Overview

OpenVMS has the capability to:

• Create and manage a cluster of CPUs interconnected with various LAN options.

• Share resources within the cluster, such as printers and files.

• Share system management structures, such as user account file (SYSUAF), mail profile, and so on.

• Support widely dispersed clusters.

• Support multipathed disk farms.

• Support system management of all CPUs from a single node.

• Support diskless nodes.

The OpenVMS Cluster is an OpenVMS feature that permits multiple (up to about 100) computers to be interconnected and to invisibly share resources such as software packages, printers, files, and devices. A cluster also provides a fail-safe operation for the computing facility, because a cluster can be configured to run without a full complement of computers. A cluster might be distributed over several miles and, if the connection between them is severed, the reduced cluster can continue operation (with reduced capacity) in a matter of seconds, as if nothing had happened. Furthermore, once the connection is restored, the cluster melds itself back into a single unit.

OpenVMS out of the box supports clusters. This is not an add-on product and is designed into OpenVMS, although it requires a separate license. Clusters (in the OpenVMS sense) are made up of several computers cooperatively sharing resources. A single copy of the operating system usually resides on one cluster member. All of the members of the cluster are managed and operate under the same security domain (i.e., with a single user authorization database). Thus, the system manager can access...