Implementing a Multi-Server Chassis

This section describes how to enable the multi-server functionality in Swarm to create two or more independent nodes in a single physical chassis.

Environments including high-density hardware with multiple cores benefit from the multi-server functionality available in the Swarm 3.0 and later releases. This feature allows multiple independent Swarm nodes in a single physical chassis with a subset of drives assigned to each node to be created.

Requirements

For multi-server implementations, each node requires at least:

• Two CPU cores

• Two hard drives

• 2 GB RAM

See Configuration Settings for Multi-Server.

Effect of multi-server

Shutting down or restarting one node impacts all nodes in the multi-server chassis after setting up a multi-server configuration. The entire four-node chassis restarts if a four-process multi-server chassis is set up and a single process (a single node) is restarted. This is true for both SNMP shutdown/restart and shutting down or restarting the chassis using the Swarm Admin Console because all services in the multi-server chassis share the same resources.

Monitoring and administration

The Swarm Admin Console displays each physical chassis at the same level as a subcluster.

The Retire action impacts the volumes for the specified process.

Initiate retire actions for all associated server processes within the chassis to retire all volumes within a chassis.