SPARCcluster PDB 1.x and SPARCcluster HA 1.x History

Before the release of Sun Cluster 2.0 in October 1997, Sun had two products that addressed different aspects of clustering— Sun SPARCcluster HA 1.x and Sun SPARCcluster PDB 1.x. The following sections outline the features, functions, and release histories of these two products.

SPARCcluster PDB 1.x

The Sun SPARCcluster PDB 1.0 system was announced in November 1994. This announcement marked Sun's initial entry into the clustering arena. However, first customer shipment was not until March 1995. Supported hardware configurations were very restrictive. This server supported only two-node configurations consisting of either SPARCserver™ 1000E or SPARCcenter™ 2000E systems running the Solaris 2.4 operating environment and using SPARCstorage™ model 100 or 200 arrays. Similarly, application support was limited to the Oracle 7.1.6 Parallel Server (OPS).

The only common feature between Sun SPARCcluster PDB and an Oracle 8i OPS or Oracle 9i RAC solution in Sun Cluster 3.0 is the continued use of the Veritas Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) product to control concurrent access to the underlying storage. Originally, the CVM was a separate product, but it is now incorporated in the core Veritas Volume Manager (VxVM) product as a licensable feature.

The Sun SPARCcluster PDB 1.1 system was announced in January 1996. New features included a multithreaded DLM to improve performance and CVM Dirty Region Logging (DRLs) to speed up recovery. The latest release of Oracle Parallel Server, v7.3.2, was also supported then.

Following the release of the new UltraSPARC-based Enterprise servers, the product was rebranded as Ultra Enterprise™ Cluster PDB and version 1.2 was announced in October 1996. It supported the Ultra Enterprise 2, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 servers, as well as the older generation SPARCserver 1000E and SPARCcenter 2000E systems, and required the use of the Solaris 2.5.1 operating environment. Support for Informix OnLine XPS 8.10 and Sybase MPP 11.0 parallel databases was added, along with low-end SCSI-based MultiPack storage configurations, rather than the more expensive, fiber channel SPARCstorage array. A new Scalable Coherent Interface (SCI) interconnect was also introduced as an alternative to FastEthernet. A system monitoring capability was delivered by integrating Sun SyMON™ into the system. Version 1.2 was the final release of the product before its functionality was merged into Sun Cluster 2.0.

SPARCcluster HA 1.x

The Sun SPARCcluster HA 1.0 server was announced in July 1995. The first customer shipments were in October that year. Unlike the Sun SPARCcluster PDB server, this software focused on making standard applications highly available rather than on running parallel applications. The fault management software used by the Sun SPARCcluster HA server was known as Solstice HA. Because this software effectively defined the product, it was often referred to by this name rather than as SPARCcluster HA.

The initial release supported HA-NFS version 2 (with lock recovery) and HA-Oracle 7 with IP failover. This support was achieved through a series of fault monitors that are conceptually identical to those used in Sun Cluster 3.0. Unlike SPARCcluster PDB, SPARCcluster HA used Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 to provide volume management functions.

Hardware and software requirements for Sun SPARCcluster HA 1.0 were very similar to Sun SPARCcluster PDB 1.0. Clusters were limited to two-node configurations, using only SPARCserver 1000E or SPARCcenter 2000E systems (mixed node clusters were not supported) running under the Solaris 2.4 operating environment. Storage was provided by SPARCstorage model 100, and later, 200 arrays using 10BASE-T, 100BASE-T, or FDDI for the cluster interconnects. Unlike Sun Cluster 3.0, SPARCcluster HA 1.0 had no HA-API toolkit to extend the product.

The 1.1 release, scheduled for May 1996, was never publicly released. Instead, new features were deferred until release 1.2 in October 1996. These features included:

  • Support for the new Sun Enterprise™ 2, 3000, 4000, 5000, and 6000 servers. These servers were also supported in mixed configurations.

  • A new HA-API toolkit, to allow additional services to be developed

  • Support for Informix Online XPS 7.0 and Sybase MPP 11.0 database software

  • Solaris 2.5.1 operating environment as the minimum operating system release for the product

The final release of Ultra Enterprise HA 1.3 server in April 1997 saw the product rebranded along lines similar to the Ultra Enterprise PDB product. Features included:

  • Support for SPARCstorage™ RSM™ 214 arrays, as well as multipacks for low-end Enterprise 2 clusters

  • Support for Solstice DiskSuite 4.1. This support introduced the concept of mediators for dual-disk string configurations. Previous generations required a minimum of three arrays.

  • Added support for Netscape Internet Services

  • Support for FDDI as a cluster interconnect, allowing nodes to be 2 kilometers apart when Fibre Channel arrays were used.

No new hardware or software was qualified on the product except the Solaris 2.6 operating environment.

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