Sufficient unto the day is never the evil thereof when it comes to IBM Corp, so not content with giving its large systems users pause for deep thought, the company also announced the AIX High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing/6000 software for the RS/6000 Unix box. Multiprocessing is a misnomer, because the software ties together only two RS/6000s, enabling each to back the other up. IBM also announced that it will begin distributing the AIX/6000 on compact disk. The new HACMP/6000 software enables users to choose from three levels or modes of high availability support: it mode 1, it provides fallover to a back-up idle RS/6000 for quick restart of an application or subsystem if there is a failure with the primary processor. Each RS/6000 is active in mode 2, running its own applications, but enabling one system to dump its load onto the other should a processor fail. In mode 3, the systems run concurrently, enabling single image access to data from both computers. This concurrent processing requires the 9333 disk subsystem. HACMP/6000 is supported by the new AIX/6000/3.2 release and uses the Systems Management Interface Tool for installation, configuration and maintenance of the RS/6000 clusters. ClaM Associates Inc in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is working with IBM to provide customer installations and support for HACMP/6000. Planned availability is September for modes 1 and 2, and March 1993 for mode 3. Price will depend on the RS/6000.
