Planning A Clustered Software Distribution Directory - Novell GROUPWISE 8 - INTEROPERABILITY Manual

Parts of your GroupWise system can run in one cluster while other parts of it run in one or more
other clusters.
Parts of your GroupWise system can run in a cluster while other parts run outside of the cluster,
on non-clustered servers.
If you do not have the system resources to run all of your GroupWise system in a clustering
environment, you must decide which parts have the most urgent need for the high availability
provided by clustering. Here are some suggestions:
Post offices and their POAs must be available in order for users to access their GroupWise
mailboxes. Therefore, post offices and their POAs are excellent candidates for the high
availability provided by clustering.
Domains and their MTAs are less noticeable to users when they are unavailable (unless users in
different post offices happen to be actively engaged in an e-mail discussion when the MTA
goes down). On the other hand, domains and their MTAs are critical to GroupWise
administrators, although administrators might be more tolerant of a down server than end users
are. Critical domains in your system would be the primary domain and, if you have one, a hub
or routing domain. These domains should be in the cluster, even if other domains are not.
The Internet Agent might or might not require high availability in your GroupWise system,
depending on the importance of immediate messaging across the Internet and the use of POP3
or IMAP4 clients by GroupWise users.
The Monitor Agent is a vital partner with the GroupWise High Availability service, described
in "Enabling the High Availability Service for the Linux GroupWise
GroupWise Agents" in the
automatically restarts agents that go down under circumstances that do not cause the entire
server to go down. If you want this protection for your GroupWise agents, you can run the
Monitor Agent in your cluster.
There is no right or wrong way to implement GroupWise in a clustering environment. It all depends
on the specific needs of your particular GroupWise system and its users.
13.2 Planning a Clustered Software Distribution
Directory
During creation of a GroupWise system, you are prompted to create a software distribution
directory. You can create the software distribution directory on each node where you install the
GroupWise software or you can create it on a
but it is still always available.
IMPORTANT: You must the software distribution directory in a location that is available to all
nodes in the cluster if you want to take advantage of the Configure GroupWise for Clustering option
of the Installation program. This option simplifies the process of installing the agent software to
multiple nodes in the cluster. It eliminates the need to provide the same agent configuration
information multiple times. The installation instructions in this section are based on using the
Configure GroupWise for Clustering option of the Installation program.
For background information about software distribution directories, see
Management" in "System" in the
GroupWise 8 Installation
GroupWise partition
GroupWise 8 Administration
Agents" in
Guide. The High Availability service
so that you install it only once
"Software Directory
Guide.
Planning GroupWise in a Linux Cluster 129
"Installing