Red Hat Cluster Configuration And Management Overview; Configuration Basics; Setting Up Hardware - Red Hat Cluster for Enterprise Linux 5 Configuration

Chapter 1. Red Hat Cluster
Configuration and Management
Red Hat Cluster allows you to connect a group of computers (called nodes or members) to work
together as a cluster. You can use Red Hat Cluster to suit your clustering needs (for example,
setting up a cluster for sharing files on a GFS file system or setting up service failover).

1. Configuration Basics

To set up a cluster, you must connect the nodes to certain cluster hardware and configure the
nodes into the cluster environment. This chapter provides an overview of cluster configuration
and management, and tools available for configuring and managing a Red Hat Cluster.
Configuring and managing a Red Hat Cluster consists of the following basic steps:
1. Setting up hardware. Refer to Section 1.1, "Setting Up Hardware".
2. Installing Red Hat Cluster software. Refer to Section 1.2, "Installing Red Hat Cluster soft-
ware".
3. Configuring Red Hat Cluster Software. Refer to Section 1.3, "Configuring Red Hat Cluster
Software".

1.1. Setting Up Hardware

Setting up hardware consists of connecting cluster nodes to other hardware required to run a
Red Hat Cluster. The amount and type of hardware varies according to the purpose and avail-
ability requirements of the cluster. Typically, an enterprise-level cluster requires the following
type of hardware (refer to Figure 1.1, "Red Hat Cluster Hardware Overview"). For considerations
about hardware and other cluster configuration concerns, refer to Section 5, "Configuration Con-
siderations" or check with an authorized Red Hat representative.
• Cluster nodes — Computers that are capable of running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 soft-
ware, with at least 1GB of RAM.
• Ethernet switch or hub for public network — This is required for client access to the cluster.
• Ethernet switch or hub for private network — This is required for communication among the
cluster nodes and other cluster hardware such as network power switches and Fibre Chan-
nel switches.
• Network power switch — A network power switch is recommended to perform fencing in an
enterprise-level cluster.
• Fibre Channel switch — A Fibre Channel switch provides access to Fibre Channel storage.
Overview
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