Clustering Multiple FastSync Mailbox Servers

An article entitled "Would the real cluster please stand up?" by Michael Surkan, PC Week Labs, states that "Ideally, clustering is a combination of network operating system technology with highly optimized third-party applications designed to run modularly, spreading their work loads across multiple machines."  We think this is where CTI's FastSync Post Office Server fits.

As reference, here's part of what Digital Equipment has said about clustering:  "A cluster is a group of systems that works collectively as a single system to provide fast, uninterrupted computing service.  Clustering is the result of a fundamental re-thinking of the best way of delivering high performance and high availability." 

CTI's FastSync TCP/IP based Mailbox System was designed to support clustering.  Click here for Multi-Server (Cluster) and Multi-Leg FastSync Mailbox Configurations.

Compaq Demolishes NT Cluster Benchmark

(Wednesday, January 05, 2000) The latest Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) TPC-C benchmark using a Windows NT cluster by Compaq Computer Corp. has blown away previous results. Using six eight-way Pentium Xeon machines, the Compaq cluster processed 99,274.90 transactions per minute (tpmC), shattering the previous mark of 50,208.43 tpmC for a Windows NT-based cluster.

The new Compaq (www.compaq.com) system, the PDC/O2000, was configured with six Compaq ProLiant 8500 servers, each with Intel Pentium Xeon 550 MHz processors, two megabytes of cache and four gigabytes of RAM. The servers were connected to 90 Compaq RAID Array 4000 disk subsystems through six Gadzoox (www.gadzoox.com) Capellix 3000 Modular SAN switches, each configured with 22 ports. The total disk storage capacity was 9.8 terabytes.

The servers were running the Microsoft Windows NT Enterprise Edition version 4.0 operating system and the Oracle8i Enterprise Edition version 8.1.6 database manager. Other tools included Oracle Parallel Server version 8.1.6 and Mortice Kern Systems' Toolkit for NT.

The previous TPC-C (www.tpc.org) benchmark was held by NEC Corp. (www.nec.com) when it recorded 50,208.43 tpmC, also using Oracle8i. It only used four 8-way machines rather than the six that Compaq used.

In the last few months leading up to the New Year, Compaq, Dell Computer Corp. (www.dell.com), Fujitsu Siemens Computers, and Unisys Corp. (www.unisys.com) released Windows NT cluster benchmarks on a single 8-way machine, producing results from 40,168.5 to 40, 697.2 tpmC. -- Brian Ploskina