Fibre Channel: Fibre Channel Leaders Chart Course to Clustering for Heterogeneous Enterprise Environments

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, August 24, 1998

The Fibre Channel Community (FCLC), an international non-profit organization of over 100 leading Fibre Channel companies, today announced the formation of a new steering committee chartered to address the need for an affordable, common, interoperable, open clustering technology. Clustering, which involves linking multiple servers together in a manner that allows them to operate as if they were a single machine, has emerged to provide high data availability and system scalability in a distributed computing networking environment. The new working group will be known as the Cluster Steering Committee for the Fibre Channel Community (CSC-FCLC).

"In the simplest of context, clustering is like communal computing. In a more formal context, clustering is a group of servers and workstations, linked and managed together to function as a logical computing unit, by sharing processing and storage resources," said Dave Guerrero, Chairman of the CSC-FCLC. "The high bandwidth, low latency and networking capabilities of Fibre Channel make it an excellent cluster interconnect technology."

A clustered system is transparent to users, who see no difference between a cluster and a single server from an application perspective. Forms of proprietary clustering have been around since the early 1970s. Recently, clustering has become more widely known with Microsoft's introduction of its clustering solution, called "Wolfpack," for Windows NT.

The increased user demand for an Open Clustering Environment (OCE), coupled with enabling technologies such as increased processor power, storage and RAID technology, high bandwidth Storage Area Networks (SANs), and intelligent I/O management over greater distances fuel the broadening interest towards an Open Clustering Environment.

"The Cluster Steering Committee was formed specifically to assist in the rapid development of specifications for Fibre Channel in an Open Clustering Environment," continued Guerrero. "While many clustering solutions already exist, they typically lack the ability to interoperate across multiple system platforms and operating systems, criteria increasingly being sought by small and large businesses alike."

According to Guerrero, the CSC-FCLC plans to present proposals pertaining to Fibre Channel clustering to the ANSI committee responsible for governing the Fibre Channel specification. In addition, the group plans to move aggressively to recruit a round table of end users who plan on implementing Fibre Channel-based clustering in their enterprise or mission critical environments.

First Meeting Slated QLogic Corporation will host the first CSC-FCLC meeting on Aug. 24 at 3 p.m. at the Waterfront Hilton, 21100 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, Calif. Speakers from IBM, Microsoft and Novell will be presenting various aspects of Clustering. Other speakers will address underlying standards and initiatives that contribute to the goal of an Open Clustering Environment. Individuals or companies interested in contributing should contact Dave Guerrero, Chairman of CSC-FCLC, at 714/731-5732 or via E-mail at dleon397@aol.com, or Skip Jones at 714/668-5058 or via E-mail at sk_jones @qlc.com.

About the FCLC The Fibre Channel Community is an international non-profit organization with membership that currently includes over 100 major companies representing a wide cross section of the industry embracing manufacturers of servers, disk drives, RAID storage modules, switches, hubs, adapter cards, test equipment, cables and connectors, and software solutions. The FCLC's charter is to speed the development and deployment of products and services utilizing Fibre Channel technology by the promotion of industry cooperation and market awareness. Activities include technology demonstrations at tradeshows, sponsorship of interoperability testing sessions, and providing FCLC speakers for various industry events and seminars. Further information about the FCLC can be found at http://www.fcloop.org.