PRIMEPOWER 650 and 850 Technical White Paper
01/12/31
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Degradation Function Using Initial Diagnosis
At power-on, initial diagnosis is executed before the OS is booted. Initial diagnosis checks first whether the system
boards are connected correctly. After the connections have been confirmed, SPARC64
™
GP CPU operation is started
and memory and I/O units are diagnosed. If initial diagnosis detects an error, the fault location is isolated. By default,
fault isolation is performed in such a way that the isolation unit is the smallest possible. This initial diagnostic function
enables isolation of faulty components so that operation will be performed using only normal components. Errors
detected in the power-on diagnosis are posted to the system administrator and maintenance personnel via the system
console.
Disk Subsystems
The various RAID and file units are supported as disk subsystems. The disk units mounted in these file units can be used
as system volumes. Software such as SynfinityDisk can be used to enable the file units to have a RAID configuration.
SynfinityDisk also enables mirroring of the system volumes.
In addition, to maintain High Availability, it is essential that the system can restart as quickly as possible after a system
failure occurs. To quickly execute file system recovery (fsck) after a system failure occurs, a journal file system such as
Fujitsu’s SynfinityFile is required. In addition to faster fsck, installing SynfinityFile enables extension of the file system
size that accompanies data expansion and load distribution. SynfinityFile’s multi-volume function enables such
expansion to be executed without having to stop the system.
When RAID units are used, setting a dual controller configuration can increase the fault tolerance of the RAID units and
also enable duplication of the access paths including the PCI cards.
SynfinityDisk
SynfinityDisk is a software product that provides mirroring and hot spare functions between disk units in a single-system
configuration and a mirroring function between shared disk units in a SynfinityCluster environment.
SynfinityFile
SynfinityFile is a UFS and API compatible file system. This software product provides a log function (metadata journal)
and advanced functions such as multi-volumes and shared access.
- Log function: After a system failure occurs, fsck recovers integrity within seconds from its log information
- Multi-volume function: Multiple disks can be registered in one file system. Because the size can be easily extended
without restoring, operating costs can be significantly reduced. In addition, each of the three elements (metadata, data,
and log) of the file system size can be allocated to individual disks. This can significantly improve I/O characteristics
and performance.
- Server sharing function (cluster file system): Simultaneous access from different servers is enabled by a standard API.
Shared access of file systems is enabled even between different partitions.
Multipath Disk Control
This software product supports duplicated configuration of the interface between the disk array units.
Network Subsystem
SynfinityLink
In a network subsystem, SynfinityLink enables the construction of redundant network configurations of network
communication components (network adapters, transmission lines, and so on) based on the HA functions of the
PRIMEPOWER 650 and 850 models. SynfinityLink thereby provides communication functions with superior
reliability and availability.
In addition, switching and system reconfiguration when an error occurs are automatically executed in the network
subsystem. As a result, continuity of communication between applications is increased without needing to be aware of
these redundant configurations.
