Setting Up Cluster Installations

Complete the following tasks to cluster two computers.

v“Cluster Installations”

v“Overview of Implementing a Cluster on Two Nodes”

v“Setting Up a Cluster Installation” on page 2-10

v“Preparing to Set Up a Cluster” on page 2-10

v“Implementing a Cluster on the Primary Node” on page 2-11

v“IDS as a Cluster on the Secondary Node” on page 2-11

v“Installing IDS as a Cluster on the Secondary Node” on page 2-11

v“IDS as a Cluster on the Secondary Node” on page 2-11

Cluster Installations

IBM Informix Dynamic Server supports Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS), which enables high availability on Microsoft Windows (Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista). MSCS allows you to cluster two Windows computers as redundant components, or nodes. When a failure occurs on one node in the cluster, Windows restarts the failed applications (such as the database server) on the surviving node in the pair.

MSCS includes the Cluster Administrator, which enables you to designate a cluster and define resources, resource ownership, and dependencies on other resources. A resource is a hardware component, such as a shared disk, or a software application, such as the database server, that is shared between the two nodes in a cluster.

The Cluster Administrator also enables you to define groups that specify resource dependencies, so that the Microsoft Resource Manager can move groups of dependent resources to the surviving node in the event of failover. The Microsoft Resource Manager is a program that invokes specific start, restart, stop, and monitoring functions for a resource.

You can install IDS either on one node of a cluster or on both nodes (in a fail-safe mode). Installation on one node of a cluster is the same as regular installation on a stand-alone computer. For more information about installing IBM Informix Dynamic Server, see “Installing IBM Informix Products” on page 2-1.

Important: Stop IDS before shutting down the operating system during MSCS setup to avoid any data loss.

Overview of Implementing a Cluster on Two Nodes

After you complete cluster-implementation preparation tasks, you implement IBM Informix Dynamic Server in a cluster environment in three steps:

1.Install IBM Informix Dynamic Server on the primary node.

2.Install the ClusterIT utility.

3.Convert the database servers to a cluster configuration. This step is implemented with the ClusterIT utilities:

vUse the clusterIT_a utility to configure IDS on the primary node for use in a cluster.

vUse the clusterIT_b utility to install IDS and configure it for use in a cluster on the secondary node.

Chapter 2. Installing IDS (Windows) 2-9