What's the difference between Mirror & Cluster? 1

[Ronstid]

I have NW6/SP3 on a Dell 6400, Dual Processor, 3gig RAM and a Dell 4400, Single Processor, 2gig RAM.

I want to create a fault tolerance so if the main server holding the Master Replica fails the other server will be able to take over without much interuption. At this point the users files are not stored on the 2nd server.

Could anyone give me pointers as to the best approach to accomplish this?

Thanks.

 

[terry712]

cluster - utilises seperate disks - ie take a basic two node cluster - no licences required with 6 or 6.5.

you have 2 servers and a seperate disk unit - normally san storage with 6 or with 6.5 you can use iscsi - you create the volumes as cluster enabled so any probs they roll across transparently - users dont even noticed
this is good in that you can split the load - do fixes and upgrade online


mirroring - is an older way - ie old vinca style or standby - when you have a server sitting twindling its thumbs and then any probs with other one it kicks in -
slower to kick in and seperate product - cant see why you would use it now

 

[Ronstid]

Are there any problems with cluster that I should be aware of? Does it use a lot of resources, etc.?

I really want to move to cluster, but have to convince my boss.

I appreciate your help.

 

[terry712]

no thay are wonderful

the 2 user licence is free and doesnt use up any more resources - if you go fibre it's expensive but hey it's servers - they are expensivee

cluster = no down time

 

[Ronstid]

Thanks, Terry.

I think that's the way we will go. I appreciate your help.

 

[terry712]

read the app note in oct 2003 - good info

i only have fibre san just now but next week using 6.5 isci cluster

any question post and i will try to help

 

[Ronstid]

Hi Terry,
I do have questions.

We are in a mixed environment; 3-4 Windows 2000 servers & 2 Novell servers. The Novell servers house most of the users home areas. This is mainly what I want to cluster (from one NW server to the other).

We have DNS & DHCP on a Windows server. Will creating DNS & DHCP on Novell interfere with this? Do I even need to create them?

The virtual server idea sounds great. I'm just not that familiar with clustering. It's all new to me! Thanks for any guidance you can give.

 

[terry712]

remembering that i'm not shall we say an ms fan - i would always host my dns /dhcp on netware - as it's easier - more resilient etc. also in a netware environment you want to issue options 78 and 79 out - i'm not sure if 2000 can do this - nt certainly cant. if you are running dhcp and dns currently from ms server then - you cant run a dhcp at the same time - you could run dns as a secondary but judging from what you say - no - i wouldnt create them - just more hassle and no gain.

as i dont like a server sitting doing nothing - clustered pairs for us means splitting the load across the two servers but each server is actually capabile of running everything - if you create a couple of clustered volumes then one server runs one and other server runs the other and if necessary roll it across - the swap from one server to the other on a data volume is less than a few seconds -

the docs on novell site take you through it step by step - very easy

 

[Ronstid]

Thanks, Terry. That's kind of what I thought. Unfortunately, it's not my decision to change over the DNS/DHCP to Novell. MS is doing okay with it for now anyway.

I will check out Novell's site for the instructions. I appreciate all your help.