Protocol Planning; Sharing Protocol Cluster Support - HP StorageWorks P4000 User Manual

Virtual names and addresses are the only identification used by clients on the network. Because the
names and addresses are virtual, their ownership can transition from one node to the other during a
failover, preserving access to the resources in the cluster group.
A cluster uses at least two network connections on each node:
• The private cluster interconnect or "heartbeat crossover cable connects to one of the network
ports on each cluster node. In more than two node deployments, a private VLAN on a switch or
hub is required for the cluster interconnect.
• The public client network subnet connects to the remaining network ports on each cluster node.
The cluster node names and virtual server names have IP addresses residing on these subnets.
NOTE:
If the share is to remain available during a failover, each cluster node must be connected to the same
network subnet. It is impossible for a cluster node to serve the data to a network to which it is not
connected.

Protocol planning

Not all file sharing protocols can take advantage of clustering. If a protocol does not support clustering,
it will not have a cluster resource and will not failover with any cluster group. In the case of a failover,
a client cannot use the virtual name or virtual IP address to access the share since the protocol cannot
failover with the cluster group. The client must wait until the initial node is brought back online to
access the share.
HP recommends placing cluster aware and non cluster aware protocols on different file shares.
Table 5 Sharing protocol cluster support
Protocol
CIFS/SMB
NFS
HTTP
FTP
NCP
AppleTalk
iSCSI
40 Cluster administration
Cluster Aware (sup-
Client Variant
ports failover)
Windows NT Yes
Windows 2000
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
UNIX Yes
Linux
Web No
Many Yes
Novell No
Apple No
Standards-based iSCSI
Yes
initiator
Supported on cluster
nodes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes