ALL ABOUT CLUSTERING

A computer cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely so that in many respects they form a single computer. The components of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other through fast local area networks. Clusters are usually deployed to improve performance and/or availability over that provided by a single computer, while typically being much more cost-effective than single computers of comparable speed or availability.

High-availability (HA) clusters
High-availability clusters (also known as Failover Clusters) are implemented primarily for the purpose of improving the availability of services which the cluster provides. They operate by having redundant nodes, which are then used to provide service when system components fail. The most common size for an HA cluster is two nodes, which is the minimum requirement to provide redundancy. HA cluster implementations attempt to use redundancy of cluster components to eliminate single points of failure.
There are many commercial implementations of High-Availability clusters for many operating systems. The Linux-HA project is one commonly used free software HA package for the Linux operating systems.
Load-balancing clusters
Load-balancing when multiple computers are linked together to share computational workload or function as a single virtual computer. Logically, from the user side, they are multiple machines, but function as a single virtual machine. Requests initiated from the user are managed by, and distributed among, all the standalone computers to form a cluster. This results in balanced computational work among different machines, improving the performance of the cluster system.

Compute clusters
Often clusters are used for primarily computational purposes, rather than handling IO-oriented operations such as web service or databases. For instance, a cluster might support computational simulations of weather or vehicle crashes. The primary distinction within compute clusters is how tightly-coupled the individual nodes are. For instance, a single compute job may require frequent communication among nodes - this implies that the cluster shares a dedicated network, is densely located, and probably has homogenous nodes. This cluster design is usually referred to as Beowulf Cluster. The other extreme is where a compute job uses one or few nodes, and needs little or no inter-node communication. This latter category is sometimes called "Grid" computing. Tightly-coupled compute clusters are designed for work that might traditionally have been called "supercomputing". Middleware such as MPI (Message Passing Interface) or PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine) permits compute clustering programs to be portable to a wide variety of clusters.

MANAGING YOUR PROJECT

1 Define scope of work to achieve individual and group goals
2 Identify stakeholders and decision makers
3 Identify escalation procedures
4 Develop work breakdown structures
5 Evaluate project requirements
6 Identify required resources and budget
7 Estimate time requirements
8 Develop initial project management flow chart
9 Identify interdependencies
10 Identify and track critical milestones
11 Evaluate risks and prepare contingency plan
12 Participate in project phase review and report project status
13 Identify project management software
14 Develop method of evaluation
15 Formulate a task strategy
16 Prioritize tasks according to customer needs
17 Devise plan of action

APPLICATION OF HARDWARE ISSUES

Students were asked not only to take care of system administration but also to manage hardware.
The jobs that students handled were: hardware acquisition and replacement; space, heat, and
power management; and most importantly, network management.
Dealing with this process helped future system administrators develop system design skills. Students
also managed the location of shelving, machines, wires, and peripherals, all within the constraints
of the room available. Because of space constraints, cluster nodes were packed tightly
Integrating IS Curriculum Knowledge
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together and students even went as far as developing a plan for proper cooling of all of the machines.
Networking is a unique problem with Beowulf clusters. It can be divided into two major, related
areas: cabling and topology. Cabling is a problem because the large number of wires and their
length constrains the space in which the cluster can be placed and limits signal quality. Topology
is a consideration because of its effect on performance. Each computer will use a power, mouse,
keyboard, video and potentially multiple network cables. It is difficult to service a cluster when
there is a cascading mess of wires covering everything on the cluster's backside. The cables
quickly become unmanageable if a coherent labeling and bundling plan is not thought of ahead of
time. Another factor is cable cost. It is cheap and educational for students to create custom cables
from a box of cable parts and crimping tools.

NET DESIGN CONCEPTS

1. Identify customer/organisational requirements
2. Conduct need analysis
3. Identify power consuption requirements
4. Identify the importance of UPS
5. Identify physical requirements for network implementation
6. Identify system requirements for network implimention inluding specialised servers.
7. Identify application requirements for network implimentation

Windows Cluster Information

Demand for cost-effective , high perfomance computing is increasingly being addressed by using CLUSTERING solutions.

The most cost effective manufacture today is DELL, it delivers affordable Cluster sulutions.

System Requirements for Windows Server 2008

Component Requirement

1.Processor Minimum: 1.4 GHz(x64 processor)

2.Memory Minimun 512 MB, Maximum 8 GB

3.Disk Space Minimum: 32G or Greater
Foundation 10 GB or Greater
4.Display Super VGA(800 by 600)

5.Other DVD Drive, Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse

Exchange server - post on 7-09-2009

This link is about design Exchange server 2007 and basic configure exchange server:

Design Exchange 2007:
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http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780672329203/samplechapter/0672329204_Chapter_03.pdf

Configure Exchange 2007:
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http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Installing-Configuring-Testing-Exchange-2007-Cluster-Continuous-Replication-Based-Mailbox-Server-Part1.html