Understanding Hardware: What Works Best with Cassatt Active Response
Intended for use with Cassatt Active Response V5.0.
Before you implement Cassatt Active Response, you'll want to take stock of what hardware you have and what you may need to buy. In this article, I'll give you some tips and advice about choosing hardware—so you can maximize your existing equipment and purchasing dollars, while getting the most power out of Cassatt Active Response.
The big picture
The following pieces of hardware are required for any Cassatt Active Response implementation:
- 1. Control node(s) – Servers that host the Cassatt Active Response software and are responsible for automatic resource optimization.
- 2. Storage – Shared storage on control node(s) for the Cassatt Active Response database and image matrix.
- 3. Network switch(es) – An ethernet switch for network connectivity between control nodes and application nodes.
- 4. Gateway – A firewall or router to prevent nodes outside of Cassatt Active Response from being controlled by Cassatt Active Response.
- 5. Application nodes – Servers that run your business applications; the "resources" in the shared infrastructure.
Cassatt places few constraints on the hardware you use for these components, including vendor and model. However, there are huge advantages to using hardware with preferred features that Cassatt Active Response can leverage, because they provide the most power, reliability, and hands-off operation.
Best features: what and why?
The hardware features in the following table are recommended to get the most from Cassatt Active Response.
|
Component |
Advantage |
|
Redundant NICs on nodes |
Having 2 NICs on control nodes and application nodes provides network redundancy in case a NIC goes bad. It is recommended as part of Cassatt Active Response's overall "no single point of failure" philosophy. Gigabit NICs are recommended for best performance. |
|
Remote management controllers on nodes |
Most modern, low-cost servers incorporate remote management controllers. If your application nodes have remote management controllers, Cassatt Active Response can access them to programmatically start and stop them for allocating and deallocating resources. If your control nodes have remote management controllers, Cassatt Active Response can start and stop them in the event of failover. See:
Understanding Automation: Power Management for Application Nodes. |
|
Fast network switch |
For many enterprises, the speed at which Cassatt Active Response responds to resource allocation is the primary reason to buy Cassatt Active Response; if there's a load spike, you want Cassatt Active Response to allocate the necessary resources; if a node fails, you want a replacement immediately. Using a fast switch is essential if speed is what you're after. |
|
Dual control nodes |
Control nodes are where you install Cassatt Active Response software. As the brains of Cassatt Active Response, having 2 control nodes for the Cassatt Active Response software ensures high availability for Cassatt Active Response.
|
Recommended hardware
To get the most out of Cassatt Active Response, use all of the hardware features listed in the following table. See Recommended Hardware and Firmware for specific vendors, hardware models, and firmware versions.
Hardware |
Recommendations |
More Info |
|
Control nodes |
-
2 control nodes with the same make/model hardware for failover
- 2 gigabit NICs per node
- Remote management controllers with supported firmware
- Dell, HP, or IBM hardware
- SCSI disk drive
|
Dual—Dell/HP
Dual—IBM
|
Application nodes |
-
2 gigabit NICs that are PXE-enabled (Intel) or capable of booting DHCP (SPARC) on each node
- Remote management controller capability with supported firmware
- Dell, HP, IBM, or SPARC hardware
Cassatt Active Response supports 64-bit capable servers; that is, hardware with AMD Opteron
and Intel EM64T chipsets; Cassatt Active Response does not support Intel Itanium (IA64) 64-bit hardware or the versions of Linux that run on that
hardware. |
Dell
HP
IBM
SPARC |
Network switch |
A gigabit-ethernet (1000BASE-T) switch that supports link aggregation and can switch off IGMP snooping.
Cassatt Active Response network mounts all application node images (OS and applications) from the control node. When a tier is activated, the NFS-mounted image is booted. |
|
|
Gateway |
1 firewall or router to prevent nodes outside of Cassatt Active Response from being controlled by Cassatt Active Response. |
|
Storage |
Storage is another factor in control node failover. |
Understanding Storage Hardware Options |
Basic hardware: enough to take Cassatt Active Response for a spin
Depending on availability of hardware and performance requirements, you may be able use hardware without all the recommended features. The following table lists the minimum hardware to implement a working Cassatt Active Response environment.
| Component |
Minimum Requirements |
Control node |
1, Intel IA32 control node with 36 Gbytes and 1 NIC.
See: Control Node Setup: Single Server (All) |
Application nodes |
(Intel-based) Any number of application nodes, each with 1 PXE-enabled NIC
or
(SPARC-based) Any number of application nodes, each with 1 DHCP boot-enabled NIC
NOTE: To exercise node allocation/deallocation based on SLA rules, you'll want at least 4 nodes.
See: Application Node Setup: Virtual Power Controllers |
Network switch
|
A 100-Mbps ethernet switch
NOTE: Hubs are not recommended, even for a basic configuration; they are time-consuming and error-prone during setup and support only a subset of Cassatt Active Response functionality. |
Gateway |
1 firewall or router to prevent nodes outside of Cassatt Active Response from being controlled by Cassatt Active Response. |
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