Guidelines for OpenVMS Cluster Configurations

This document serves as a comprehensive guide for designing, configuring, and managing OpenVMS Cluster systems. It covers a wide array of topics crucial for optimizing these systems for availability, scalability, performance, and ease of management.

The guide begins with an overview of OpenVMS Cluster components, including hardware (systems, interconnects, adapters, storage subsystems) and software (operating system components, networking, storage enhancement, system management, business applications). It emphasizes that OpenVMS Clusters allow multiple Alpha and VAX systems to function as a single virtual system, sharing resources and providing failover capabilities.

Key sections of the document include: - Determining Business and Application Requirements: This involves analyzing budget, availability needs (conventional, 24x365, disaster tolerant), scalability for future growth, physical location constraints, and security. - Choosing OpenVMS Cluster Systems: Discusses selecting appropriate Alpha and VAX architectures, system types (workstations, departmental, data center), and considering scalability, availability, and performance factors. - Choosing OpenVMS Cluster Interconnects: Details various interconnect types like Fibre Channel, MEMORY CHANNEL, SCSI, CI, DSSI, Ethernet, and FDDI, comparing their characteristics such as throughput, cable length, and supported nodes. It also explains the benefits of multiple and mixed interconnects for failover and load balancing. - Choosing OpenVMS Cluster Storage Subsystems: Guides users through understanding storage product choices, estimating capacity, and selecting disk performance (e.g., DECram, solid-state disks, disk striping, VIOC, disk caches) and availability optimizers (e.g., redundant paths, Volume Shadowing, device reliability). - Configuring Multiple Paths to SCSI and Fibre Channel Storage: Explains multipath SCSI support for increased availability and performance, including transparent and multibus failover modes, path selection by OpenVMS, and device naming conventions. - Configuring Fibre Channel as an OpenVMS Cluster Storage Interconnect: Provides detailed information on Fibre Channel features, configuration requirements, example setups, and addressing schemes (WWIDs, device IDs). - Configuring OpenVMS Clusters for Availability and Performance: Offers strategies for building highly available clusters, including component redundancy, failover mechanisms (DECnet-Plus cluster alias, I/O paths, boot/disk servers, terminal servers, generic batch/print queues, autostart queues), and related software products. It presents optimal configurations for LAN, DSSI, CI, and MEMORY CHANNEL clusters, including those with satellites and multiple sites. - Configuring OpenVMS Clusters for Scalability: Focuses on strategies for expanding OpenVMS Cluster systems in terms of CPU, memory, I/O, and storage. It provides guidelines for CI, DSSI, MEMORY CHANNEL, and SCSI clusters, and discusses scalability with satellites and extended LANs. - OpenVMS Cluster System Management Strategies: Addresses system disk strategies (single vs. multiple system disks), environment strategies (common vs. multiple environments), quorum strategies, state transition strategies, and backup/storage management.

The document also includes appendices with technical summaries for SCSI, MEMORY CHANNEL, and CI-to-PCI Adapter (CIPCA) support, as well as guidelines for multiple-site OpenVMS Clusters, including WAN services like ATM, DS3, and FDDI. It aims to help users maximize the benefits of OpenVMS Clusters through careful planning and configuration.