TruCluster Server Handbook
This text authoritatively details how to plan, design, install, configure, and administer a cluster of Tru64 UNIX systems, and explains how to configure and optimize hardware underlying a TruCluster server and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS TruCluster Server Handbook
Chapter 16: The Cluster Alias Subsystem (CLUA)
At first glance, the notion of a cluster alias seems straightforward. Simply conjure up a name and address to be used in the network that represents the cluster as a whole. What's the big deal? For starters, let's take a few steps back and remind ourselves why the nodes in a network are given names in the first place.
16.1 Network Node Names
The alternative to having names for network locations is to always use 32 bit (soon to be 128 bit with IPV6) IP addresses to refer to targets. Once you get used to them, IP addresses are not that difficult to remember, right? Which would be easier for you to remember, " frodo" or 192.128.168.34? Except for die-hard propeller heads, we'll assume most people find that names are easier to use and remember than IP addresses. At your site, you are probably using a Domain Name Service (DNS), specifically the Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) service, to help with node name to IP address (and vice versa) translations. BIND supports the frequently used whatz.ting.ugot.com style of naming.
16.2 Cluster Alias IP Address
So it sounds like all we have to do is establish a name as an alias for the cluster, associate it with an IP address, and there you have it ladies and gents the cluster alias. But what IP address do we associate with the cluster alias? All of the cluster members have network interfaces, and all of the interfaces have IP...
Copyright Scott Fafrak, Jim Lola, Dennis O'Brien, Greg Yates, and Brad Nichols 2003 under license agreement with Books24x7
