Designing High Availability Solutions with HP Serviceguard and HP Integrity Virtual Machines

Figure 5 is an example of using VM guests as nodes within a Serviceguard cluster. VM host software running on each

physical node allows operation of the VM guests on the physical nodes.

Figure 5: Serviceguard cluster using VM guests as cluster nodes

As in the previous example, Serviceguard provides high availability in the event of a VM guest or application failure.

However, in this configuration, a failed application can either be restarted within the same VM guest or failed over to

another VM guest operating on a separate physical node.

VM guests can be used in a “cluster in a box” configuration, as shown in figure 6. In this example, two VM guests

form a Serviceguard cluster operating within a single physical node. This configuration is similar to using vPars within

a single physical system to form a “cluster in a box”.

Note:

“Cluster in a box” configurations are not recommended for mission-critical

applications since there is no electrical isolation between the VM guest nodes

and the physical node itself hosting the VM guests, which creates a SPOF. The

VM host OS can also be considered a SPOF.

Figure 6: Serviceguard “cluster in a box” configuration using VM guests

In this configuration, a failed application can either be restarted within the same VM guest or failed over to another

VM guest operating on the same physical node.

VM Host 1

VM Host 2

VM Guest 1 VM Guest 2

Serviceguard Package Failover

Serviceguard Cluster

VM Host 1

VM Host 2

VM Guest 1 VM Guest 2

Serviceguard Package Failover

Serviceguard Cluster

Physical Node

VM Guest 1

VM Guest 2

Failover

Serviceguard

Cluster

Physical Node

VM Guest 1

VM Guest 2

Failover

Physical Node

VM Guest 1

VM Guest 2

Failover

Serviceguard

Cluster