Open SUSE® 11.0 and SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server Bible

Chapter 27. Enterprise Architecture

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Locating Linux in the enterprise

• Enterprise hardware

• Storage area networks

• Virtualization

• Disaster recovery

• High availability

It is all well and good knowing how to configure Linux for your environment, but it is too often overlooked how to implement a solution to fit into your environment. This chapter comprises some best practices that we have come across with regards to Linux on the enterprise.

The term "enterprise" often evokes images of men in suits, money, and starships. Here, the enterprise is a general concept of scalable, stable, and manageable systems that helps to turn business processes into automated and efficient systems. In fact, some people will never have to come into contact with certain elements of the enterprise: storage area networks (SANs), disaster recovery (DR) scenarios, and high-performance (HP) clustering to name a few.

Tip

The term "clustering" is widely used in the IT industry and many people associate this only with HP computing. "HP computing" is a term used to describe the use of many separate processors (whether in a multiprocessor or separate configuration). The other two common types of cluster are load balancing (using many servers to provide nonuniform computing power like a web farm) and high availability (HA), used to provide a failsafe solution to a service.

So the general architecture of a system, and specifically Linux, should always be considered with scalability and stability in mind. Total Cost ...