HP introduces high-availability solutions for mission-critical HP 9000 environments; comprehensive family of products and services dramatically improves availability of mission-critical computing environments.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 1995--To meeting the increased customer demand for mission-critical UNIX(R) system-based computing environments, Hewlett-Packard Company today introduced a collection of high-availability solutions that minimize planned and unplanned downtime of mission-critical HP 9000 environments. -0-

HIGH-AVAILABILITY PRODUCT AND SERVICE SOLUTIONS FEATURES

     o    an enterprise-class clustering architecture;
     o    flexible workload-management capabilities;
     o    high-performance journaled file system;
     o    enhanced system- and network-management tools;
     o    automated power management;
     o    two high-performance disk arrays; and
     o    comprehensive support and consulting services tailored
          for customers with mission-critical environments.

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"Our high-availability products create a new standard for reliability and resiliency of commercial UNIX system-based environments," said Carol G. Mills, general manager of HP's General Systems Division. "With this new suite of products and services, we can now provide customers with a new level of protection from unplanned service disruptions, as well as reducing the downtime associated with system maintenance."

ENTERPRISE-CLASS CLUSTERING ARCHITECTURE

The cornerstone of HP's high-availability strategy is its new enterprise cluster technology, which combines multiple HP 9000 servers into a single, loosely coupled entity. Enterprise clusters dramatically improve overall application availability by quickly identifying and responding to various hardware and software failures in a manner that eliminates or reduces application downtime. HP's clustering technology also minimizes the application downtime associated with typical system-maintenance activities such as hardware and software upgrades.

Two new products provide alternate methods of grouping HP 9000 servers into enterprise clusters:

MC/ServiceGuard: a cluster manager that monitors the relative "health" of various cluster components, including system processors, memory, network adapters and application processes. In the event of a component failure, MC/ServiceGuard responds by quickly reallocating system resources to restore application services to end users. With MC/ServiceGuard, applications can be deployed in cluster environments with no code modification.

MC/ServiceGuard features a unique "application package" facility that simplifies the process of deploying and managing applications within enterprise clusters. Application packages combine all system resources required to deliver application services (including application processes, disk volumes and network resources) into a single logical entity. MC/ServiceGuard moves packages quickly from node to node in response to critical system failures, maximizing application availability to end users with minimal disruption. In addition, system administrators can use MC/ServiceGuard to move application packages temporarily off a node scheduled for system maintenance.

MC/LockManager: a cluster manager that works in conjunction with ORACLE Parallel Server (OPS) from ORACLE Corp. MC/LockManager and OPS cooperate to provide a single, logical view of multiple ORACLE7 databases running on nodes of an enterprise cluster. Working together, these two products combine the best aspects of HP's enterprise clusters and ORACLE's OPS: high availability, data integrity, configuration flexibility, scalability and reduced database-administration cost.

SYSTEM SOFTWARE AND MASS STORAGE

HP's upcoming HP-UX(1) 10.0 operating system includes a number of high-availability features, including a journaled file system, new system diagnostic capabilities and enhancements to the Logical Volume Manager. In addition, HP has added two new high-performance, highly available disk arrays tailored for mission-critical environments.

The new journaled file system dramatically reduces the time required to access critical data during application start-up. This further improves MC/ServiceGuard's ability to provide highly available application services. HP also has added OnLine journaled file system, an optional journaled file system extension that provides on-line file defragmentation, reorganization, file expansion and backup services. OnLine journaled file system substantially reduces planned system downtime by allowing system managers to perform these operations while the system is fully operational.

HP-UX 10.0 includes a new memory-management diagnostic that identifies and deallocates memory blocks containing errors, providing greatly increased protection from memory-related problems. HP has enhanced its logical volume manager to provide an alternate I/O path to a logical volume, allowing access to the volume if the primary I/O path fails.

HP also has introduced two high-availability disk-array models designed specifically for mission-critical environments.

The new Model 10 and Model 20 high-availability disk-arrays offer full redundancy and on-line replacement ("hot swappability") of all major components -- including disks, controllers power supplies and fans -- eliminating any single point of failure. In addition, the arrays feature dual-active controllers, concurrent support for RAID Level 0,1, 0/1 and 5; up to 64MB of mirrored, write cache; and up to 42GB of capacity using fast 2.1GB disk drives. Both models use the high-performance fast/wide SCSI-2 interface and offer optional battery backup.

SYSTEM AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT

A key software element in HP-UX 10.0 is HP Process Resource Manager, a workload-management facility that allocates CPU processing power among specific groups of users on a single node. When used with HP's enterprise clusters, Process Resource Manager allows system administrators to allocate processing priorities to critical and non-critical applications running on individual nodes. If a single node in the cluster fails, MC/ServiceGuard can use Process Resource Manager to reallocate resources dynamically to an application that has been moved to another node in the cluster.

HP OpenView, HP's market-leading network-management platform, provides powerful and transparent system-management capabilities. Through its HP OpenView AdminCenter solution, administrators can identify, simulate and implement system-configuration changes from a central location. This functionality improves availability by reducing system-configuration errors and speeding file-system, software, peripheral and kernel administration tasks.

COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT SERVICES

As part of its high-availability initiative, HP is expanding both the scope and nature of its worldwide service and support capabilities to meet the needs of customers running mission-critical applications.

HP's Professional Services Organization (PSO) provides a broad range of services that enhance and ensure the availability of HP systems. These services allow PSO consultants to assess customers' specific business needs, recommend products and create open, client/server architectures specifically designed to minimize planned and unplanned system downtime.

HP plans to offer mission-critical customers a new value-added service that focuses on preventing computer-system interruptions and faster resolution of problems when they occur. Proactive planning, preventative maintenance and monitoring of customer environments are features of this service that, coupled with expanded system-recovery capabilities for system interruptions, ensures customers a minimum of unplanned system downtime.

"As customers move their processing environments and applications from mainframes and proprietary `fault-tolerant' hosts to distributed IT infrastructures, they demand the same levels of availability and uptime for these new environments," said Mills. "By building the ability to monitor, detect and quickly respond to system faults directly into the system, customers can greatly reduce the severity and impact of system downtime to end users -- and ultimately to their bottom line." -0-

U.S. PRICES

     MC/ServiceGuard               $  3,900 -- $24,000
     MC/LockManager                   7,500 --  32,000
     Journaled File System            (Included with HP-UX 10.0)
     Logical Volume Managers
     Memory Page Deallocation
     HP high-availability           20,000 (6.36GB)--68,000(42GB)
     disk-arrays
     HP Process Resource Manager      2,300 -- 11,500
     HP OpenView AdminCenter         15,000 (central)
                                        250 -- 800 (managed)

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HP is the second-largest computer supplier in the United States, with computer-related revenue of $19.6 billion in its 1994 fiscal year.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global manufacturer of computing, communications and measurement products and services recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 98,400 employees and had revenue of $25 billion in its 1994 fiscal year. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: Sales information may be obtained by calling 1-800-637-7740. Please do not use editor contact or corporate telephone numbers for sales information.

(1) HP-UX is based on and is compatible with Novell's UNIX(R) operating system. It also complies with X/Open's(tm) XPG4, POSIX 1003.1, 1003.2, FIPS 151-1 and SVID2 interface specifications. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited. X/Open is a trademark of X/Open Company Limited in the UK and other countries.

CONTACT: Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto

Kim Daniel, 408/447-4587

Gerry Van Zandt, 408/447-1665