Storage and Adapter Requirements

Determine your storage and host adapter requirements using the following guidelines:

Storage Devices – Based on your application’s data storage requirements, you will need to determine the type and number of data storage devices required by your configuration. Your shared files should reside on a disk array subsystem (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, or RAID). LifeKeeper supports a number of hardware RAID peripherals for use in LifeKeeper configurations. See Supported Storage for a list of the supported peripherals.

Consider the following issues when planning the configuration of your storage devices:

• LifeKeeper manages resources at the physical disk or Logical Unit (LUN) level, making the resources on each physical disk or LUN available to only one server in the configuration at a time. As a result, it is a good idea to plan disk allocations before you begin to configure LifeKeeper. For example, each hierarchy in active/active configurations must access its own unique LUN, so a minimum of two LUNs is required for a two-node active/active configuration.

• Some model-specific issues and hardware configuration details are listed in Supported Storage.

Adapters – Based upon the type of configuration and the number of peripherals, determine the types and number of SCSI or Fibre Channel Host Adapters required. It is important that any adapter you choose be supported by LifeKeeper, as well as by your Linux distribution so that there is a driver available. Refer to Supported Adapter Models for a list of supported host adapters. For reference purposes, you should add the host adapter specifications to your configuration map.