High Availability Requirements - A reference for Designing Servers and Peripherals for the Microsoft® Windows nt®...

High Availability Requirements
This section summarizes the requirements for high availability.
Through ACPI and OnNow power management capabilities, Windows NT 5.0 allows more control of dynamic configuration changes and power state changes. These features help implementers in handling event-based issues such as lights that are keyed to system failures, pending failures, or system power states.
188 System includes alert indicators for occurrence of failure
Alert indicators should be provided that indicate hard failure. In addition to visual alerting mechanisms, a design can also provide software alerts such as paging, fax, or e-mail notifications.
The following are possible sources of alert indicators for hard failures:
Chassis cover open (intrusion)
Cooling fan malfunction
Disk drive error
N+1 power module failure
Nonmaskable Interrupt (NMI), processor internal error, and time-out of watchdog timer
189 System includes alert indicators for imminence of failure
Alert indicators that indicate informative failure should be provided. The hard failure and informative failure indicators cannot be on simultaneously.
The following are possible sources of alert indicators for imminent failures:
Abnormal temperature of processor or inside chassis
AC power line failure (operated by UPS)
Manageability Baseline Requirements
This section presents server requirements related to the Wired for Management (WfM) initiative and the Zero Administration initiative for Windows. The WfM initiative seeks to raise the level of management capabilities on mobile, desktop, and server platforms. The Zero Administration initiative seeks to ensure a controlled, highly manageable enterprise.
The baseline for these requirements is Windows Hardware Instrumentation Implementation Guidelines, Version 1.0 (WHIIG), which also defines the Windows NT-specific requirements of the Wired for Management Baseline Specification, Version 2.0, for hardware instrumentation.
Collectively, the items in this section represent the “Manageability Baseline” requirements.
Tips for implementing management capabilities. For manufacturers who want to implement management capabilities for server systems and components, these are the design steps to pursue:
Implement the recommended component instrumentation features defined for servers in Windows Hardware Instrumentation Implementation Guidelines.
For those components that require Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), ensure that WMI is enabled in device minidrivers as defined in the Windows NT 5.0 DDK.
Refer to WHIIG for other driver requirements and design tips.
For all instrumented components, test against the baseline features required in WHIIG.
For each component, extend the WBEM and CIM schemas to expose the device’s custom features in any CIM-ready management browser.
General Manageability Baseline Requirements
This section defines requirements related to centralized control and configurability and BIOS support for system manageability.
190 Remote new system setup and service boot support uses DHCP and TFTP
The open, industry-standard DHCP provides for dynamic configuration of systems on TCP/IP networks, as specified in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFCs 1533, 1534, 1541, and 1542. TFTP, Revision 2, supports boot image download, as specified in IETF RFC 1530.
The complete mechanism for remote new system setup is defined in Network PC System Design Guidelines, Version 1.0b or higher.
If implemented, there must be a way for this capability to be enabled or disabled by way of administrative control to maintain server security.
See also the requirement for the preboot execution environment in the requirement “System BIOS meets boot support requirements” in Chapter 2, “Basic System Components Requirements.”
191 Expansion devices can be remotely managed
Devices provided as expansion devices should be capable of being remotely managed to ensure that control and TCO policies can be realized. The requirements for remote management capabilities are defined in the “Manageability Component Instrumentation Requirements” section later in this chapter.
For example, for any implementation of a floppy drive, the floppy drive should be capable of being remotely disabled as a boot selection and provisions should be made for locking.
It is not required that certain devices be capable of being remotely disabled, including the primary hard disk drive, the network adapter, and any standard devices that use legacy connections, such as a keyboard or pointing device that uses a PS/2 connection. However, it must be possible to use permissions, policies, or other methods to remotely manage capabilities such as hard disk access or to control certain users’ ability to change the MAC address or configuration settings for the network adapter.
If implemented, there must be a way to enable and disable this capability by way of administrative control to maintain server security.
See also the requirement for the BIOS to ensure secure preboot access to hardware components in the “System BIOS meets boot support requirements” item in Chapter 2, “Basic System Components Requirements.”
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