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Clustering SPARC Enterprise servers using Fujitsu PRIMECLUSTER will dramatically improve system uptime. Even if one server stops all together, system continuity is maintained by the forcible switching of operations from the operational server onto its backup twin.
Early problem detection is the first lesson in maximizing system uptime.
By inter-working with the server hardware, PRIMECLUSTER can swiftly detect any failure and fast switch the applications to an alternative server.
All Fujitsu servers contain, as standard, dedicated and independent hardware monitoring processors. This means that even if a server hangs, the monitoring processors keep operating and assist the system administrator to diagnose the problem. In the meantime the necessary system recovery operation quickly continues in the background.
By inter-working with all these high availability mechanisms(1) PRIMECLUSTER can immediately detect the system hang and forcibly switch affected applications to the alternative server. (Figure 1. "PRIMECLUSTER switching mechanism")
(note 1)
To assure any server switchover is successful, PRIMECLUSTER regularly checks the disk and server hardware. This prevents unintended failure during switching.
PRIMECLUSTER can increase the server utilization within the cluster system.
PRIMECLUSTER can reduce switching time by only switching the minimum number of failed applications and their environment to the alternate node. When a failure occurs, this is much faster than switching the whole server node. The PRIMECLUSTER approach means customers do not need idle system resources that are only used following a failure.
A mutual stand-by cluster is one method of achieving such cost-efficient benefits (Figure 2. “Mutual stand by cluster system”).