About Veritas Cluster Management Console


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About Veritas Cluster Management Console

The Veritas Cluster Management Console is a high-availability cluster administration and management solution. It can be configured to locally manage a single cluster or to centrally manage multiple clusters.

These two modes of configuration and operation are called single-cluster and multi-cluster. The differences between the modes are significant. Multi-cluster mode offers greater capability on a larger scale. Both modes require different installation and configuration procedures. The following table summarizes some of the differences between single-cluster and multi-cluster mode.

Operational mode	Configurational description
Local management of one cluster (single-cluster mode)	The Cluster Management Console is installed along with VCS on each node in the cluster and is configured for failover. It is integrated with VCS as part of the ClusterService service group. The Cluster Management Console offers robust cluster management capability and can be run from any supported Web browser on any system.
Centralized, comprehensive, enterprise-wide administration of multiple clusters (multi-cluster mode)	When configured to centrally administer multiple clusters, one instance of the Cluster Management Console is installed outside all clusters on a standalone server. The console enables users to visually and intuitively input commands to the multi-cluster management engine, the management server. The management server initiates monitoring and management actions based upon those commands. The management server uses a database to store cluster configurations, cluster status, events, event policies, report jobs, report outputs, and more. If the managment server and cluster nodes are separated by a firewall, a component called cluster connector is installed on each cluster node. Cluster connector enables communication between the management server and clusters through firewalls. Cluster connector also provides buffering for cluster data. If the management server goes offline and then comes back online, it can retrieve data collected during the offline period from the cluster connector buffer. The console offers additional capability for administering users, reports, events, and notification. If the cluster environment includes licensed VCS global clusters, disaster recovery (DR) capability is also available.

Operational mode

Configurational description

Local management of one cluster (single-cluster mode)

The Cluster Management Console is installed along with VCS on each node in the cluster and is configured for failover. It is integrated with VCS as part of the ClusterService service group. The Cluster Management Console offers robust cluster management capability and can be run from any supported Web browser on any system.

Centralized, comprehensive, enterprise-wide administration of multiple clusters (multi-cluster mode)

When configured to centrally administer multiple clusters, one instance of the Cluster Management Console is installed outside all clusters on a standalone server.

The console enables users to visually and intuitively input commands to the multi-cluster management engine, the management server. The management server initiates monitoring and management actions based upon those commands. The management server uses a database to store cluster configurations, cluster status, events, event policies, report jobs, report outputs, and more.

If the managment server and cluster nodes are separated by a firewall, a component called cluster connector is installed on each cluster node. Cluster connector enables communication between the management server and clusters through firewalls. Cluster connector also provides buffering for cluster data. If the management server goes offline and then comes back online, it can retrieve data collected during the offline period from the cluster connector buffer.

The console offers additional capability for administering users, reports, events, and notification. If the cluster environment includes licensed VCS global clusters, disaster recovery (DR) capability is also available.

The configurational differences between the modes mean that you cannot switch a single Cluster Management Console installation from one mode to the other. However, the modes can co-exist in the same multi-cluster environment, with single-cluster-mode installations on VCS cluster nodes, and multi-cluster-mode installations on management server hosts. Such a deployment can be desirable if different IT administrators in your enterprise have different scopes of responsibility.

See the Veritas Cluster Server Installation Guide for information about installing Cluster Management Console.

See the Veritas Cluster Server Centralized Management Guide for information about managing multiple clusters using Cluster Management Console.

This chapter describes how to use the Cluster Management Console in single-cluster mode.


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