This IBM® Redpaper will help you do an informed comparison of Parallel Sysplex® against clustering implementations on other platforms. We start by describing the basic components of Parallel Sysplex data sharing, using DB2® as a sample implementation of the capabilities provided by Parallel Sysplex. Using this as a base, we then describe how each of the components are implemented on other platforms.

This Redpaper does not attempt to discuss all of the very many flavors of clustering or even a majority of them. We are concentrating on clustering solutions suitable for commercial online transaction processing that require good scalability and high or continuous availability. All of our implementation examples are of clustered database solutions because these present the greatest challenge for a cluster implementation.

We begin with a chapter that discusses the concepts around clustering such as types of clusters, storage models, and associated data integrity issues. This chapter forms the basis for the concepts and terminology used in the following chapters that discuss z/OS® parallel Sysplex and clustering on AIX® .

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Clustering basics

Chapter 3. z/OS Parallel Sysplex

Chapter 4. Clustering on AIX