IBM AIX

Introduction

IBM AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive) is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms. AIX is known for its robustness, scalability, and high availability features, making it a popular choice for enterprise-level applications that require reliability and performance.

What is an IBM AIX Cluster?

An IBM AIX Cluster refers to a group of AIX systems (nodes) that work together to provide high availability, scalability, and redundancy. These clusters are designed to ensure that applications remain available and performant even in the event of hardware or software failures. Clustering in AIX typically involves multiple servers connected together to form a single logical unit that can manage and distribute workloads efficiently.

Features of IBM AIX Clusters

• High Availability: AIX clusters are designed to provide continuous availability of applications and services. In case one node fails, the workload is automatically transferred to another node in the cluster without significant downtime.
• Scalability: AIX clusters can easily scale to accommodate increasing workloads. Additional nodes can be added to the cluster to enhance processing power and storage capacity.
• Load Balancing: Workloads can be distributed across multiple nodes in the cluster to ensure optimal resource utilization and prevent any single node from becoming a bottleneck.
• Fault Tolerance: AIX clusters offer robust fault tolerance by replicating data and applications across multiple nodes. This ensures that data integrity and application availability are maintained even in the event of hardware failures.
• Resource Sharing: Resources such as CPUs, memory, and storage can be shared across the nodes in the cluster, providing a flexible and efficient environment for running applications.
• Centralized Management: IBM AIX clusters provide tools for centralized management, making it easier to administer and monitor the entire cluster from a single interface.

Here are the key discovery components typically found in an IBM AIX Cluster environment:

1. Cluster Nodes

   • Nodes: These are the individual servers that form the cluster. Discovery involves identifying all the physical or virtual servers that are part of the cluster.

2. Cluster Manager

   • PowerHA (formerly HACMP): IBM’s high-availability cluster multi-processing software for AIX. It manages the cluster configuration and operations.
   • C-SPOC (Cluster Single Point of Control): A set of tools provided by PowerHA for managing cluster operations from a single node.

3. Network Components

   • Ethernet and IP Networks: Network interfaces and IP addresses used for communication between cluster nodes.
   • Heartbeat Networks: Specialized networks used to monitor the health of the nodes and manage failover.

4. Storage Components

   • Shared Storage: Disk arrays, SAN (Storage Area Network) devices, and other storage units that are shared among the nodes.
   • Logical Volumes and Volume Groups: Storage volumes and groups managed by the AIX Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
   • Filesystem Mount Points: Filesystems that are mounted on the cluster nodes and possibly shared.

5. Cluster Resources

   • Resource Groups: Groups of resources that fail over together during a node failure.
   • Application Controllers: Components responsible for starting, stopping, and monitoring applications running on the cluster.

6. Service IPs

   • Service IP Addresses: Virtual IP addresses used by services to ensure they are reachable even after a failover.

7. Quorum Devices

   • Quorum Disks: Disks used to maintain cluster quorum and avoid split-brain scenarios.

Key Benefits

• It discovers the IBM AIX cluster components.
• Publishes relationships between resources to have a topological view and ease of maintenance.
• The device monitoring helps to collect the metric values with respect to time and sends alert to the intended customer team to act up on immediately in case of any threshold breach or unexpected metric behaviour observed based on configurations. In a way it helps the customer with smooth functioning of business with minimal or zero downtime in case of any infrastructure related issues occurring.
  • Provides metrics related to job scheduling time and status etc.,
  • Concern alerts will be generated for each metric to notify the administrator regarding the issue with the resource.

Supported Target Version

Hierarchy of IBM AIX Cluster resource

This application can discover IBM AIX Cluster related resources:

      • IBM AIX Cluster
              • IBM AIX Server
              • IBM AIX Resource Group

Version History

• See, Working with IBM AIX Server for more information on how to configure IBM AIX Server.
• See Supported Metrics and Default Monitoring Configuration for more information about Supported Metrics and Default Monitoring Configuration of IBM AIX Server.
• See Supported Alert and Resource Filter Input keys for more information about Supported Alert and Resource Filter Input keys of IBM AIX Server.
• See Risk, Limitations and Assumptions for more information about the Risk, Limitations and Assumptions of IBM AIX Server.