Clusters consist of many components such as Tivoli® Storage
Manager servers,
hardware, and software. You can use clustering to join two or more
servers or nodes by using a shared disk system.
This configuration provides the nodes with the ability
to share data, which allows higher server availability and minimized
downtime. For example:
- You can configure, monitor, and control applications and hardware
components that are deployed on a cluster.
- You can use an administrative cluster interface and Tivoli Storage
Manager to designate
cluster arrangements and define a failover pattern. The server is
part of the cluster that provides an extra level of security by ensuring
that no transactions are missed because a server failed. The failover
pattern that you establish prevents future failures.
- You can apply clustering to the node replication process. In this
way, server availability is higher than it would be if node replication
is used as a process on its own because a client is less likely to
fail over to another server in a clustered environment. If you replicate
data from several source replication servers to one target replication
server, there is a high dependency on the target replication server.
A clustered environment eases the dependency on the target replication
server.
Components in a server cluster are known as
cluster objects.
Cluster objects are associated with a set of properties that have
data values that describe the identity and behavior of an object in
the cluster. Cluster objects can include the following components:
- Nodes
- Storage
- Services and applications
- Networks
You manage cluster objects by manipulating their properties,
typically through a cluster management application.
Cluster nodes