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Chapter 1 # Introduction to the Foundation Services This chapter introduces the Foundation Services. For a brief description of each of the Foundation Services, the installation tools, and the cluster administration tools, see the following sections: What Are the Foundation Services? High-Level View of the Foundation Services Foundation Services Tools ## What Are the Foundation Services? The Foundation Services are a suite of reliable software services that run on the SPARC Solaris™ operating system. The Foundation Services enable you to deploy applications in a continuous availability environment. The Foundation Services can be used to create a highly available, dynamically scalable cluster of distributed nodes, or to augment existing highly available frameworks. The following figure illustrates a basic Foundation Services cluster. Figure 1-1 Basic Foundation Services Cluster The concepts of cluster, master node, vice-master node, diskless node, and dataless node are described in Cluster Model. The Foundation Services have been designed to support the following: Hardware replacement or upgrade, and diagnostics without incurring system outage Redundant services Redundant dual Ethernet links Redundant platform services such as Reliable NFS and the Reliable Boot Service ## High-Level View of the Foundation Services The following figure shows a high-level view of the Foundation Services architecture. Figure 1-2 High-Level View of the Foundation Services Architecture The Foundation Services software offers the following services: A reliable IP transport mechanism provided by the Carrier Grade Transport Protocol (CGTP). CGTP limits the consequences of single network failure by duplicating the communication links. For further information, see Chapter 6, Carrier Grade Transport Protocol. Reliable NFS to ensure that data is accessible to clients, even in the event of hardware or software failure. Reliable NFS uses mounted file systems, IP mirroring of disk-based data, and IP address failover of the master role. For further information, see Chapter 7, File Sharing and Data Replication. A Cluster Membership Manager to provide a global view of the cluster. The Cluster Membership Manager determines which nodes are members of the cluster. It assigns the roles and attributes of nodes, detects the failure of nodes, and notifies clients of changes to the cluster. A heartbeat mechanism is used to detect node failure. For further information, see Chapter 8, Cluster Membership Manager. A Reliable Boot Service and the Solaris Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol service to ensure the boot of diskless nodes regardless of software or hardware failures. For further information, see Chapter 9, Reliable Boot Service. A Node State Manager with scripts that provide access for external networks to the node holding the master role. For further information, see Chapter 5, External Addressing. A Daemon Monitor to survey Foundation Services daemons, many Solaris operating system daemons, and some companion product daemons. If any of the monitored daemons fail, the Daemon Monitor initiates a recovery response. The Daemon Monitor is itself monitored by the Node Management Agent. For further information, see Chapter 10, Daemon Monitor. A Node Management Agent to monitor cluster statistics. The Node Management Agent can initiate a switch to the backup node, change some error recovery responses, and listen for notifications of some cluster events. The Node Management Agent is compliant with the Java™ Management Extensions (JMX™) and based on the Java Dynamic Management Kit. For further information, see Chapter 11, Node Management Agent. A Watchdog Timer for low-level system monitoring of the Foundation Services. For further information, see Chapter 12, Watchdog Timer. Each of these services is described in detail in Part II, Description of the Foundation Services. ## Foundation Services Tools The Foundation Services include a suite of tools to facilitate installation and cluster administration. There tools and their purpose are as follows:
`nhadm` | Perform administration tasks on a cluster
`nhcmmqualif` | Qualify the current node as master
`nhcmmrole` | get the role of the current node
`nhcmmstat` | display information about peer nodes, trigger a switchover, or force the qualification of a master-eligible node
`nhcrfsadm` | command line tool for Reliable NFS administration
`nhenablesync` | trigger disk synchronization
`nhinstall` | install and configure the Foundation Services
`nhpmdadm` | process monitor daemon administration tool
For information about using `nhinstall`, see the Netra High Availability Suite Foundation Services 2.1 6/03 Custom Installation Guide. In addition to the Foundation Services tools, many Solaris tools can be used for administration of a cluster. For information about using these tools, see the Netra High Availability Suite Foundation Services 2.1 6/03 Cluster Administration Guide.
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