With what it claims is some 50% of its server customers running high-availability configurations of one form or another, Hewlett-Packard Co will this week unveil a set of products tailored to meet this demand. Hewlett-Packard’s existing Switchover software takes between 15 and 20 minutes to switch applications to alternative nodes in the event of failure; the new MC/ServiceGuard application will move applications around clustered nodes within 60 seconds using the new Journaled File System that features in the upcoming HP-UX 10.0 release, says the company. The software monitors clusters and views all of the system resources needed to run an application, plus the package itself, as one logical entity, all of which can be shifted to another node when required. MC/LockManager views Hewlett-Packard’s implementation of Oracle Parallel Server and its lock manager, which can be accessed by two servers simultaneously. Clients can be switched to other nodes in the event of failure. Informix and Sybase parallel database implementations will follow when they are up on Hewlett-Packard servers. Standard databases go up under MC/ServiceGuard. There is also a new Model 20 RAID disk array costing from $1.40 to $2.60 per Mb for up to 42Gb wide SCSI storage. OpenView gets additional failover functionality and PowerView provides management of Simple Network Management Protocol-based power supply devices. Hewlett-Packard also has high-availability service and consulting programs: the journaled file system, plus an optional extension that provides file defragmentation, reorganisation, back-up and recovery, OnLine JFS, a memory management diagnostic tool and an iteration of the OSF/1 volume manager will all be delivered as part of HP-UX 10.0 general business release this quarter. MC/ServiceGuard on 10.0 new business release – the version of the new operating system that will go to independent software vendors, developers and up on new kit first – will cost from $3,900 to $24,000. MC/LockManager is $7,500 to $32,000 this quarter on HP-UX 9.04 – on 10.0 next half. OpenView AdminCenter costs from $15,000 on servers, $250 to $800 on clients. The already-announced Process Resource Manager is from $2,300 to $11,500 and available only on HP-UX 10.0.
