1.1 Purpose of HA Monitor

The purpose of HA Monitor is to improve system reliability and availability by enabling switching of systems, including programs.

System reliability and availability are especially important when a UNIX system is used for a key business activity. A conventional system achieves reliability by deploying dual resources, such as disk devices or LANs. HA Monitor enables you to achieve not only dual resources but also dual server systems.

If a server performing job processing fails while you are using HA Monitor, switchover to a standby server system can occur immediately and automatically. This enables you to improve system reliability and availability without requiring intervention by the operator.

The following figure provides an overview of HA Monitor.

Figure 1‒1: Overview of HA Monitor

In this figure, server systems 1 and 2 constitute a hot-standby configuration. If an error occurs in the program running on server system 1, HA Monitor switches over to the program on server system 2. This minimizes the amount of time jobs are suspended because of the error.

Depending on the functions, some hardware is required to use HA Monitor, such as a monitoring path and a reset path. For details about the hardware and software requirements for HA Monitor, see 1.6 Operating environment for HA Monitor.

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