TruCluster/AdvFS

[Shivkumar]

Dear Sirs,

Is TruCluster/AdvFS much superior than current mc/servicegaurd and hpux file system ?

Thanks,
Shiv

[Hein van den Heuvel · Accepted solution]

imho.. YES... near transparrent cluster wide file system access. Single system image, direct IO, 'Distribute Raw Devices', and so on.

But it matters not... TruCluster/AdvFS is not forward going.

What you see today is what you get. No major improvemetn scheduled, no migration of feautes into hpux as was planned when HP merged with (acquired) Compaq.

Too bad really... could have been a nice differentiator for HPUX had the port been executed rapidly.

Just my opinion. ffwiw,

Hein.

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Was TruCluster/AdvFS superior to Serviceguard? Probably... in terms of feature and function anyway - I can't speak in terms of reliability (THE most important element in cluster software - something Oracle haven't realised yet!), as I never had to support it for a long period of time - what I can speak for is what my customers who have migrated off Tru64 to HPUX have to say:

- Reliability - about the same really - although its more reassuring to know there are upwards of 100,000 Serviceguard implementations worldwide - a LOT more than there ever was of TruCluster - that gives customers confidence that they're not 'the only ones' using a particular feature/function.

- Complexity/Management - OK so Serviceguard nodes are harder to manage than TruCluster nodes, as you have to actively keep them in sync as there's no single system image - BUT (and its a big BUT) Serviceguard is just less complex, and generally easier to troubleshoot than TruCluster

- Features & Function OK so no CFS unless you use the new Serviceguard Storage suites, but so what? What are they actually used for? Many TruCluster/CFS systems run Oracle RAC - which with 10g and ASM doesn't really need a CFS any more. Even if HP had completed the port of TruCluster/AdvFS, you can bet they would have been sold at a serious Premium, meaning you would have needed a *very* good reason to use it. I think we would have seen a very small take-up of this product, which for a largely new code-base wouldn't have been good news for reliability... I think we'll probably see the same for the Serviceguard Storage Management Suites - I just don't think an awfull lot of customers will have a good enough reason to deploy them.

HTH

Duncan (expecting a strong reply from all the ex-Digital employees on the forum!)

[Shivkumar]

I would like to congratulate HP for maintaining this forum so that Unix gurus can speak their minds :-))

[Dave Olker]

Hi all,

I just wanted to comment on one of the replies stating "no major improvement scheduled". While it's true that HP has no plans to introduce AdvFS or a TruCluster environment we are planning on releasing a Clustered File System based on the Veritas/Symantec Storage Foundation Suite.

This will at least provide the Clustered File System aspects of TruCluster, and when bundled with ServiceGuard it does provide much of the same feature set as TruCluster.

Again, it doesn't provide Single System Image, but most of the other features will be there. One of the main benefits of this strategy is the ability to deliver it on an existing OS - 11i v2 (11.23) instead of having to wait until 11i v3 (11.31).

Regards,

Dave

[Hein van den Heuvel]

You are right Dave. My line on 'no major improvements' was sloppy at best.
I strictly meant it for to the Tru64 aspects.
I did not mean to indicate what Hpux may or might not provide.
Thanks for the clarification.

Hein.