In an effort to deepen the eventual penetration of its ServerNet cluster interconnect technology and help actually make it the de facto standard it keeps saying it already is, Tandem Computers Inc is tying up with Veritas Software Corp, reports ClieNT Server News. It is arranging to bundle some up-market mainframe-class cluster technology that Veritas has in development with ServerNet, apparently expecting to deliver it late next year. The two companies have signed a non-exclusive letter of intent for Microsoft Corp’s Windows NT versions of the Veritas File System, the Veritas Cluster File System and the Veritas Cluster Volume Manager. Tandem is Veritas’s first OEM client for the NT ports of its File System and Cluster Volume Manager, which are currently available on Unix systems. The Cluster File System is a brand new product, previously unannounced, that Veritas expects to have ready on both Solaris Unix and NT in the second half of next year. It could be the first off-the-shelf clustered file system on either platform. Veritas describes its Cluster File System as a plug-in to its File System that will provide a single image across multiple systems and shared access to file systems, provided the boxes all come from the same manufacturer. The Cluster Volume Manager, on the other hand, is the promised superset of the Veritas Volume Manager that’s expected to be bundled into NT 5.0. It will allow storage resource sharing between clustered servers and applications. The technology should heighten NT’s scaleability, performance (depending on work load), data integrity and load balancing. The system is expected to be compatible with Microsft Corp’s Wolfpack clustering application programming interfaces. Veritas’s Unix and NT developments are being developed by two separate teams which should finish their work within the same quarter. Veritas anticipates Tandem will resell its products to other OEMs, resellers and end users, while Veritas pursues third parties as well. The Veritas File System, which should appear concurrent with the Clustered File System, will be a replacement for Microsoft’s own NT File System, providing something supposedly more suitable to the enterprise. It will include journaling for fast recovery, extent-based file allocation, multiple-writes synchronization and online file system growth, backup and defragmentation. The Clustered File System is expected to be a significant leap ahead of Microsoft which has said nothing publicly about making its own file system cluster-aware, a subject of some sensitivity in Redmond. Veritas says the combination of its software should put it where Microsoft’s Wolfpack clustering scheme will only get to once it’s reached its third phase, real clustering that’s not due until the end of next year at the earliest. Veritas’s own failover product FirstWatch, which Data General Corp is using (CI No 2,998), has been delayed. Final code for both the off-the-shelf version and Data General’s custom kit is not expected now until January though a limited edition is currently available.
