Thanks David for your interest in Polyserve !
Unfortunately, SQL server itself is a shared nothing application,
which cannot benefit from a clustered file system.
A clustered file system allows all the nodes in the cluster to see
(share) the same file with full read/write access,
but unlike IIS / CIFS applications which can use a clustered file
system to load balanced access (scale out) across all the nodes in the
cluster,
a SQL server instance data and log files is not shared with other SQL
servers instances on other nodes.
But, there are some benefits to gain from the use of a shared file
system for SQL HA
1) a clustered file system is mounted on all the nodes, this
guarantee a seamless transition of the instance in case of disruption,
rather than a typical "failover" scenario with a forced unmount, etc.
2) Large, heterogeneous, node count (16 node SQL Server clusters that
can mix 2p, 4p, and 8p servers)
3) No drive letter limitations
4) Easy storage management
5) Easy management of raw data file for ETL . I.e. you can store all
your
exports in one folder which is seen by all the nodes.
6) Off host backup. All the instances can backup into one location,
and one node can copy the backup to tape.
For more information :
http://www.polyserve.com/sql Tomer Meshorer
Database Engineer
Polyserve
[quoted text, click to view] "David Liu" <david.z.liu@moneris.com> wrote in message news:<197f901c41cb5$ff95c440$a501280a@phx.gbl>...
> Basically, I need to have real active/active cluster
> solution on SQL server(any MS platform).
> The windows failover clustering tech is share nothing
> clustering , so can not do the load balancing stuff(
> distribute transaction traffic between servers).
> Only product I know on the market is PolyServ's Matrix
> server, any suggestions from microsoft?
>
> Thanks
>
> David Liu
> MCSE/MCDBA
> DBA