network redundancy for Oracle RAC interconnect

[kevin_m]

I have 2 servers running HP-UX 11.31 for Oracle RAC in a pre-production environment. Each server has 2 network adapters connected to 2 different switches for a private heartbeat network. The configuration is as follows:

server A
- lan4 connected to switch 1
- lan3 connected to switch 2

server B
- lan4 connected to switch 1
- lan3 connected to switch 2

I'd like to setup port aggregation, but the 2 switches are stand-alone and completely isolated from each other. Is there any way to configure redundancy with this arrangement?

Originally it was proposed that Oracle could be presented with 2 addresses in case one IP was not available. I'm told that's not possible so all the traffic is passing through switch 1. The loss of that switch or either lan4 interface will create a problem. The goal is to have lan3 become active if the primary connection is lost. Either that or configure Oracle to somehow use both interfaces to eliminate points of failure.

Kevin

[Francis Noël]

Response may be coming way too late but I believe HP APA can function in failover mode on individual hosts, independently of the switches.

http://www.hp.com/products1/serverconnectivity/adapters/apa_prodbrief.html

[kevin_m]

I ended up stacking the switches so they are on the same subnet and can communicate with each other. HP APA now works fine and has prevented at least 1 outage so far.

- Kevin