registry keys as a clustered resource.

[eran borovik]

Hello, My company wants to migrate our product to be cluster aware on win2k
advanced servers. Our software consists of a service
and a kernel driver which loads at boot time. Both uses the registry as a
database for configuration and state save to resume after unexpected
shutdowns.
As a first thing, we want to work on a simple cluster layout in which one
machine work, and another do nothing until the first machine crashes.
I understand that it is possible to put registry keys as a cluster resource,
which means that if machine A crashes, machine B can
acquire the registry resources (along with others) and continue working.
This is all good, the problem is what happens when machine A boots and a
failover occurs. The kernel driver upon initialization, must be able to read
the registry for its proper operation. My question is when does the
registry in machine A gets uptodate with the one of machine B in the boot
process. I obviously need the driver to read the updated registry keys, not
the keys that existed when machine A crashed.

Any help is appreciated,
ERAN.

 

[eran borovik]

Thank you very much for your answer. I was wondering though on one thing. In
win2k, drivers have keys in the services branch
of HKLM. These keys are available very early during the boot process of the
machine. You have mentioned, that theoratically the service
key become updated before the service/application starts. What happens if
the keys relate to a driver service?? when are those become
updated.

Thanks again.
ERAN.