HM running in MS cluster

[sine]

it's possible to run HM in cluster using MS cluster service?

i think that I will need to share some reg key and the folder on witch hm is installed...it's right??

where i can find (if exist) some tips to do this? tnx

[KS-Soft Europe]

it's possible to run HM in cluster using MS cluster service?

i think that I will need to share some reg key and the folder on witch hm is installed...it's right??

where i can find (if exist) some tips to do this? tnx

Hm. Truth to say, we have never tested HostMonitor in cluster environment. You may become a first one

As I understand, you are talking about MS Cluster Service, right? So, it means, you are going to install HostMonitor on multiple servers within the cluster. HostMonitor will be started on only one node at any point in time. As that server is taken down, the HostMonitor is started on another node. Correct?

I see two possible approaches to implement this. First one requires that each instance of HostMonitor use local *.hml, *.ini files. In second approach, *.hml and hostmon.ini files are stored on some shared resource and HostMonitor uses "/Ini=IniFileName" command line parameter to load hostmon.ini file from remote location.

Both approaches requires installation HostMonitor on first node, configuring it and making "File Replication Services" to synchronize it within all the nodes in a cluster. Looks easy but there are several disadvantages:
a) after initial replication, you should install HostMonitor service manually (or using batch script) from command line prompt and following command: hostmon.exe /installservice
b) also you should register HostMonitor on each node by entering Registration code.

Beside that, using first approach, in case of crash, you may loose statistical information for last 30 minutes, because HostMonitor save test statistics every 30 minutes for better performance.

Second approach looks more preferable, but in case when machine (or NAS or SAN), where .hml and .ini files are stored, will be taken down, HostMonitor will not work.

Anyway, Microsoft Cluster Service is designed to provide high availability, rather than true fault tolerance. So, you should make additional efforts to make it reliable.

Actually, we are going to implement something like HostMonitor's cluster, at least, we have such a task in our to do list, but I do not know when it will be implemented.

So, if you agree to test HostMonitor on your cluster - your help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Max

[greyhat64]

You might want to read up on M$ recommendations for creating Cluster Aware Applications. If I'm reading it right, transaction processing would be the a big concern.

Maybe just as, if not more, interesting is the ability to create your own extensions to Cluster Administrator. An opportunity to create a utility to give AHM a better hook to monitor M$ clusters.