Learn more about creating clusters

A cluster is a loosely coupled collection of the independent systems (nodes) that are organized into a network for sharing the resources, and communicating with each other. If the cluster node is not able to provide services, PowerHA® SystemMirror defines relationships among the operating systems so that the peer cluster nodes provide those services.

Before you start, you must complete the following prerequisites:
  • • Install PowerHA SystemMirror software on all the nodes that you want to include in the cluster.
  • • Ensure that all nodes you want to include in the new cluster meet the following requirements:
    • o The same AIX® version installed on them.
    • o The same version and edition of the PowerHA SystemMirror installed on them.
    • o They must share a storage disk that you can use as the common storage repository for the cluster.
  • • Connect and configure all the IP network interfaces.
  • • Discover all nodes in your subnet by using the Discovery task in the IBM® Systems Director.
  • • Request access to nodes that have a status of no access by using the Request Access task in the IBM Systems Director.
  • • Collect information to define an active communication path to the takeover node.
The wizard automatically discovers and configures the various communication paths between the local node and the takeover node. If the local node and the takeover node have IP aliases associated with them, and the aliases are reachable from the local node, the wizard automatically configures the aliases as PowerHA SystemMirror persistent IP addresses.
Note: You can also supply specific values for persistent IP addresses for the local node and the takeover node, if you prefer.
For more information about creating clusters, see the Create a Cluster topic in the AIX information center.