Chapter 4 Planning and Documenting an OPS Cluster

Building the OPS configuration on HP-UX starts with a planning phase in which you gather and record information about all the hardware and software components of the configuration. Planning begins with a simple list of hardware and network components. As the installation and configuration continue, the list is extended and refined.

During the actual creation of the cluster, the planning worksheets provide the values that are input into SAM or the configuration file. Note that the same high availability options in SAM can be used both for the actual cluster creation as well as for information gathering during the planning stage.

This chapter assists you in the following planning areas:

The description of each planning step in this chapter is accompanied by a worksheet on which you can optionally record the parameters and other data relevant for successful setup and maintenance. As you go through each step, record all the important details of the configuration so as to document your production system. During the actual configuration of the cluster, refer to the information from these worksheets. A complete set of blank worksheets is in Appendix D.

	NOTE: Planning and installation overlap considerably, so you may not be able to complete the worksheets entirely before you proceed to the actual configuration. In cases where the worksheet is incomplete, fill in the missing elements to document the system as you proceed with the configuration.

Subsequent chapters describe configuration and maintenance tasks in detail.

Refer also to the chapter entitled "Planning your Installer Session" in the Oracle Parallel Server for HP 9000 Servers Addendum for specific tips on installing your Oracle software and setting up the Oracle database.