RDF System Management Manual for J-series and H-series RVUs (RDF 1.10)

2 Preparing the RDF Environment
Before RDF can be run on a NonStop system, the system configurations and user applications must
meet certain RDF requirements. This chapter explains how to prepare each system for RDF installation
and operation, ensuring that all these requirements are met and that you understand the RDF
product’s restrictions. This information, intended for all readers, covers the following tasks:
• “Configuring Hardware for RDF Operations” (page 52), including primary and backup system
configurations, disk volume considerations, and network requirements
• “Preparing Software and Database Files for RDF Operations” (page 54), including TMF and
RDF considerations, NonStop SQL database conventions, Enscribe database conventions,
and application design factors
• “Using SMF With RDF” (page 60)
Configuring Hardware for RDF Operations
The RDF hardware requirements are summarized in Table 2 and described in detail in the next
few pages.
Table 2 RDF Hardware Requirements
RequirementsHardware
RDF runs on NonStop systems under control of the NonStop
operating system. Each RDF primary system must be
Primary and Backup Systems
connected through an Expand path to its RDF backup
system.
The RDF product transmits data on any Expand data
communications lines.
Communications
Primary System Configuration
The RDF primary system must operate under control of the NonStop operating system, which is the
standard operating system for NonStop systems. This system must be connected over an Expand
data communication path to one or more RDF backup systems.
Backup System Configuration
The RDF backup system, like the primary system, must operate under control of the NonStop
operating system and be connected over an Expand path to one or more RDF primary systems.
In the event of a disaster at the primary site, an identical copy of the primary system’s hardware
configuration ensures that the backup system can support your business operations without lowering
system performance. If the backup system’s configuration is identical to that of the primary system,
your system personnel can adjust more quickly to the backup environment during disaster recovery.
If you choose not to configure the backup system as an identical copy of the primary system, plan
the configuration of the backup system with enough processing power and disk drives to enable
RDF to keep the backup database current with the primary database.
Because RDF applies database modifications on the backup system through a private low-level
and privileged interface to the disk process, by-passing the file system, the CPU requirements on
the backup system when running RDF will typically be lower than the total CPU requirements on
the primary system running the applications. Repeated analysis has shown that the cost of replication
on the backup system is usually 25% or less than the cost on the primary system. The actual backup
CPU requirements depend on many factors, including the RDF configuration, the rate of audit
transmission from the primary system to the backup system, the database update rate, and whether
or not you have copies of your applications installed (in “standby” mode).
52 Preparing the RDF Environment