Hardware Installation And Operating System Configuration; Choosing A Hardware Configuration - Red Hat CLUSTER SUITE - CONFIGURING AND MANAGING A CLUSTER 2006 Manual

Hardware Installation and Operating
System Configuration
To set up the hardware configuration and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, follow these
steps:
Choose a cluster hardware configuration that meets the needs of applications and users;
•
refer to Section 2.1 Choosing a Hardware Configuration.
Set up and connect the members and the optional console switch and network switch or
•
hub; refer to Section 2.3 Setting Up the Nodes.
Install and configure Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the cluster members; refer to Section
•
2.4 Installing and Configuring Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Set up the remaining cluster hardware components and connect them to the members;
•
refer to Section 2.5 Setting Up and Connecting the Cluster Hardware.
After setting up the hardware configuration and installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, install
the cluster software.
2.1. Choosing a Hardware Configuration
The Red Hat Cluster Manager allows administrators to use commodity hardware to set up
a cluster configuration that meets the performance, availability, and data integrity needs
of applications and users. Cluster hardware ranges from low-cost minimum configurations
that include only the components required for cluster operation, to high-end configurations
that include redundant Ethernet channels, hardware RAID, and power switches.
Regardless of configuration, the use of high-quality hardware in a cluster is recommended,
as hardware malfunction is a primary cause of system down time.
Although all cluster configurations provide availability, some configurations protect against
every single point of failure. In addition, all cluster configurations provide data integrity,
but some configurations protect data under every failure condition. Therefore, administra-
tors must fully understand the needs of their computing environment and also the avail-
ability and data integrity features of different hardware configurations to choose the cluster
hardware that meets the requirements.
When choosing a cluster hardware configuration, consider the following:
Chapter 2.