Symantec Veritas Cluster Server (VCS), now known as Veritas Infoscale Availability, is a high-availability and disaster recovery solution provided by Veritas Technologies. It is designed to ensure continuous availability of critical applications and data by providing clustering and failover capabilities. Let’s explore its history and features:

History of Symantec Veritas Cluster Server (VCS):
– Veritas Cluster Server has a history that dates back to the early 1990s when it was initially developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It was originally known as VAXcluster and provided clustering capabilities for DEC’s VAX systems.
– In 1997, Symantec acquired VAXcluster as part of its acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation’s storage business. It was then renamed as Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) and expanded to support various operating systems, including Unix and Linux.
– Over the years, Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) evolved and gained popularity as a leading solution for high availability and disaster recovery in enterprise environments.
– In 2016, Symantec spun off its Veritas business, and the Veritas Cluster Server product became a part of the Veritas Technologies portfolio. It was later rebranded as Veritas Infoscale Availability.

Features of Symantec Veritas Cluster Server (VCS):
1. High Availability: VCS provides high availability for critical applications and services by continuously monitoring the health of server nodes and automatically failing over resources to a standby node in the event of a failure. This ensures minimal downtime and uninterrupted service availability.
2. Application Monitoring: VCS monitors the health and availability of applications running within the cluster. It can detect application failures or anomalies and take appropriate actions, such as restarting applications or initiating failover, to maintain service availability.
3. Automated Failover: VCS automates the failover process, allowing for rapid and seamless transfer of resources from a failed node to a healthy node in the cluster. It ensures that applications and services are quickly restored on the standby node, minimizing the impact of failures.
4. Disaster Recovery: VCS facilitates disaster recovery by providing replication and synchronous/asynchronous mirroring capabilities. It allows for data replication between geographically dispersed sites, enabling recovery in the event of a site-wide failure or disaster.
5. Scalability: VCS supports scaling of clusters by adding or removing nodes dynamically. It allows for the seamless expansion of the cluster to accommodate growing workloads and the addition of new resources without interrupting ongoing operations.
6. Cluster Resource Management: VCS manages cluster resources, including applications, services, virtual IP addresses, and shared storage. It ensures that resources are properly allocated, load balanced, and failover ready, maximizing resource utilization and minimizing service disruptions.
7. Cluster-aware File Systems: VCS supports cluster-aware file systems, such as Veritas File System (VxFS) and Veritas Cluster File System (CFS). These file systems are designed for high availability and data integrity in clustered environments, providing seamless access to shared storage across cluster nodes.
8. Integration with Storage: VCS integrates with various storage technologies, including Storage Area Networks (SAN), Network-Attached Storage (NAS), and Storage Virtualization, to ensure optimal utilization and availability of storage resources within the cluster.
9. Health Monitoring and Alerting: VCS provides comprehensive health monitoring and alerting capabilities, allowing administrators to monitor the status and performance of the cluster. It generates alerts and notifications in case of any issues or failures, enabling proactive management and troubleshooting.
10. Cluster Management Console: VCS offers a centralized management console that provides a unified view of the entire cluster environment. It allows administrators to configure, monitor, and manage the cluster resources, services, and failover policies from a single interface.

Symantec Veritas Cluster Server (