Clustering

As the first Red Hat Premier Partner in the UK you would expect us to recommend technology from the Red Hat ecosystem. However, we do so solely on the basis of the quality of this low-cost high availability solution for enterprise applications that require maximum uptime.

Consequently we have no hesitation in recommending Red Hat Enterprise Linux Cluster, with Red Hat Cluster Suite, as an excellent technology solution.

Red Hat Cluster Suite provides two distinct types of Clustering:

• Application/Service Failover - Create n-node server Clusters for failover of key applications and services
• IP Load Balancing - Load balance incoming IP network requests across a farm of servers

Applications can be deployed in high availability configurations so that they are always operational-bringing "scale-out" capabilities to Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments.

For high-volume Open-Source applications, such as NFS, Samba, and Apache, Red Hat Cluster Suite provides a complete ready-to-use failover solution. For most other applications, customers can create custom failover scripts using provided templates. Red Hat Professional Services can provide custom Red Hat Cluster Suite deployment services where required.

And now, with RHEL 6, Red Hat Cluster Suite offers Resilient Storage.

SLES is a major force within the enterprise level Open-Source technology market and as a Novell Gold Partner we have no hesitation in recommending Novell Cluster Services and their integration with Suse Open Enterprise Server. Together, these products can enable you to:

• Deliver non-stop access to data and resources.
• Scale to meet expanding storage requirements.
• Reduce storage management costs.

Novell Cluster Services greatly simplifies SAN management. For example, you can manage resources on iSCSI or Fibre Channel SANs from any location, using any Java*-enabled Web browser.

In addition, Novell Cluster Services can be instrumental in building high-availability solutions. These solutions-particularly when coupled with a SAN solution-provide users and services with secure, uninterrupted access to your organisation's critical data and applications.

Easy, Non-Stop Access:

When you deploy solutions based on Novell Cluster Services, your network resources are always available. Servers work together as groups that are called "Clusters." If any servers need scheduled maintenance, or if one fails, the other servers in the Cluster automatically and seamlessly absorb their resources and workloads, maintaining service and application availability.

Application servers and users alike have 24/7 access to SAN-based storage, in part because SAN-management solutions fully support Web-based and traditional applications on the Cluster. In addition to this access, users and applications also receive essential storage resources via workstations running client software for NetWare, Linux*, Macintosh*, UNIX*, Web or Windows* platforms.

Highly-Scalable Storage:

With Novell Cluster Services, you can easily adjust your storage infrastructure to accommodate business growth. In fact, Novell Cluster Services supports up to 32 servers per Cluster, with as many as 32 processors per server. You can add servers to a Cluster dynamically-without interrupting users-and simply switch resources to the new servers to provide optimal load balancing across the Cluster. Combining these scalable Clusters with SAN solutions ensures that users can always access critical resources, and your organisation can meet growing business needs.

Lower Management and Storage Costs:

By deploying Novell Cluster Services, you can significantly reduce the cost of SAN ownership. Novell Cluster Services and Novell Storage Services offer several ways to boost SAN efficiency through built-in storage virtualization. For example, you can use fragments of unused disk space in your SAN as if they were a cohesive whole. Open Enterprise Server includes logical volume management integrated with Novell Cluster Services, which offers several ways to boost SAN efficiency through built-in storage virtualization.