Preface

A long, long time ago, Jim Lola approached me to write a book on the TruCluster Server product – I think that I was still young at the time. Now, many grey hairs later, I sit here on my recliner, my feet up, and my trusty (albeit quirky) laptop on my lap trying to put into words what an adventure it has been to create the book you now hold in your hands. Once upon a time we envisioned a nice, small, compact handbook – as you can see, we have no apparent concept of what small and compact are. So while it may not be compact, it is as complete as we could make it.

Jim, Dennis, Greg, Brad, and I attempted to cover as many aspects of the TruCluster Server product as possible while keeping the book under one million pages and not delving too deeply into the nether-workings of the product's implementation.

This book primarily focuses on version 5.1A of the TruCluster Server product, although we have tried to point out differences between V5.1A and the two previous version 5 releases. As a bonus (and due to our tendency to provide more rather than less information), some chapters include version 5.1B information as well.

As the cover indicates, this book reflects the collaborative effort of five authors, so although we aimed for a consistent look and feel, you will no doubt pick up on each author's individual voice and writing style. Jim was the primary author of chapters 1, 4, 5, 10, 11, 25, and appendix B; Dennis took the lead on chapters 2, 16, 18, 19, and 20; Greg was in charge of chapters 21, 22, 26, and appendix A; Brad had primary responsibility for chapter 3; and I wrote chapters 6 – 9, 12 – 15, 17, 23, and 24 as well as batting cleanup and pitching in out of the bullpen.

It is our sincere hope that you read this book, find it indispensable, dog-ear many, many pages, and end up buying copies for every member of your family, friends, co-workers, and the neighbor next door.

Enjoy!

Scott Fafrak
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
November 2002

Acknowledgments

Welcome to the part of the book where we get a chance to thank and acknowledge those individuals who gave of their time and energy, willingly and quite often enthusiastically, to make this book so much better than it would have been without them. The behind-the-scenes efforts of the following people will not soon be forgotten.

Thank you so very much for your technical expertise, encouragement, and in some cases, bad jokes:

• Dick Buttlar,
  Ernie Heinrich,
  Christian Klein,
  Alan Brunelle

• Greg Brown,
  Wayne Cardoza,
  Tim Donar,
  Bruce Ellis,
  Tom Ferrin,
  Sergey Gleizer,
  Steve Gonzalez,
  Bob Grosso,
  Travis Gummels,
  Jan Mark Holzer,
  Chris Jankowski,
  Fred Knight,
  Diane Lebel,
  Lorrin Lee,
  Bruce Lutz,
  Maria Maggio,
  Dan McGraw,
  Scooter Morris,
  John Mundt,
  Janice Parker,
  Lauralee Reinke,
  Alan Rose,
  Susan Rundbaken,
  Mike Schloss,
  Thomas Sjolshagen,
  Tom Smith,
  Roy Takai,
  Jem Treadwell,
  Susan Verhulst,
  Pelle Wahlstrom,
  John Williams,
  Laurel Zolfonoon,
  and the Systems
  Operations and the
  Computing Technologies
  Groups at Genentech.

Also, to the many who contributed through your encouragement, support, comic relief, poetry, and
tolerance during this project:

• Pam Chester,
  Cary Cose,
  Marcie Dark,
  Nancy King,
  Evan Lola,
  Karl Lola,
  Lauren Lola,
  Chris Manley,
  Scott Manley,
  Tracy McTernan,
  Cecelia Nichols,
  Daniel Nichols,
  Timothy Nichols,
  Theron Shreve,
  Robert Trouard Jr.,
  Abigail Yates,
  Cherith Yates,
  Gail Yates,
  Horace Yates,
  and the #unix-chat gang

• Thank you.

And finally, to our amazingly supportive and downright wonderful wives, Kris Fafrak, Kim Lola,
Cheryl Dyment, Beth Yates, and Susan Nichols, your patience and encouragement mean more than
words can convey.

Scott
Jim
Den
Greg
Brad