HP Netserver MSCS SPOFless Cluster Solution

FCArrayControllerFirmware
NetworkInterfaceCards
TheSPOFModel
TheHPFCarraycontrollersmusthavethefirmwareversion5.46-04installed.Thefirmware
versioncanbeverifiedbyusingtheFCArrayAssistant.SincetheRS/12FCfirmwareis
independentoftheoperatingsysteminstalledontheNetServers,thesamefirmwareisusedfor
bothWindows2000,andWindowsNT.
Thedriverversion4.02.27.0wasusedfortestingontheWindows2000Advanced
Serverplatform.TheWindowsNT4.0versionwas4.02.35.0Earlierdriversmay
work,howevertheyhavenotbeentested.
Hptxnt5.sys
Hptxnt.sys
SupportedHPSolutions
TheclustersolutionbasedontheRS/12FCwhichhasbeensupportedbyHewlett-Packardinthe
pastisknownasSPOF.TheSPOFsolutionusesasingleFibreChannelhubtoconnecttwo
serverstoanRS/12FC.AfunctionaldiagramofaSPOFclusterisshownbelow.
SPOFlessModels
TheSPOFlesssolutioncomesintwo
differentconfigurations.Oneisa
directconnectconfiguration,whilethe
otherusesapairofFChubsandan
additionalpairofconnectionsbetween
hubsandstoragetoachieveahigher
degreeofredundancy.
Whenconnecting
theNetServerdirectlytotheshared
storagedevice,onlyoneportofeach
FibreChannelarraycontrollerisused.
Inthecaseofafailureofanyone
component,suchasacable,HBA,FC
arraycontrollerorSCSIinterconnect
onthestorageside,thecluster
softwarewillinitiateaclusterfailover.
Afunctionaldiagramofthedirect
connectsolutionisshownonthe
followingpage.Notethatthe
cascadedRS/12cabinetsshowninthe
diagramareoptional.
DirectConnection:
RedundantHubs: Theredundanthub
configurationhastwodistinct
advantagesovertheDirectConnect
methodofattachingthestorage.First,
duetothenatureoftheoptical
connection,thestoragecanbeplaced
muchfurtherawayfromtheservers
thaninthedirectconnectsolution.
Second,theuseofthesecondsetof
portsontheFCcontrollersallowsthe
clustertocontinuetooperateata
reducedperformancecapacityinthe
HP
DocumentationNetServer
whitepaper
4
Cluster
Server
#1
FCHBA
Cluster
Server
#2
FCHBA
Private
Network
PublicNetwork
Port1
Port0
FCCont#1
Port1
Port0
FCCont#0
RS/12FC
SCSI#2
SCSI#1
RS/12
SCSI#2 SCSI#1
RS/12
FCHub
CopperFibreActive
CopperFibrePassive
OpticalorCopperFibre
SCSICable
Failure
Causes
Application
Failover
Cluster
Failure
Failure
Causes
Decreased
Performance
External
Shared
Storage
FunctionalDiagramoftheSPOFCluster