Keeping Businesses in Business

Staying competitive in today’s 24/7 business world means staying up and running. Downtime, whether

unexpected or for planned maintenance, is incredibly costly and can be potentially devastating.

For small businesses or large enterprises alike, success or failure depends on how well your infrastructure can

handle crisis situations—situations that jeopardize customer or client access to critical applications and data.

Dell™ high availability cluster solutions can help protect your business from the severe impact of downtime.

Dell High Availability Clusters Help Deliver Maximum Uptime

From around-the-clock E-commerce to high-volume financial trading, Dell’s customizable high availability

cluster solutions address your specific business continuity needs simply and cost-effectively. Dell combines the

efficiency and flexibility of our Direct Model with industry-standard technology and award-winning service and

support to create reliable, easy-to-manage high availability cluster solutions. By eliminating single points

of failure, Dell clusters help assure that end users have access to a system that has been optimized for

maximum uptime.

Dell High Availability Cluster Benefits

➤ Avoid expensive, business-damaging disruptions

➤ Smooth deployment of upgrades

➤ Flexible solutions to cost-effectivelymeet your specific requirements

➤ No single points of failure

➤ Easy to deploy and manage

➤ Certified configurations

➤ Industry-standard components

➤ Award-winning service and support

Dell High Availability Solutions

GET MORE OUT OF CLUSTER SOLUTIONS. GET MORE OUT OF NOW.

Is a Cluster Solution Right for You?

If continuous data and application availability is crucial to your organization, a Dell cluster solution can be the

answer. Dell high availability cluster solutions help enable your business to keep running even when a server

goes down or offline for maintenance and upgrades. The solution consists of clustered systems, or nodes, linked

by a private Local Area Network (LAN). The LAN serves as a heartbeat mechanism to communicate the health

status of each node to its peers. When a system goes offline, services such as data and applications are

automatically transferred to a functioning system resulting in optimum availability.

Dell Delivers the Right Cluster Solution for You

Dell offers two high availability options allowing you to customize and build the solution that will provide data

and application protection to best match your environment:

Microsoft® High Availability Clustering

Dell SCSI and Fibre Channel cluster configurations are approved and certified by Microsoft. You can trust that

your high availability solution is backed by industry-leading expertise to keep your business up and running.

SCSI Clusters

A SCSI Cluster solution is ideal for small to medium organizations implementing two-node cluster

configurations in a direct-attach environment. Microsoft Cluster Server with Windows® 2000 Advanced Server

or Windows Server™ 2003 Enterprise Edition supports two-node failover clusters providing industry-proven and

backed technology.

What’s more, PowerEdge™ S-Series clusters utilize PowerVault™ storage systems with PERC RAID controllers

specifically designed with clustering in mind. This gives you exceptional high availability capabilities optimized

for your clustered environment.

LAN/WANLAN/WANLAN/WAN

Heartbeat

Data A Data B

Private

ApplicationServer B

ApplicationServer A

Shared FC Disc SystemBoth servers have redundant connections to disk system(s),

but MSCS controls access. One server talks to the disks at a time.

Boot DriveBoot Drive

High Availability Architecture

LAN/WANLAN/WANLAN/WAN

PowerEdge Server

PowerEdge Server

PowerVault 22xSPowerVault 22xSSCSI StorageSCSI StoragePowerVault 22xSSCSI Storage

SCSI Cluster Architecture

Fibre Channel Clusters

Dell Fibre Channel Clusters can be implemented in direct-attach deployments or Storage Area Network (SAN).

Cluster consolidations with Fibre Channel switches enable more flexibility and expandability for delivering

configurations to meet your needs.

Fibre Channel is capable of supporting two-node configurations with Windows 2000 Advanced Server and

is ideal for enterprise-class servers handling robust environments. With Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition,

eight-node clustering is supported. These larger configurations help organizations to survive double or triple

server failures and balance workloads in consolidated server deployments.

Application/Data Clustering

Dell also provides clustering solutions delivered by the application. For instance, the Oracle10g™ Real Application

Clusters (RAC) provide a powerful, reliable way to implement an Oracle® database application designed for high

availability. It allows clusters of up to eight PowerEdge servers along with four DelI/EMC storage systems.

The configuration allows for seamless software integration, incorporates scalability for future expansion and

ensures failover capabilities to help provide continuous availability.

To ensure high levels of database availability, Dell, EMC and Oracle have performed rigorous testing,

including failover testing, database stress testing and storage certification of Oracle's clustering technology

with Dell servers.

DELL ENTERPRISE SERVICESBy utilizing the proven advantages of our directmodel, including tailored service and support, low cost and a single point of accountability, Dell Services can provide you with fast, effective,affordable service offerings at any point in your IT process. By doing so, we offer a combination of bundled best practices and tailored solutionsthat work together to provide maximum value toyou. Whether you need support, deployment, training and certification programs, or professionalconsulting services, individually or bundled as a total package, Dell promises to be your singlepoint of accountability at all times.

Professional ServicesDell Professional Services enables Dell customersto optimize ROI by utilizing complex technologythrough the design, development and deploymentof innovative, robust and scalable business-criticalsolutions. With each engagement, we utilize ourproven methodology and project managementexpertise to understand your business objectives,design plans that are flexible to adapt to your currentenvironment and then deliver the desired results.

Deployment ServicesWe bring you deployment assistance that deliverstrue value from beginning to end. Dell can tailorsystems to our customers’ specifications bycustomizing the hardware and softwareconfiguration during the initial system-build toreduce redundancy and time. We can managethe delivery, installation and disposal of yourassets with the same eye for efficiency.

Training and CertificationOur approach to Training and Certification can helpyou to outsmart your competitors—not outspendthem—with industry-standard learning acrossDell hardware and industry-standard software.Dell can assist you wherever you need us,whether on-site, online or in a classroom setting,to help your organization take full advantageof information technology.

Enterprise Support ServicesTechnology is a significant investment, and it paysto have a partner who can help you minimizecostly downtime. Through our Premier EnterpriseSupport Services (PESS) offerings, Dell providestiered support service packages with the flexibilityto customize the offering to meet your specificneeds across a wide range of computingenvironments. With proactive and reactivesupport options which include hardware andsoftware support with varied response levels,account management and remote resolution,Dell provides support solutions that meet yourneeds, cost-effectively.

Services vary by region. For more information on the available services in your area, pleasevisit www.dell.com.

Direct-Attach Fibre Channel Configuration

LAN/WANLAN/WANLAN/WAN

PowerEdge Server

Cluster Cluster InterconnectInterconnect

Cluster Interconnect

Dell/EMC® Fibre Channel Storage

PowerEdge Server

Dell cannot be responsible for errors in typography or photography. Dell disclaims proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Dell, the Dell Logo, PowerEdge, PowerVault and OpenManage are trademarks of Dell Inc.Intel is a registered trademark and Xeon is a trademark of Intel Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. EMC is a registered trademark and MirrorView and SnapView are trademarksof EMC Corporation. Oracle is a registered trademark and Oracle9i is a trademark of Oracle Corporations. PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to eitherthe entities claiming the marks and names or their products. © Copyright 2005 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information contact Dell. March 2005, Kolar.

Dell High Availability Products

Visit www.dell.com/clusters to view validated configurations, special offers, technical white papers,

case studies and more.

PowerEdge™ Servers

— PowerEdge Expandable RAID Controller (PERC)

— Redundant, hot swap drives, power supplies, cooling fans and PCI Express™ slots for high availability

— Error Correction Code (ECC) memory for advanced data protection

— Scalable Intel® processing power

Dell/EMC and PowerVault Storage

— Dell/EMC fibre channel storage arrays provide highly available storage for a variety of workgroup,

— midrange and enterprise applications

— Multi-platform access, snapshot copy and remote mirroring capability with optional Access Logix,

— SnapView™ and MirrorView™ software for data protection

— Solutions for direct attached and storage area network (SAN) deployments

Oracle RAC

— Supports up to eight PowerEdge servers

— Provides scalability and high availability

— Dell deployment CD helps reduce the time to deploy Oracle RAC and helps automate best practices

— Visit www.dell.com/oracle for best practices and the software deliverables list (SDL)

Call your Dell sales representative to build a high availability clustering solution that will

keep your organization running smoothly. Visit www.dell.com/clusters or call 1-800-www-dell

for more information.

GET MORE OUT OF CLUSTER SOLUTIONS. GET MORE OUT OF NOW.

Visit www.dell.com/clusters for more information.