Compaq 124708-001 - ProLiant Cluster - 1850 White Paper

June 2000
Compaq Computer
Corporation
Prepared by
ISSD Technology
Communications
C
O N T E N T S
Executive Summary .........1
Introduction .....................3
Traditional
Networks versus
System Area
Networks ..........................3
ServerNet II SAN Technology
Improves the Response
of Clusters ............................. 5
Compaq ServerNet
II Technology ...................5
ServerNet II Hardware
Components .......................... 6
Low Latency Techniques
Improve Performance ............. 7
ServerNet II Performance
Summary ............................... 7
ServerNet II Leverages VI
Architecture Features to
Improve Scalability................. 8
Fault Tolerance at All Levels .. 8
Operating System Vendor and
Independent Software
Vendor Support ..................... 8
The Future with
InfiniBand ........................9
Summary ..........................9
TC000602WP
Doc Number
W
HITE
. .
Compaq ServerNet II SAN Interconnect for
. .
. .
. .
. .
Scalable Computing Clusters
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
E S
X E C U T I V E U M M A R Y
. .
. .
This paper introduces Compaq's ServerNet II system area network (SAN) interconnect
. .
. .
for use in scalable business computing clusters. Clusters generate intense server-to-
. .
. .
server messaging that can overwhelm traditional network technologies. The software
. .
protocol overhead generated by traditional network technologies impedes server-to
. .
. .
server communication and limits the scalability, availability, and flexibility of clusters.
. .
. . In contrast, the ServerNet II SAN interconnect is a high-bandwidth, low-latency network
. .
technology that is proven to handle intense messaging in server clusters. A ServerNet II
. .
. .
SAN allows applications to be distributed over multiple servers, which increases cluster
. .
scalability through greater parallelism and higher availability. The reader should be
. .
. .
familiar with the Virtual Interface
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
Please direct comments regarding this communication to the ISSD Technology Communications Group at this Internet
. .
. .
address: TechCom@compaq.com
. .
. .
1
P
APER
Architecture.