What is the minimum hardware cluster

Question

For dev/test purposes I would like to set up a minimal cost Sun Cluster 3.1 system. I am planning on using a couple of Netra 120s but would it be possible to use a third machine (netra or worse) to provide the shared disk area.
I note from the 3.1 docs that there is still reference to terminal concentrator - is this still necessary.
I have looked around to see if anybody has specced out a cheap cluster (Sparc not x86) but have failed to find one.
Any advice appreciated.
Den

Answer 1

For dev/test purposes I would like to set up a minimal
cost Sun Cluster 3.1 system. I am planning on using a
couple of Netra 120s but would it be possible to use a
third machine (netra or worse) to provide the shared
disk area.You could build a 3-node cluster without shared storage.
You could also get an inexpensive, dual-port SCSI
box and share one or more SCSI disks. You will need
some storage if you are testing a data service which
uses shared storage.
I note from the 3.1 docs that there is still reference
to terminal concentrator - is this still necessary.optional. None of the cluster software uses a terminal
concentrator.
I have looked around to see if anybody has specced out
a cheap cluster (Sparc not x86) but have failed to
find one.In my home labs, I've used Ultra-1s, 2s, Netra t1, V100,
V120. All are low-cost, smallish systems. In my labs
at work I keep the big iron. The software tries to not
be tied to specific hardware, since that is very difficult
to maintain. And since Solaris runs on a variety of
different hardware, Sun Cluster should too.
Caveat: there is a list of "supported" hardware
configurations which you may or may not care about.
Service will get picky if you want a support contract.
But if you are testing or experimenting, IMHO, you
should have leeway to do that. Just beware that there
are combinations of hardware, software, and firmware
which may not work together, and Sun knows about
them, and will not "support" them. This list changes
every two weeks and, AFAIK, is not publically available.
Anyway, back to your config... up to 8 Netra 120s are
supported in a single cluster. But they have limited
storage capabilities, so a SCSI multipack is probably
the best storage. Depending on what you are testing,
you should have two disks and two paths to storage.
-- richard