Dell AX4-5 Hardware Installation Guide - Page 7

Introduction A failover cluster combines specific hardware and software components to provide enhanced availability for applications and services that are run on the cluster. A failover cluster is designed to reduce the possibility of any single point of failure within the system that can cause the clustered applications or services to become unavailable. It is recommended that you use redundant components like server and storage power supplies, connections between the nodes and the storage array(s), connections to client systems or other servers in a multi-tier enterprise application architecture in your cluster. This document provides information and specific configuration tasks that enable you to configure your Microsoft® Windows Server® failover cluster with Dell/EMC AX4-5F (2 Fibre Channel ports per Storage Processor) or Dell/EMC AX4-5FX (4 Fibre Channel ports per Storage Processor) storage array(s). NOTE: Throughout this document, Dell/EMC AX4-5 refers to Dell/EMC AX4-5F and Dell/EMC AX4-5FX storage arrays. NOTE: Throughout this document, Windows Server 2008 refers to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. For more information on deploying your cluster with Windows Server 2003 operating systems, see the Dell™ Failover Clusters with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. For more information on deploying your cluster with Windows Server 2008 operating systems, see the Dell Failover Clusters with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Installation and Troubleshooting Guide on the Dell Support website at support.dell.com/manuals. For a list of recommended operating systems, hardware components, and driver or firmware versions for your Dell Windows Server Failover Cluster, see the Dell Cluster Configuration Support Matrices located on the Dell High Availability Clustering website at dell.com/ha. Introduction 7