Veritas Cluster Server

Veritas Cluster Server (also known as VCS or now known as SFHA) is a High-availability cluster software, for Unix, Linux and Microsoft Windows computer systems, created by Veritas Software (now part of Symantec). It provides application cluster capabilities to systems running databases, file sharing on a network, electronic commerce websites or other applications. From its second version, it also has started supporting AIX operating system.

High availability clusters (HAC) improve "availability" of applications by "failing" them over or "switching" them over in a group of systems as opposed to High Performance Clusters which improve "performance" of applications by allowing them to run on multiple systems simultaneously.

Most Veritas Cluster Server implementations attempt to build availability into a cluster, eliminating single points of failure by making use of redundant components like multiple network cards, storage area networks in addition to the use of VCS.

Similar products include Linux-HA, Red Hat Cluster Suite, HP ServiceGuard, Sun Cluster, Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS), IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms (SA MP) and IBM HACMP. VCS is one of the few products in the industry that provides both high availability and disaster recovery across all major operating systems while supporting 40+ major application / replication technologies out of the box.

VCS is mostly a user-level clustering software; most VCS processes are normal system processes on the systems it operates on, and have no special access to the Operating System or kernel functions in the host systems. However, the interconnect (heartbeat) technology used with VCS is a proprietary Layer 2 ethernet-based protocol that is run in the kernel space using kernel modules. [cite book | last = Symantec | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = Veritas Cluster Server 5.0 User's Guide (Solaris) | publisher = Symantec | date = | location = | pages = 331-360 | url = http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/ClusterServer_UNIX/283869.pdf | doi = | id = | isbn = ]

Veritas Cluster Server for Windows is no longer supplied as a standalone product. Instead it is sold bundled with Storage Foundation as Storage Foundation HA for Windows.

Release history:
* Veritas Cluster Server 4.1

ee also

*High-availability cluster
*Sun Cluster
*Computer cluster

External links

* [http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/products/overview.jsp?pcid=1019&pvid=20_1 Veritas Cluster Server] homepage
* [http://vias.symantec.com Veritas Installation Assessment Service (formerly PREP Utility)]

References

Books

* cite book
first = Greg | last = Pfister
title = In Search of Clusters | publisher = Prentice Hall | isbn = 0-13-899709-8
* cite book
first = Evan | Marcus | coauthors = Hal Stern
title = Blueprints for High Availability: Designing Resilient Distributed Systems
publisher = John Wiley & Sons | isbn = 0-471-35601-8