Dell PowerVault NX1950 - Manual (Page 7)

Overview
7
Overview
The Dell™ PowerVault™ NX1950 cluster solution with Dell|EqualLogic
storage array combines Microsoft
®
Windows
®
Unified Data Storage Server
2003 clustering with a highly available and scalable Dell|Equallogic PS Series
storage array. Server clusters based on Microsoft
®
Cluster Service (MSCS)
provide availability for applications through failover. The following list
summarizes server cluster features:
• Provides features that can be used for databases, e-mail services, line of
business (LOB) applications, and custom applications.
• Includes Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003.
• Provides high availability and server consolidation.
• Requires the use of shared storage.
NOTE:
Throughout this document, PowerVault NX1950 storage system refers to the
individual storage unit and PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution refers to the
configuration of the storage unit along with the storage arrays.
In a PowerVault NX1950 cluster solution configuration, if the hardware or
software fails and causes a service failure, the cluster automatically restarts
the failed service on a functional cluster node. This service failover capability
ensures that no data is lost, and there is little disruption to users. When the
issue is corrected, the cluster can re-balance the services across all functional
nodes. The following figure illustrates a service failover on a typical cluster
configuration in which all nodes are running different services.
Figure 1-1 shows that Node A fails over to Node B.
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