Managing HP Serviceguard for Linux Ninth Edition, April 2009

1 Serviceguard for Linux at a Glance
This chapter introduces Serviceguard for Linux and shows where to find different
kinds of information in this book. It includes the following topics:
• What is Serviceguard for Linux?
• Using Serviceguard Manager (page 26)
• Configuration Roadmap (page 27)
If you are ready to start setting up Serviceguard clusters, skip ahead to Chapter 4
(page 93). Specific steps for setup are in Chapter 5 (page 147).
What is Serviceguard for Linux?
Serviceguard for Linux allows you to create high availability clusters of HP ProLiant
and HP Integrity servers. A high availability computer system allows application
services to continue in spite of a hardware or software failure. Highly available systems
protect users from software failures as well as from failure of a system processing unit
(SPU), disk, or local area network (LAN) component. In the event that one component
fails, the redundant component takes over. Serviceguard and other high availability
subsystems coordinate the transfer between components.
A Serviceguard cluster is a networked grouping of HP ProLiant and HP Integrity
servers (host systems known as nodes) having sufficient redundancy of software and
hardware that a single point of failure will not significantly disrupt service. Application
services (individual Linux processes) are grouped together in packages; in the event
of a single service, node, network, or other resource failure, Serviceguard can
automatically transfer control of the package to another node within the cluster, allowing
services to remain available with minimal interruption.
What is Serviceguard for Linux? 23