The Compaq OpenVMS Approach

to High Availability Computing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

White Paper

June 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Compaq OpenVMS High Availability Mission Statement

 

To provide our customers with an environment where their required applications and associated data are available all the time within specified performance guidelines — regardless of hardware and software, and planned or unplanned occurrences.

 

The OpenVMS commitment to high availability involves continued support and enhancement of existing high availability features, the evolution of that environment based on your needs for growth, and enhanced enterprise features such as OpenVMS Galaxy and hardware component hot swapping.

 

 

 

NOTICE

The information in this publication is subject to change without notice and is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE ENTIRE RISK ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF THIS INFORMATION REMAINS WITH RECIPIENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL COMPAQ BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, OR OTHER DAMAGES WHATSOEVER (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR LOSS OF BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty.

This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested. The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available solution. This test is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure compliance with any federal, state or local requirements.

Compaq and the Compaq logo are registered trademarks of Compaq Computer Corporation. AlphaServer and OpenVMS are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Windows NT is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Other products and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners. Compaq believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Compaq is not responsible for any inadvertent errors. Compaq conducts its business in a manner that conserves the environment and protects the safety and health of its employees, customers, and the community.

 

Printed in U.S.A. Copyright ©1999 Compaq Computer Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

 

Compaq OpenVMS High Availability White Paper

First Edition (November 1999)

Second Edition (June, 2001)

 

 

I. Introduction

 

Compaq defines the term high availability as the ability of a computer system to provide access to applications and data — whenever and wherever your business needs dictate.

This white paper examines the capabilities that contribute to a high availability environment and explores the industry-leading high availability features of the Compaq OpenVMS operating system and Compaq AlphaServer platforms.

 

While high availability is a business-critical requirement for computing environments in every industry, there are certain environments where availability is the top priority — such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, telecommunications, and government. Because OpenVMS offers unparalleled availability, it has an outstanding presence in these industries through a broad range of high availability solutions including products, services, and partnerships — while providing the core OpenVMS business-critical environment for in-house application development in any industry.

 

Compaq OpenVMS solutions combine industry-leading high availability and disaster recovery capabilities with open database and application support, and the power of AlphaServer systems for flexibility and breadth of customer solutions.

 

 

 

 

II. Major Trends in High Availability

 

Globalization, mobile computing, the Internet, corporate extranets and intranets, and customer focus are all growing trends that require highly available computer solutions. These solutions depend on computing systems that are reliable, redundant, and run 24x365 operations.

 

Globalization

Many companies are no longer competing on a local or even national level, but are increasing their reach by marketing their products and services on a worldwide basis. According to IDC, IT spending by global companies[1] is projected to grow 41.3% between 1998 and 2002. Global expansion helps companies increase revenues and enhance shareholder value while leveraging economies of scale. With the proliferation of the Internet, it has become increasingly easy for a company of any size to become a global company and offer commodity or niche products worldwide. Having a worldwide reach requires a highly available computer system to back up corporate sales and operations.

 

Mobile computing

Mobile computing gives end users the ability connect to, view, and use files and data — without being at the same location as the server or host system. They could be using portable appliances such as mobile phones, palmtops, or notebook computers, as well as more traditional telecommuting environments such as desktop PCs connected via telephone or broadband communication lines to the host or server system.

 

Every year, sending data over wireless networks becomes faster and more reliable. Remote communication packages are continuing to evolve and improve; wide area and satellite wireless networks are increasing coverage, latency, and throughput; and new wireless-enabled software is becoming available. The growing[2] requirements for mobile computing depend on highly available corporate headquarters or regional systems for mobile connections 24 hours a day.

 

Internet

The Internet is a key and growing[3] part of the global business mainstream — linking together dispersed parts of a company or conglomerate, as well as bringing companies together with distant customers and business partners. Today it is common to use the Internet for a variety of purposes, including electronic commerce, e-mail, industry news, discussion groups, telecomputing, Web browsing, and file transfers. These Internet functions require highly available computer systems for responsive throughput and customer satisfaction.

 

Extranets and intranets

Extranets enable companies to provide timely information and value-added services to customers and partners. This information can be tailored to the specific needs of a particular audience. Extranets often consist of applications and Web pages available to specific individuals or groups. When working with business partners, an extranet can help a company coordinate, distribute, and collect information that is important to the business relationship. More importantly, a highly available extranet provides critical information to customers and partners when and where they need it — contributing to improved customer and partner relationships and encouraging repeat business.

 

 

 

 

While the Internet and extranets address external communications, corporations depend on intranets for internal communications. Important internal resources include the basic network infrastructure, as well as the critical data and applications that employees need to access for continued business operations.

 

Customer Focus

Having a customer focus means striving to meet the complete set of customer requirements for products, technology, performance, tools, services, and solutions. Customer focus means not just selling to but partnering with customers by providing what they need, and when they need it. Customer focus is important in all industries that must compete for customers' mind share and market share. To meet the increasing expectations of customers, solutions must be based on highly available computer systems, a dedicated and responsive workforce, and global support and resources.

 

Now that we have examined the key trends that are driving the need for high availability systems, let's explore the requirements for high availability.

 

 

 

 

III. Key Requirements for High Availability

 

The demands of enterprise computing and dynamic changes in the computing environment are increasing the difficulty of managing the environment and achieving high levels of application availability. Costs associated with business downtime continue to rise. These costs can be measured in terms of lost business, reduced customer confidence, and damage to your business reputation. Your company can suffer serious financial and operational consequences from even a few minutes of downtime of its mission-critical applications.

 

To minimize downtime, you need a computing environment that can recover quickly, with little or no operator intervention. Industry analysts have identified the following as critical components in deploying an environment focused on delivering high availability:

 

·        The application must have the ability to process transactions without interruption. When a failure does occur, recovery must occur quickly. The failure and the recovery must be transparent to your customers.

 

·        The operating system needs to continuously maintain the integrity of your data files, so that only recent operations need to be scrutinized upon restart. This provides greater efficiency and expediency during a recovery from a failure.

 

 

·        You need a well-implemented hot stand-by strategy between two sites to recover from a fire or localized industrial accident — something that could render your site inoperable or inaccessible. Depending on your business requirements, these sites could be in adjacent rooms, separate buildings, located across town, or farther away.

 

·        Highly available systems need the capacity to efficiently adjust to changes in workload and make the most effective and affordable use of system resources.

 

·        The total system configuration may need to manage heavy demands for increased system throughput — while also needing to address highly compute-intensive requirements in the same environment.

 

·        A highly available computing environment needs to retain compatibility between recent and past system acquisitions as your business grows, while continuing to provide investment protection.

 

·        The system needs to be protected against data corruption and loss due to disk and controller failures, and to ensure that transactions in process can be reconciled and recovered.

 

The levels of availability and recoverability your organization require are determined by the value of your business data and by the cost that downtime has to your business. Many businesses require that transactions be processed without interruption, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Compaq OpenVMS meets these challenges by providing a robust
and trusted computing environment with immunity to both planned and unplanned downtime.

 

 

 

IV. Attributes of a Highly Available Environment

 

The following aspects of a system environment directly affect the availability of applications and data:

 

·        Physical environment — power sources, communications, air conditioning, etc.

·        System management — operational disciplines, tools, services, etc.

·        Hardware — configurations that allow for multiple, redundant connections to both the data and other systems that make up the environment.

·        Software — reliable, intelligent operating components that can quickly recover from application, database, or operating system failures.

·        Services — global support when and where you need it.

 

 

Physical environment

 

Electrical Power

Even the most carefully configured computer system cannot function without adequate power. There is little that can be done about the reliability and quality of the electric power entering a site. However, you can mitigate the effects of poor external power by installing an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). One key point to remember is that in order to install a UPS, the power must be shut down to do the installation. Also, if you are considering a motor/generator UPS, be careful to check for applicable zoning regulations.

 

Communications

Most systems require some level of telephone line connection. It may be as simple as a few dial-in lines for remote system management, or as complex as a large number of lines handling interactive data such as ATM connections or lottery ticket P.O.S. terminals. Alternative communication wires include those from services such as SWIFT, FEDwire, or Reuters, for example.

 

Other Utilities

Other utilities within the facility can affect availability. For example, if water or gas for the heating system are shut off, the computers may run, but people will usually have to leave the building.

 

Physical Access

Occurrences such as floods, earthquakes, chemical spills, and so forth can keep people from gaining access to the site. Bomb scares, "sick building syndrome," and such can force evacuation for extended periods of time. One way to reduce the impact of the inability to physical access is to set up your system for remote access.

 

Air Conditioning

Most computer systems require air conditioning. Even office environment machines require a reasonable temperature range. If the air conditioning in the office area quits, the temperature could go higher than the system can tolerate. And since most modern offices do not have windows that open, there is no way of lowering the temperature. In most office environments, however, the people may actually quit before the computers do.

 

 

System Management

 

System management is important to high availability systems because, when properly carried out, it can increase the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures), reduce the MTTR (Mean Time to Repair), or possibly both.

 

To use an analogy: Air bags, seat belts, and strengthened body construction have made cars safer. However, it you drive one of these safe cars into a bridge abutment at 90 miles per hour, all of this sophisticated safety equipment does little good. Having a highly available configuration and robust software are only part of the story for achieving high availability. The system must be properly administered and carefully maintained. A proper system management philosophy can have a dramatic effect on MTBF and MTTR, which in turn affect availability.

 

Policies and Procedures

If you restart too soon after a crash, you can lose valuable information about what caused the crash in the first place. This information might be useful in preventing it from recurring. On the other hand, every second that the system is down costs money.

Restarting a failed site in a multi-site cluster can cause serious disruption to the surviving site if not properly planned. This must be balanced with the fact that until both sites are again operational, the surviving site is a single point of failure.

 

Change control

A change in the system configuration usually requires a change in the startup procedures. Failure to modify the startup procedures can prolong or even prevent successful startup, thus prolonging the MTTR.

 

Training

Proper training of your personnel can also help mitigate the effects of the physical environment. For example, the technical staff must know how to judge what is or is not normal, and take action accordingly.

 

 

 

Hardware

 

Hardware is a key factor in achieving high availability. Therefore, it must be reliable and offer high performance. High availability can be further enhanced through the use of multi-site clusters, which can be used to mitigate the effects of most of the factors described above. By splitting the computing environment between two locations that are a safe distance apart, you can ensure that half of your system will remain in operation. By adding sufficient resources at the two sites, it may be possible to run most of the critical applications without significant degradation.

 

Designing and implementing a multi-site cluster requires significant consideration. You must pay attention to such things as identifying critical data for shadowing, site selection, communication between the sites, policies and procedures regarding failure and restart of either site, and the appropriate setting of system parameters to allow smooth failovers.

 

 

Software

 

Software plays a central role in making an environment highly available. While the hardware can provide redundant paths and component failover capabilities, the ability of software to detect, report, and react to failures is critical. To ensure availability, software must be able to transparently detect when a component has become unavailable, be able to quickly and concisely report the failure, and determine when another component can be used without losing system and application context. Within a cluster, the software must be able to rely upon other member systems to fulfill aspects of the application function. If one of these resources becomes unavailable, the software must be able to invisibly and quickly find and use other available resources. It is also essential that software upgrades are fast and easy — since upgrades are a significant source of planned downtime.

 

 

Services

 

Support services bridge the gap between what the technology provides and what your environment requires in terms of uptime. When the application environment (including hardware and software) are inherently highly available due to the capabilities of the technology, your need for emergency support services diminishes. In other words, when your data is available and your applications continue to run, support activities can occur at your convenience, rather than in an emergency mode when the service or upgrade must be completed for the application to continue to function.

 

 

 

Services can include consulting, which involves both the design of a highly available environment, necessary simulations of current and future performance, and the detection of problems before they arise. The proper design of an environment — and the analysis of existing environments for robustness in the event of a change or failure — are all key aspects of ensuring a highly available system.

 

 

Now that we've outlined the attributes necessary to create high availability, let's consider Compaq OpenVMS on AlphaServer systems in terms of these factors.

 

 

 

 

V. Compaq OpenVMS on AlphaServer Systems and High Availability

 

 

As detailed in the previous section, the attributes of a high availability environment include the physical environment, system management, hardware, software, and services. This section will cover the first three.

 

 

Physical environment

 

The necessary conditions of the physical environment — such as power sources, communications, air conditioning, etc. — must be satisfactory for OpenVMS as for any other solution. However, the effects of downtime due to weather or power outages can be mitigated through the use of OpenVMS Clusters, which are discussed later in this paper.

 

 

System Management

 

System management directly contributes to high availability. With Compaq OpenVMS, system management is easy because you can manage the entire cluster from a single workstation. This single-location management can significantly reduce management costs for large, complex systems — while providing tools and performance data to improve cluster efficiency and reliability. OpenVMS system management tools reduce operator error and aid in keeping systems up and running efficiently. They help you improve workload management among shared resources such as printers and disks, and provide a central interface through which third-party system management tools can operate. In addition, OpenVMS system management tools maintain a history of system functioning and furnish easy and central manipulation of user accounts.

 

 

On OpenVMS, Compaq has a complete set of system management solutions, including schedulers, console managers, and event and performance advisors and analyzers. These products are available from Compaq and from a number of third parties. For more information, see our Web site at http://www.hp.com/go/openvms.

 

Hardware

 

Compaq AlphaServer systems combine the fastest processors in the world with innovative technologies such as high performance interconnects and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) to produce a range of high performance solutions to any problem.

 

AlphaServer systems offer full 64-bit addressing with Very Large Memory (VLM) and Very Large Data Base (VLDB) capabilities, and fast 64-bit I/O. While others are just starting, Compaq has years of experience bringing the power of 64-bit computing to your high availability solution. When combined with OpenVMS Clusters, AlphaServer systems combine performance with the high availability capabilities that you need to run your business-critical applications.

 

AlphaServer systems offer virtually unlimited growth for years to come — through a clear, cost-effective upgrade path with hardware, software, and option upgrades. Upgrades to SMP and high performance clustering provide effective scaling for major performance increases, while flexibility is further assured by extensive compatibility with industry standards. Application performance increases and application features become more robust throughout the Compaq AlphaServer family, from the DS series through the ES series, and on up through the GS series.

 

·        The DS series represents the entry-level line with servers having up to two 64-bit processors with remote management capabilities.

·        The ES series delivers enterprise solutions with up to four CPUs, VLM64 memory, high performance I/O, and robust high availability features.

·        The GS series is the ultimate in twenty-first century computing. With up to twice as much performance and power from the new Alpha 21264 processor, this series offers significantly improved application performance, price/performance, high availability, and ease of management.

 

The Compaq AlphaServer platform is modular and designed for growth. Today, systems can grow by expanding and upgrading processor, memory, and I/O beyond the range of any competitor. In the future, Compaq will offer new processors and greater I/O capabilities. You can upgrade existing systems when necessary and add processor modules quickly without extended interruption. The AlphaServer architecture allows for configuration flexibility. The multiple bus capability supports an enormous number of slots in which to configure devices.

 

Compaq OpenVMS — the layer of software between the application and the AlphaServer hardware — is the enabling technology that permits these capabilities to be fully utilized. OpenVMS and AlphaServer technologies such as clustering, software and hardware RAID, and distributed resource coordination all allow the hardware and the application to provide the most robust system possible. All AlphaServer systems — from the smallest workstation to the most powerful server — are supported by OpenVMS.

 

When you have very fast processors, lots of memory, and all the 64-bit components to take advantage of them, you get an enormous boost in database and application performance and scalability. Compaq is the only company that can bring this advantage to customers. In addition to offering 64-bit operating systems such as OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX, Compaq also has the database tools with Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and Software Ag, and applications such as Baan, PeopleSoft, and many others.

 

By offering you the ability to run your applications on a range of AlphaServer members, supporting multiple operating system environments (OpenVMS, Tru64 UNIX, and Linux), and by offering applications that solve your business needs, Compaq AlphaServer systems clearly have the competitive advantage in today's marketplace.

 

 

VI. High Availability Features of Compaq OpenVMS

 

 

Design theory

 

The OpenVMS operating system has been in existence for over 20 years, and continues to deliver the robustness necessary to run business applications reliably. While age is one measure of an operating environment's ability to be highly available, the inherent design of that environment is the true measurement. From its inception, OpenVMS was designed with availability, flexibility, and scalability in mind.

 

The design theory behind OpenVMS is that applications should run in the same way on the OpenVMS operating system — regardless of the size or complexity of the hardware that was being used. In other words, you could take an application that runs on a workstation and carry it over to an enterprise-wide server and still have it run correctly. Additionally, applications must be able to access data either directly from the local system or remotely through connections with other systems. These connected systems could share resources for data access, system resources, and can all have centralized management.

 

 

 

OpenVMS Clusters

 

OpenVMS pioneered the concept of computer clustering and remains the leader in clustering today. An OpenVMS Cluster permits 96 or more nodes to fully cooperate, sharing storage resources, files, and even individual records. Each system has separate hardware, and can be bootstrapped and shut down independently. Applications and layered products can be upgraded dynamically, new storage devices can be added and hot-swapped dynamically, and an OpenVMS upgrade can be rolled through the cluster — all without shutting down the cluster.

 

Individual OpenVMS Cluster member nodes can be separated by a few feet or hundreds of kilometers. Depending on the level of reliability required, OpenVMS Cluster configurations can have cluster members in the same cabinet, located in adjacent rooms, across town, or farther.

 

 

Compaq OpenVMS offers a wide range of communication services and tools, providing for event notifications and for the capability to detect new or departing members in the cluster. This allows applications to easily detect and react appropriately to configuration changes. These capabilities permit applications to recover from failures or to automatically colonize new nodes. OpenVMS Cluster configurations also support a mechanism known as a cluster alias, where incoming network connections will reach any available node in the cluster and can be routed to the least-loaded cluster member.

 

One of the central features underlying both a stand-alone OpenVMS node and an OpenVMS Cluster is the distributed lock manager. While the lock manager is used to coordinate all file system access, it is also a general-purpose coordination and control mechanism. The lock manager can be used to coordinate arbitrary system or application activities such as process control, election functions, and detection of application or node failure. It also permits distributed data communications for values such as indexes or sequence numbers. Today, OpenVMS Cluster remains the standard by which all other clusters are measured.

 

 

OpenVMS Galaxy

 

OpenVMS Galaxy lets you run multiple instances of OpenVMS in the same system. Unlike the features of hardware partitioned systems, these instances can be reconfigured dynamically. And unlike a virtual machine, these instances are peers — operating in parallel and with direct access to the hardware. Each OpenVMS Galaxy instance boots and shuts down separately.

 

An OpenVMS Galaxy computing environment provides exceptional scaling in symmetric multiprocessor configurations. Further, OpenVMS Galaxy capabilities provide flexibility around the assignment of system resources across the instances — to balance continuously changing system loads, meet your application testing or upgrade requirements, or meet organizational configuration requirements.

 

Instances in an OpenVMS Galaxy computing environment can be clustered with other instances within a Galaxy system using the shared-memory clustered interconnect to communicate with each other. Instances in an OpenVMS Galaxy can also be clustered with instances in another OpenVMS Galaxy system or with cluster nodes in non-Galaxy systems. Instances clustered outside of a Galaxy system use traditional cluster interconnects.

 

Portions of memory can be shared among processes and among processes running in multiple instances within an OpenVMS Galaxy. This permits applications to share data and to share data caches, and even to shut down and restart the operating system without having to reload the application data caches. Even if OpenVMS Galaxy instances are not configured as members of the same OpenVMS Cluster, this backplane-speed shared memory is available.

 

This flexibility permits you to choose the OpenVMS Galaxy configuration that best meets your reliability and availability needs. And you can change and even upgrade the configuration dynamically — all while your critical applications remain running.

 

 

The OpenVMS File System

 

The OpenVMS File System provides for I/O operations performed in carefully designed sequences, and is intended to provide for consistent or recoverable data even if a related sequence of disk I/O operations does not complete. These careful updates greatly reduce exposure to file system corruption, both on a stand-alone system and in an OpenVMS Cluster. Integrated support for two-phase commit transaction management as well as journaling capabilities further ensure that applications have clear and consistent data available at all times. This combination of file system features preserves your critical application data over system and even application failures. In conjunction with products such as RTR, the two-phase commit transaction processing capabilities of OpenVMS can be extended across separate clusters.

 

 

 

 

 

OpenVMS configurations provide for the shadowing of disk storage, permitting application data to be transparently mirrored across available storage hardware, regardless of its location. Volume Shadowing, or host-based shadowing, fully interoperates with controller-based RAID. This permits transparent data redundancy — with local or remote storage. Both the file system and Volume Shadowing provide transparent recovery from common errors, reducing the effort and the risks involved with manual operator intervention.

 

Integrated and distributed batch processing

 

Compaq OpenVMS provides integrated and distributed batch processing. Batch processing permits non-time-critical applications to be scheduled in the background and processed on any of specified sets of available systems. OpenVMS also provides for batch restart — permitting batch jobs to checkpoint application data and automatically restart after a system shutdown or failure. This gives you a simple way to schedule your non-priority tasks to gather available resources across a collection of nodes, or to schedule high-priority tasks transparently and automatically, without regard for which specific nodes are available when the job runs.

 

 

Recovery from failure

As important to availability as reliability and uptime, recovery from failure helps maintain availability. Compaq OpenVMS provides integrated and optional capabilities — for such tasks as operator communications, DECevent error handling and analysis, and system environment monitoring — permitting you to get your systems repaired and back online quickly. With failure prediction, you can detect and react to problems before they become critical. Losing one of a redundant pair of power supplies isn't a problem. Until you lose the other, that is.

 

Similarly, the rapid detection and response to security attacks can reduce your exposure, and can be used to identify and repair any breaches that might occur. This gets your systems back online quickly and helps you keep them online. OpenVMS provides for security alarms as well as for the auditing of system activity.

 

And as a last resort, OpenVMS provides an integrated backup utility and associated calling interface. System backups can be performed at the command level or can be involved directly from within an application. If all else fails, you can recover your system and application environment from your backup archives.

 

 

 

 

 

For example...

 

An OpenVMS Cluster can be configured with multiple nodes, and with multiple shadowed system disks. Each node can be running a copy of the Netscape FastTrack Web server, operating on designated shadowed disks. Using remote management via the OpenVMS management station or integrated system management tools, the startup and shutdown of OpenVMS Cluster members can be coordinated — regardless of where the nodes are located. Further, the cluster alias permits the remote Web browsers to access any available cluster nodes, without regard to which specific nodes happen to be available. Using the rolling upgrade capabilities of the OpenVMS Cluster, new versions of OpenVMS and of the Web servers can be transparently installed and activated — without affecting the operation of the other cluster members.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VII. Compaq OpenVMS High Availability Features and Benefits

 

This table summarizes the high availability features of OpenVMS.

 

Feature	Function	Benefit
OpenVMS Galaxy	Provides for multiple instances of OpenVMS in the same system. Configurations ranging from stand-alone to fully clustered are permitted. Permits application and system scaling in large multiprocessor configurations.		Permits different workloads to operate in parallel, each optimized for its own performance and configuration flexibility.
OpenVMS Clusters	Let 96 or more nodes share storage resources, files, individual records, and a wide variety of resources. Member systems can be separated by distances of hundreds of kilometers and more.		Allow physically separate systems to share resources and cooperate.
Distributed Lock Management	Provides distributed coordination, control, arbitration, and cluster communications. Permits elections of primary or unique applications, detection of application failure, and the rapid communication of data items such as sequence numbers.		Simplifies programming, improves reliability, and greatly eases coordination tasks.
RMS and XQP	Provide common file formats, common tools, and record-level file sharing across multiple applications, across multiple cluster members, and remotely using DECnet.		Highly reliable and proven file systems. Ease debug and recovery and provide common tools available to all applications.

 

 

 

Feature	Function	Benefit
RMS Journaling	Mechanism for recovery from file-level, system, or application failures.		Permits recovery from application failures, various programming errors, and system failures.
Integrated Transaction Processing	Full two-phase commit support. Permits applications to perform all necessary tasks in a transaction, or none of them. Works in conjunction with RMS Journaling and various other components and packages.		Provides a reliable single and common interface for transaction environments. Ties in with packages such as Reliable Transaction Router (RTR).
Web Servers	Netscape FastTrack and other Web servers available. Java and Perl are also available.		HTML files and CGI scripts can be shared across cluster members as well as across the Internet.
Host-Based Shadowing	Provides for fully distributed device mirroring across local storage and across hundreds of kilometers.		Avoids single-site failures.
Rolling Upgrades	OpenVMS Cluster configurations can run multiple versions of OpenVMS, and can continue to share resources.		Let you phase in fixes and new application releases, and perform OpenVMS upgrades without shutting down the OpenVMS Cluster. Better flexibility reduces risk, reduces downtime.
Shared Storage	OpenVMS Cluster members share read and write access to storage devices, permitting flexible and distributed configurations. This includes the ability to share system disks among systems.		Reduces management overhead, simplifies configuration, reduces application design, development, and maintenance costs. Lets you perform rolling upgrades.

 

 

 

Feature	Function	Benefit
Integrated Error Logging	Integrated DECevent error logging and reporting helps identify failing components immediately.		Reduces MTTR.
Integrated Networking	DECnet, IP, ICC, and various other network protocols available.		Multi-site, multiplatform, multipath. Avoids platform- and site-specific failures.
Volume Rebuilds	Automatic and transparent rebuilding of volume file structures and shadow-set members.		Reduce management. Provide early and automatic detection of problems.
Integrated Operator Communications	Permit system users and applications to communicate with system operators.		Provide simpler and integrated management.
Integrated Event Notification	Permits applications to detect new or departing members of an OpenVMS Cluster, and to track many other system events.		Simplify design and programming, integrates management.
Global Sections	Portions of the address space can be shared among processes on the system, and among processes across OpenVMS Galaxy instances.		Simplify programming, resulting in better application reliability and performance.
64-Bit Addressing	Provides the user application up to 8 TB of address space.		Allows huge amounts of data to be accessed in memory.
Device Flexibility	Support for a large number of storage and communications interconnects permits configuration flexibility.		Permits great flexibility in the configuration and allows you to tailor the configuration to your requirements and your budget.
Integrated Batch Support	Choose to run interactive tasks directly when required, and to schedule batch activities for later processing when system resources are available, on any node in an OpenVMS Cluster.		Allows simpler management, configuration flexibility, ability to schedule background and maintenance tasks, and schedule tasks to transparently soak up spare processing when available.
Batch Checkpoint and Restart	Support for batch procedures to checkpoint activity for potential later restart.		Lets you restart batch jobs from the last checkpoint.

 

Feature	Function	Benefit
Integrated Debugging	Applications can dynamically activate the debugger (even debugging themselves), and issue commands to help locate and resolve application problems, speeding problem resolution. Manual and remote operations are also fully supported.	Speeds problem resolution through easier development and debug and support, and better application error reporting.
Environmental Monitoring	Packages and interfaces available to monitor power supply status, system thermal, and various other characteristics.	Permits automated local or remote monitoring and recovery.
Integrated BACKUP Utility	Permits the creation and the reliable restoration of system, application, and file backups, and provides an API.	Eases instituting and integrating recovery procedures. Reduces MTTR.
Remote Management Capabilities	The OpenVMS Management Station permits remote management, operation, and control of OpenVMS systems.	Simplify management of multiple (potentially disaster-tolerant) sites.
Integrated Security and Auditing	Prevent and track security-relevant activities. An OpenVMS Cluster is a single security domain.	Let you easily locate, prevent, and resolve application, internal, and external security problems.

 

 

 

VIII. The Future of Compaq OpenVMS High Availability

 

Compaq is committed to understanding your business needs and providing the high availability features and capabilities that your business requires. We continually invest to extend the strengths of OpenVMS in your business-critical server environments, and to deliver industry-leading Windows NT® integration functionality. We also aggressively pursue partnerships to deliver the complete solutions you need.

 

Whether you are a growing business going online, a global corporation preparing for the new millennium, or an organization implementing a national infrastructure, Compaq OpenVMS can deliver the highly available, disaster-tolerant computing environment you require.

 

 

IX. Industry Solutions with Business Partners

 

Compaq will continue to strengthen support of OpenVMS horizontal solutions through business-critical solutions partnerships with, for example, Oracle and major system management, development, and business application companies. We are also increasing our investments to provide tightly integrated Polycenter replacement products.

 

Working together with our partners, we will continue to enhance vertical market segmentation solutions in which we provide leadership in integration, management solutions, and more. In addition to providing reliable, dependable core OpenVMS business-critical computing environments that meet the needs of any industry, Compaq will focus on the following vertical markets:

§       Financial Services

§       Manufacturing

§       Telecommunications

§       Healthcare

§       Government

 

 

X. For More Information

 

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