3Com FE100 manual HWWLQJ6WDUWHG

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The Dell® PowerEdge® Cluster FE100 is an enterprise system that implements clus- tering technology based on the Microsoft® Windows NT® Server, Enterprise Edition

4.0operating system and the Microsoft Windows NT Cluster Server. The PowerEdge Cluster FE100 provides the following benefits in meeting the needs of mission-critical network application programs:

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High availability of system services and resources to network clients

Redundant storage of application program data

Failure recovery for cluster application programs

Capability to repair, maintain, or upgrade a cluster node without taking the entire cluster off-line

Sharing of processing and communication workload between the two servers

The term cluster refers to two or more identical server systems (referred to as nodes) that are interconnected with appropriate hardware and software to provide a single point of continuous access to network services (for example, file service, database application programs, and resources) for network clients.

Each node is configured with software and network resources that enable it to inter- act with the other node to provide a mutual redundancy of operation and application program processing. Because the nodes interact in this way, they appear as a single system to the network clients.

As an integrated system, the PowerEdge Cluster FE100 is designed to handle most hardware failures and downtime dynamically. In the event that one of the nodes fails or experiences downtime, the processing workload of the failed node switches over (or fails over) to the remaining node in the cluster. This fail-over capability enables the cluster system to keep network resources and application programs running on the network while the failed node is taken off-line, repaired, and brought back online. The overall impact of a node failure to network operation is minimal.

Getting Started 1-1