Introduction

A new facility of implement xCAT high availability is introduced.

The Existing Problem of xCAT high availability solution

Complicated configuration procedure
Documented poorly

Test Strategy

Function Verification Test

Scenario One

Build two xCAT management nodes to high availability from scratch

              .____.
      __++----      `)
     (                )) _
    (                   ) `)
  :(   Backbone network   ))
   ((                     )))
    `.                   ))
     '--+              .:'----+    +----------+
        |`------.____.:'      |    | compute  |
      +-+        |            +----|node `baz'|
      |          +----+            |          |
      |               |            +----------+
+-----------+   +-----------+
|   xCAT    |   |   xCAT    |
|management |   |management |
|node `foo' |   |node `bar' |
+-----------+   +-----------+
      |               |
      |   .-------.   |
      |  (         )  |
      |  |`-------'|  |
      +--| Shared  |--+
         : storage :
          `-------'

Make xCAT management node foo active and xCAT management node bar idle. Then, make foo failure and fallback to bar.

Test if the public IP address is switched to another active server.
Test if DNS service is switched to another active server.
Test if HTTP service is switched to another active server.
Test if TFTP service is switched to another active server.
Test if DHCP service is switched to another active server.
Test if all DHCP leases are switched to another active server.
Do an xCAT compute node operating system deployment
Recover the failed xCAT management node foo, and configure it as the idle xCAT management node

Scenario Two

Switch an existing xCAT management node to high availability

There is an xCAT management node foo in the existing environment. Set up another xCAT management node bar to match it, and make them a working xCAT high availability setup.

News

Apr 22, 2016: xCAT 2.11.1 released.
Mar 11, 2016: xCAT 2.9.3 (AIX only) released.
Dec 11, 2015: xCAT 2.11 released.
Nov 11, 2015: xCAT 2.9.2 (AIX only) released.
Jul 30, 2015: xCAT 2.10 released.
Jul 30, 2015: xCAT migrates from sourceforge to github
Jun 26, 2015: xCAT 2.7.9 released.
Mar 20, 2015: xCAT 2.9.1 released.
Dec 12, 2014: xCAT 2.9 released.
Sep 5, 2014: xCAT 2.8.5 released.
May 23, 2014: xCAT 2.8.4 released.
Jan 24, 2014: xCAT 2.7.8 released.
Nov 15, 2013: xCAT 2.8.3 released.
Jun 26, 2013: xCAT 2.8.2 released.
May 17, 2013: xCAT 2.7.7 released.
May 10, 2013: xCAT 2.8.1 released.
Feb 28, 2013: xCAT 2.8 released.
Nov 30, 2012: xCAT 2.7.6 released.
Oct 29, 2012: xCAT 2.7.5 released.
Aug 27, 2012: xCAT 2.7.4 released.
Jun 22, 2012: xCAT 2.7.3 released.
May 25, 2012: xCAT 2.7.2 released.
Apr 20, 2012: xCAT 2.7.1 released.
Mar 19, 2012: xCAT 2.7 released.
Mar 15, 2012: xCAT 2.6.11 released.
Jan 23, 2012: xCAT 2.6.10 released.
Nov 15, 2011: xCAT 2.6.9 released.
Sep 30, 2011: xCAT 2.6.8 released.
Aug 26, 2011: xCAT 2.6.6 released.
May 20, 2011: xCAT 2.6 released.
Feb 14, 2011: Watson plays on Jeopardy and is managed by xCAT!
xCAT Release Notes Summary
xCAT OS And Hw Support Matrix
xCAT Test Environment Summary

History

Oct 22, 2010: xCAT 2.5 released.
Apr 30, 2010: xCAT 2.4 is released.
Oct 31, 2009: xCAT 2.3 released.
xCAT's 10 year anniversary!
Apr 16, 2009: xCAT 2.2 released.
Oct 31, 2008: xCAT 2.1 released.
Sep 12, 2008: Support for xCAT 2
can now be purchased!
June 9, 2008: xCAT breaths life into
(at the time) the fastest
supercomputer on the planet
May 30, 2008: xCAT 2.0 for Linux
officially released!
Oct 31, 2007: IBM open sources
xCAT 2.0 to allow collaboration
among all of the xCAT users.
Oct 31, 1999: xCAT 1.0 is born!
xCAT started out as a project in
IBM developed by Egan Ford. It
was quickly adopted by customers
and IBM manufacturing sites to
rapidly deploy clusters.