CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Page Preface 1 Digital Computing Environment 1.1 VAXcluster System Environment 1.1.1 VAXcluster System Components 1.1.2 VAXcluster System Configuration Types 2 Determining Requirements for Your VAXcluster System 2.1 Defining Your Computing Environment 2.2 Determining Your Application Requirements 2.3 Determining Your Overall System Requirements 3 Choosing Your VAX CPUs 3.1 CPU Selection Guidelines 3.1.1 Determining Application Requirements for CPUs 3.1.1.1 Application Computing Style 3.1.1.2 Application Availability Requirements 3.1.1.3 Application Growth Requirements 3.1.1.4 Application I/O Requirements 3.1.1.5 Special Application Requirements 3.1.1.6 Maintenance Considerations 3.1.1.7 Cost of Ownership 3.1.1.8 Price-to-Performance Ratio 3.1.2 Selecting your VAX CPU Configuration 3.1.2.1 VAXcluster System and Fault-Tolerant CPUs 3.1.2.2 Uniprocessors and Multiprocessors 3.1.2.3 Scalar and Vector Processors 3.1.2.4 Standalone CPUs and VAXcluster Systems 3.1.2.5 Determining Memory Requirements 3.2 VAX CPU Characteristics and Positioning 4 Choosing Your VAXcluster Interconnect 4.1 Interconnect Characteristics 4.1.1 Bandwidth 4.1.2 CPU Overhead 4.2 Interconnect Attachments 4.3 CI 4.4 DSSI 4.4.1 KFQSA Adapter 4.5 Ethernet 4.6 Mixed-Interconnect Configurations 4.7 Multiple Interconnects of the Same Type 4.7.1 Multiple CIs 4.7.1.1 CI Load Sharing 4.7.1.2 CI Adapter Bandwidths with Differing Packet Sizes 4.7.2 Multiple DSSIs 4.7.2.1 DSSI Load Sharing 4.7.3 Multiple Ethernets 4.7.3.1 Ethernet Segment Load Balancing 5 Designing Your Storage Subsystem 5.1 Storage Subsystem Design Preliminaries 5.2 Description of a Storage Hierarchy 5.3 How to Design Your Storage Hierarchy 5.3.1 Gather Application I/O Requirements 5.3.2 Estimate Storage Capacity Requirements 5.3.2.1 Primary Storage (Memory) Capacity 5.3.2.2 Secondary Storage (Disks) Capacity 5.3.2.3 Tertiary Storage (Tapes and Robot-Accessable Libraries) Capacity 5.3.3 Form Initial Storage Hierarchy 5.3.3.1 How CPU Selections Affect the Design of Storage Hierarchy 5.3.3.2 How the Interconnect Affects the Design of Storage Hierarchy 5.3.3.3 Select Storage Devices to Meet the Capacity Requirement 5.3.4 Rework the Hierarchy to Meet Performance Requirements 5.3.4.1 Estimate Storage Access Rate 5.3.4.2 Online Storage Performance and Availability Work Sheet 5.3.4.3 Modify the Storage Hierarchy According to Performance Requirements 5.3.4.4 Use Additional Main Memory 5.3.4.5 Use Solid-State Disks 5.3.4.6 Use RAID technology 5.3.4.7 Distribute Active Files Over Multiple Disks 5.3.4.8 Storage Array, Stripe Set, and Solid-State Disk Performance Comparison 5.3.4.9 Disk Performance Features of DSA Controllers 5.3.4.10 Performance Considerations for HSC Controller Subsystems 5.3.4.11 Tertiary Storage Performance 5.3.4.12 Performance Considerations When Including Newer Technology Storage 5.3.5 Meet Availability Requirements 5.3.5.1 Online Storage Performance and Availability Work Sheet 5.3.5.2 Device Availability 5.3.5.3 Data Availability 5.3.5.4 System Disk Redundancy 5.3.5.5 VAX Volume Shadowing Software 5.3.5.6 Redundancy Through Backup Strategy 5.3.6 Consolidate the Storage Hierarchy, Storage Management 5.3.6.1 Disk Utilization and Fragmentation 5.3.6.2 Backup 5.3.6.3 VAX SLS 5.3.6.4 Other Factors Affecting Storage Hierarchy Design 5.4 Storage Device Characteristics 6 VAXcluster Configuration Rules and Guidelines 6.1 General VAXcluster Configuration Rules 6.2 Configuration Rules for CI VAXcluster Systems 6.2.1 Configuration Rules for CPUs with Multiple CI Connections 6.2.2 Configuration Guidelines for CI VAXcluster Systems 6.2.2.1 CI Node Numbering Guidelines 6.3 Configuration Rules for DSSI VAXcluster Systems 6.3.1 Configuration Rules for CPUs with Multiple DSSI Connections 6.3.2 Configuration Guidelines for DSSI VAXcluster Systems 6.3.2.1 DSSI Node Numbering Guidelines 6.4 Configuration Rules for Ethernet VAXcluster Systems 6.4.1 Configuration Rules for CPUs with Multiple Ethernet Adapters 6.4.2 Configuration Guidelines for Ethernet VAXcluster Systems 6.4.2.1 VAXcluster Satellite LAN Address in the DECnet Database 6.4.2.2 Booting from Additional LAN Adapters 6.4.2.3 New VAXcluster Subroutine Package 6.4.2.4 Network Failure Analysis 7 Additional VAXcluster System Design Considerations 7.1 Availability Considerations 7.1.1 Hardware Redundancy Methods 7.1.2 Failover Mechanisms 7.1.3 Environmental Protection 7.1.4 Quorum scheme 7.1.4.1 Quorum Watchers 7.1.4.2 Adjusting Quorum 7.1.4.3 Recovering from the Loss of Quorum 7.1.5 VAXcluster State Transitions 7.2 Guidelines for Selecting Disk Servers and Satellites 7.2.1 Disk and Boot Server I/O Capacity 7.2.2 CPU I/O Capacity 7.2.3 Ethernet I/O Capacity 7.2.4 Disk Drive I/O Capacity 7.2.5 Disk Controller I/O Capacity 7.2.6 Summary of Disk Server I/O Capacity 7.2.6.1 Lock Manager 7.3 VAXcluster Backup Strategy 7.3.1 Setting Up the BACKUP Account 7.3.2 Setting SYSGEN Parameters 7.3.3 Using HSC BACKUP or VMS BACKUP 7.4 Configuring System Disks 7.4.1 Booting Activity 7.5 Print Services in Your VAXcluster System 7.6 VAXcluster Management and Maintenance Tools 7.6.1 CLUSTER_CONFIG.COM Command Procedure 7.6.2 Show Cluster Utility 7.6.3 System Management Utility 7.6.4 Optional Tools and Products A SPD Disk Storage Requirements B VAXcluster Software, Version 5.4 SPD Glossary FIGURES 1-1 Hardware Connections in a Large VAXcluster System 1-2 Typical VAXcluster Configuration with CI 1-3 DSSI VAXcluster Configuration 1-4 Ethernet VAXcluster Configuration 1-5 Typical VAXcluster Configuration with Multiple Interconnects 2-1 I/O Throughput per VUP 3-1 Computing Elements 3-2 Application I/O Requirements 3-3 VAX Vector and VAX Scalar Performance Comparison 3-4 Relative Power of VAX CPUs 4-1 Computing Elements 4-2 Interconnect Components 4-3 VAXcluster Configuration with Two Load Sharing Domains 4-4 VAXcluster Configuration with One Load Sharing Domain 5-1 Computing Elements 5-2 Attributes of a Storage Hierarchy 5-3 A Simple Storage Hierarchy 5-4 A Sophisticated Storage Hierarchy 5-5 Flow Chart for Designing Your Storage Subsystem 5-6 Typical File Access Distribution 5-7 Disk Striping 5-8 I/O Components 5-9 Seek Times 5-10 Overlapped Seeks 5-11 DSSI Shadow Sets 5-12 Dual-Ported Satellite Systems Disk 5-13 Dual-Host MicroVAX Configuration 6-1 Multi-CI VAXcluster System 6-2 Dual-Host MicroVAX 3400 Configuration 6-3 Multiple DSSI Segments in a VAXcluster System 6-4 Ethernet VAXcluster Configuration 7-1 I/O Capacity of Disk Server CPUs and Ethernet Adapters 7-2 Physical VAXcluster Printer Configuration 7-3 VAXcluster Generic Print Queue Configuration TABLES 1 Abbreviations 1-1 Attributes of VAXcluster Configuration Types 3-1 VAX System CPU Performance Characteristics 3-2 Template System Performance Characteristics 3-3 VAX System I/O Performance Characteristics 3-4 VAXcluster System Templates I/O Performance Characteristics 4-1 Interconnect Characteristics 4-2 Interconnect Attachments 4-3 CI Adapters 4-4 DSSI Adapters 4-5 Ethernet Adapters 4-6 CI Adapter Bandwidths 5-1 Online Storage Capacity Work Sheet 5-2 Online Storage Performance and Availability Work Sheet 5-3 Disk Attributes 5-4 Storage Array Attributes 5-5 Library Attributes 5-6 Tape Attributes 5-7 Bus Type and I/O Rates for SDI Controllers 5-8 UNIBUS Storage Devices 5-9 MASSBUS Storage Devices 6-1 Maximum CI Adapters Per VAXcluster CPU 6-2 DSSI Adapters Per CPU 7-1 Disk Server and Client Ratings 7-2 Disk Server I/O Capacity Based on 80% CPU Utilization 7-3 Ethernet Adapter I/O Capacity 7-4 Disk Server Capacity-Average (4-Block) I/O Operations per Second 7-5 UAF Process Quotas for the BACKUP Account 7-6 Suggested Values for UAF Process Quotas 7-7 Selected Digital Printers A-1 Space Required on VMS System Disk