The Nortel SNAS 35

Nortel SNAS clusters

For Release 1.6.1
A cluster is a group of Nortel SNAS 4050 devices that share the same
configuration parameters. Nortel Secure Network Access Switch Software
Release 1.6.1 supports four Nortel SNAS 4050 devices, or nodes, in a
cluster. A network can contain multiple clusters.
For Release 2.0
A cluster is a group of Nortel SNAS 4050 or 4070 devices that share the
same configuration parameters. Nortel Secure Network Access Switch
Software Release 2.0 supports a combination of four Nortel SNAS 4050
and 4070 devices, or nodes, in a cluster. A Nortel SNAS network can
contain multiple clusters.
Clustering offers the following benefits:
•manageability—The cluster is a single, seamless unit that automatically
pushes configuration changes to its members.
•scalability—The Nortel SNAS nodes in a cluster share the burden
of resource-intensive operations. The cluster distributes control of
the network access devices between the Nortel SNAS nodes and
distributes handling of session logon. As a result, Nortel SNAS devices
in a cluster can control more switches and handle more user sessions.
•fault tolerance—If a Nortel SNAS device fails, the failure is detected by
the other node in the cluster, which takes over the switch control and
session handling functions of the failed device. As long as there is one
running Nortel SNAS, no sessions will be lost.
The devices in the cluster can be located anywhere in the network and
do not have to be physically connected to each other. All the Nortel
SNAS devices in the cluster must be in the same subnet. The cluster is
created during initial setup of the second node, when you specify that
the setup is a join operation and you associate the node with an existing
Management IP address (MIP).
For more information about Nortel SNAS IP addresses, see “About the IP
addresses” (page 42). For information about adding a node to a cluster,
see “Adding a Nortel SNAS device to a cluster” (page 50).

Interface configuration

The Nortel SNAS must interface to two kinds of traffic: client and
management. The interface to the client side handles traffic between the
Nortel Health Agent applet on the client and the portal. The interface to
Nortel Secure Network Access Switch
Using the Command Line Interface
NN47230-100 03.01 Standard
28 July 2008
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