Cluster Pre-Registration Takes Pain Away From Partners

As previously reported, the program, which is open to all IBM Business Partners at no charge, is used to certify all parts of a cluster solution before deployment. Partner calls are routed from IBM's triage team to a cluster specialist, who takes down all the information about the solution: hardware components, including applications; customer; location; and type of cluster, such as RAID or fibre channel.

"It's a live call, with one of our people who has gone through Microsoft Cluster Server training," said Andrew Flanagan, IBM's business manager for Netfinity customer support and service.

The specialist offers installation tips and makes sure the solution is free from the most common gotchas, such as hardware or software that is not cluster-certified, and outdated firmware, device drivers and system BIOSes. Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM also provides installation guides on the Web.

Two teams within IBM handle clustering: support specialists and a "worldwide cluster SWAT team," Flanagan said. The cluster SWAT team meets once a week to review the week's installations, and any partner and customer deployment problems.

IBM also provides post-installation support, including stocking cluster spare parts nearby preregistered solutions and flagging them for top-level support when a partner calls the help line.

Kevin Vogl, NT-Netfinity practice manager for Champion Computer Corp., said the support has reduced his headaches deploying clusters. The Boca Raton, Fla.-based integrator, which has implemented 33 solutions using Microsoft Cluster Server, has preregistered five clusters with IBM.

"It's great," Vogl said. "You get someone to check your configuration and make sure it works. During the implementation, we register everything with IBM, right down to NIC cards and the applications we are clustering."

One of those preregistered clusters is Boca Raton-based TutorTime Learning Systems Inc., the fourth-largest privately owned day care operator, which has 200 centers in eight countries.

TutorTime uses touch screens to login children via Frame Relay to its data warehouse, consisting of 11 Netfinity 7000 M10 servers and several others running Unix.

"Support not only from the [partner] but from IBM is important to us," said Todd Dion, TutorTime's vice president of technology.

Champion recently put IBM's program to the test when a customer's server went down. Rather than explaining the problem to a chain of technical support technicians, Vogl said, "I was talking to someone about the problem in 2 minutes." He credited this in part to the preregistration, which gave the cluster support specialist complete details on the solution. From the time he initiated the support call, it took Vogl 90 minutes to get the server back up and running.

Kirk Northington, marketing director for Softcell Inc., Cornelius, N.C., said the solutions grow increasingly complex as new industries begin to adopt Windows NT. SoftCell, a distributor and independent solution provider for the manufacturing industry, increasingly sees Windows NT appearing in its market. "Some of the processes are beginning to run on server PCs themselves, especially for batch processing," Northington said.

The increasing complexity of clusters is exacerbated by strict deployment guidelines. "There are a lot of details we have to make sure anyone who is installing a cluster follows very specifically," Flanagan said. "Things like, if you put in a hot spare, have you done a low-level format first?"

For Vogl, IBM's program makes sense for a reason closer to his wallet. "The beauty of it is, it's free," he said. "Microsoft charges me $195 a call, and I have to re-explain the problem to each person I talk to. So it doesn't make sense to call Microsoft when I can call IBM."