1-2 TruCluster Server Enhancements

This release provides many enhancements to the TruCluster Server software. The following sections provide brief descriptions of some of these improvements.

1-2-1 Enhanced Distance Cluster Interconnect

This release provides support for Enhanced Distance Clusters. An Enhanced Distance Cluster is a cluster in which the interconnect has been extended up to 100 km using a gigabit LAN Ethernet connection. An Enhanced Distance Cluster provides basic high availability services in the event of the loss of a single component. However, it does not include all of the high-availability services provided by TruCluster Server. See Appendix A of the Patch Summary and Release Notes document for information about setting up and configuring an Enhanced Distance Cluster.

1-2-2 Link Aggregation Extended to Cluster LAN Interconnects

This release provides enhanced support for link aggregation (LAG) by extending it to cluster LAN interconnects. It does this by decreasing the latency associated with time-critical Interconnect Communication Subsystem (ICS) remote procedure calls and by increasing the available bandwidth of the LAN interconnect, thereby enabling increased interconnect throughput.

Latency is improved though multiple active interfaces, decreasing queue sizes (link aggregation), and through the separation of ICS channels that prefer low latency from channels that require high bandwidth. Throughput is improved by using multiple active interfaces, decreasing queue lengths.

The primary goal is to distribute cluster component channel traffic among the interfaces that form part of the link aggregation group.

1-2-3 Cloning Offers Alternative to No-Roll Patching

This release provides a new installation method, generically referred to as cloning, using a new tool, named dupclone. The process, which provides an alternative to no-roll patching, consists of two primary steps:

Creating an exact duplicate of an existing system on an alternate set of disk drives.
Using dupclone to install the patch kit to the alternate disk set. After completion, the system can immediately be rebooted using the alternate disks.

See the Patch Kit Installation Instructions document and the new dupclone(8) reference page for information about using dupclone.

See the section “Cluster-Specific Installation and Removal Release Notes” for cloning release notes.

1-2-4 New Cluster Command Sends ping Packets over TCP

A new TruCluster Server command, clu_ping, sends ping packets over the TCP layer rather than the Internode Communication Subsystem (ICS) layer on clusters with LAN as the interconnect.