Compaq ProLiant CL1850 Increasing Availability of Cluster Communications in a - Page 22

Compaq has implemented a two-part, software-based solution to ensure network availability on Compaq server networks. The first part of the solution is provided by the Compaq NetFlex-3 device driver, which includes built-in network fault protection features, such as recovery from hardware failure events, network status events, and errors. The second part of the solution is provided by the Compaq Advanced Network Control Utility. This utility allows for the designation of a secondary controller that acts as a standby, and assumes network responsibilities if the primary controller fails. This secondary controller is idle until a failure occurs with the primary controller. When you configure a controller pair on a Compaq server, you are providing an added level of network fault tolerance protection. A single NetFlex-3 driver instance controls both the primary and secondary controllers when the Advance Network Control Utility is installed. When the driver detects failures on the primary controller, and the secondary controller has a valid link, network traffic is switched to the secondary controller. The default operating mode is The switch occurs without any interruption to the operating system or network services.