Microsoft Cluster Server with two-node failover is at the heart of Compaq's entry-level NT cluster product, code-named Toucan and due by year's end. What sets the product apart from many similar offerings is its configuration options. Customers can order the servers and storage combined in a rack configuration for data centers, which gives them the ability to reconfigure the system later, or as a single closed-tower configuration, which may be preferable for remote sites where there is no IS expertise. The systems will be priced from $15,000 to $25,000.

Compaq also plans to increase the availability of ProLiant 6400R clusters based on Microsoft Cluster Server by adding dual Fibre Channel loops between servers and storage using two RA4000 host adapters on each node. Due in the fourth quarter, the new system will range in price from $25,000 to $100,000.

Jim Nocella, a senior network administrator for MCI WorldCom in Piscataway, N.J., is pleased with the performance of the dual Fibre Channel loops on the system he's testing. Nocella says that when there was just one path between servers and storage, "a loose wire could take the system down." With new dual RA4000 host adapters, dual network cards, and two Fibre Channel hub connections for each server, that single point of failure is eliminated. "I have redundancy at every corner with multiple data paths in place," he says.

At the high end, Compaq says it will offer a six-server NT cluster with up to 48 Intel CPUs based on Oracle Parallel Server 8i. The system will ship this fall, following Intel's introduction of its eight-way Profusion architecture. It will also include the dual Fibre Channel loop capabilities, as well as enhanced storage features in the form of Compaq's 10-terabyte ESA 12000 StorageWorks system, previously available only for Unix and OpenVMS systems. The cluster will communicate via Compaq's ServerNet high-speed interconnect, which now supports Intel's VI cluster interconnect standard. Prices will start at $200,000.