS clustering, in the following sections:

And then gives some useful hints on using MSCS with WebSphere MQ, and details the WebSphere MQ MSCS support utility programs, in the following sections: