At NetWorld+Interop yesterday, Novell Inc introduced its first clustering product for NetWare 5. NetWare Cluster Services, which was endorsed by Compaq Computer Corp, Dell Computer Corp, Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp at the launch, is primarily aimed at users needing high-availability, and Novell says its fast failover time is now measured in seconds rather than minutes, so that in most cases a failure will not be noticed by users. Novell aims to capture more e-Business customers who need greater levels of reliability and no perceptible downtime.
But scalability is also a factor, and the system has been tested with up to 12 nodes – though four to eight nodes is the sweet spot according to Patti Dock, VP of product marketing at Novell. Clustering for NetWare 4 was limited to four nodes. Novell says there isn’t a limit on the number of nodes that can be supported with the new software, although nothing above 12 has been certified to date. In contrast, it points out, Microsoft Corp still offers only two nodes with WolfPack, and the promise of four once Windows 2000 ships.
Cluster Services for NetWare 5, which has been beta testing since March and ship next month, includes central management from a single Java-based console and supports nodes running earlier versions of NetWare. It is also closely integrated with Novell’s Directory Services software. As NetWare 5 has been shipping for a year there is some pent-up demand. IBM says it has 1,000 servers ready to sell once the software has shipped.
Cluster Services doesn’t include load balancing, nor any of the disk mirroring technologies from its troubled Wolf Mountain clustering projects. Novell says it learned some things from Wolf Mountain, but began from scratch last year to develop the new technology. Cluster Services costs $5,000 per server node.
