Appliance node clusters

1. A system comprising:

a high speed private local area network (LAN); and

a logical cluster of appliances comprising a plurality of physical sub-clusters of appliance nodes, wherein a sub-cluster (N) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters comprises a first plurality of nodes of said appliance nodes, wherein said first plurality of nodes comprises an appliance node, wherein said appliance node comprises a virtualization node, a tape volume cache (TVC), a hierarchal storage node, and a library manager, wherein said virtualization node comprises a watchdog timer enabling said virtualization node to be restarted during a malfunction, wherein said TVC caches data read from an associated logical volume, wherein said hierarchal storage node uses tokens to determine which of said first plurality of nodes comprises a current data copy, wherein said library manager comprises a plurality of physical tape drives and a robotic accessor for transferring magnetic tape to said plurality of physical tape drives, wherein said sub-cluster (N) is associated with a plurality of (M) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (M) generation appliances comprises a same type, category, and family of appliance, wherein (N) comprises a first cluster number, wherein (M) comprises a first generation number of a first generation comprising a first development configuration of appliances, wherein said plurality of sub-clusters, in combination, form a single logical cluster, wherein said sub-cluster (N) is connected to a sub-cluster (P) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters, wherein said sub-cluster (P) is associated with a plurality of (Q) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (Q) generation appliances comprises a same type, category, and family of appliance, wherein (P) comprises a second cluster number, wherein (Q) comprises a second generation number of a second generation comprising a new development configuration of appliances with respect to said first generation, and wherein said first generation differs from said second generation.

2. The appliance cluster of claim 1 , wherein said sub-cluster (N) comprises first data tables comprising high performance and scalability capabilities, and wherein said sub-cluster (P) further comprises aggregate tables and cubes.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein a candidate application for deployment on said logical cluster of appliances is configured as a logical grouping of independent application components of a package, wherein said package is configured for deployment on different appliance sub-clusters such that said candidate application, comprising a group of packages, comprises a single logical entity.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein said plurality of physical sub-clusters are configured to perform independent tasks such that first packages of said packages performing heavy duty workloads are deployed on higher capacity sub-clusters than second packages of said packages performing less demanding workloads than said heavy duty workloads, wherein said second packages are deployed on lower capacity sub-clusters such an output of said single logical cluster is maximized.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein communication between said packages is established using an interconnection between said plurality of physical sub-clusters such said interconnection is transparent to application users.

6. A method comprising:

providing, a logical cluster of appliances interconnected via a high speed private local area network (LAN), wherein said logical cluster of appliances comprises a plurality of physical sub-clusters of appliance nodes;

determining, by said computer processor, that a sub-cluster (N) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters comprises a first plurality of nodes of said appliance nodes, wherein said first plurality of nodes comprises an appliance node, wherein said appliance node comprises a virtualization node, a tape volume cache (TVC), a hierarchal storage node, and a library manager, wherein said virtualization node comprises a watchdog timer enabling said virtualization node to be restarted during a malfunction, wherein said TVC caches data read from an associated logical volume, wherein said hierarchal storage node uses tokens to determine which of said first plurality of nodes comprises a current data copy, wherein said library manager comprises a plurality of physical tape drives and a robotic accessor for transferring magnetic tape to said plurality of physical tape drives;

determining, by said computer processor, that said sub-cluster (N) is associated with a plurality of (M) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (M) generation appliances comprises a same type category, and family of appliance, wherein (N) comprises a first cluster number, and wherein (M) comprises a first generation number of a first generation comprising a first development configuration of appliances, wherein said sub-cluster (N) is connected to a sub-cluster (P) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters, wherein said sub-cluster (P) is associated with a plurality of (Q) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (Q) generation appliances comprises a same type, category, and family of appliance, wherein (P) comprises a second cluster number, wherein (Q) comprises a second generation number of a second generation comprising a new development configuration of appliances with respect to said first generation, and wherein said first generation differs from said second generation; and

forming, by said computer processor, a single logical cluster from a combination of said plurality of sub-clusters.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said sub-cluster (N) comprises first data tables comprising high performance and scalability capabilities, and wherein said sub-cluster (P) further comprises aggregate tables and cubes.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising:

configuring, by said computer processor, a candidate application for deployment on said logical cluster of appliances as a logical grouping of independent application components of a package; and

configuring, by said computer processor, said package for deployment on different appliance sub-clusters such that said candidate application, comprising a group of packages, comprises a single logical entity.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

configuring, by said computer processor, said plurality of physical sub-clusters to perform independent tasks such that first packages of said packages performing heavy duty workloads are deployed on higher capacity sub-clusters than second packages of said packages performing less demanding workloads than said heavy duty workloads; and

deploying, by said computer processor, said second packages on lower capacity sub-clusters such an output of said single logical cluster is maximized.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein communication between said packages is established using an interconnection between said plurality of physical sub-clusters such that said interconnection is transparent to application users.

11. The method of claim 6 , further comprising providing at least one support service for at least one of creating, integrating, hosting, maintaining, and deploying computer-readable program code in a computing system, wherein the program code in combination with said computing system is configured to implement the method of claim 9 .

12. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device storing a computer readable program code, said computer readable program code comprising an algorithm that when executed by a computer processor of a computer system implements a method, said method comprising:

determining, by a computer processor, that a logical cluster of appliances are interconnected via a high speed private local area network (LAN), wherein said logical cluster of appliances comprises a plurality of physical sub-clusters of said appliance nodes;

determining, by said computer processor, that a sub-cluster (N) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters comprises a first plurality of nodes of said appliance nodes, wherein said first plurality of nodes comprises an appliance node, wherein said appliance node comprises a virtualization node, a tape volume cache (TVC), a hierarchal storage node, and a library manager, wherein said virtualization node comprises a watchdog timer enabling said virtualization node to be restarted during a malfunction, wherein said TVC caches data read from an associated logical volume, wherein said hierarchal storage node uses tokens to determine which of said first plurality of nodes comprises a current data copy, wherein said library manager comprises a plurality of physical tape drives and a robotic accessor for transferring magnetic tape to said plurality of physical tape drives;

determining, by said computer processor, that a sub-cluster (N) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters comprises a first plurality of nodes of said appliance nodes;

determining, by said computer processor, that said sub-cluster (N) is associated with a plurality of (M) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (M) generation appliances comprises a same type category, and family of appliance, wherein (N) comprises a first cluster number, and wherein (M) comprises a first generation number of a first generation comprising a first development configuration of appliances, wherein said sub-cluster (N) is connected to a sub-cluster (P) of said plurality of physical sub-clusters, wherein said sub-cluster (P) is associated with a plurality of (Q) generation appliances of said logical cluster of appliances, wherein each appliance of said plurality of (Q) generation appliances comprises a same type, category, and family of appliance, wherein (P) comprises a second cluster number, wherein (Q) comprises a second generation number of a second generation comprising a new development configuration of appliances with respect to said first generation, and wherein said first generation differs from said second generation; and

forming, by said computer processor, a single logical cluster from a combination of said plurality of sub-clusters.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein said sub-cluster (N) comprises first data tables comprising high performance and scalability capabilities, and wherein said sub-cluster (P) further comprises aggregate tables and cubes.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein said method further comprises:

configuring, by said computer processor, a candidate application for deployment on said logical cluster of appliances as a logical grouping of independent application components of a package; and

configuring, by said computer processor, said package for deployment on different appliance sub-clusters such that said candidate application, comprising a group of packages, comprises a single logical entity.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein said method further comprises:

configuring, by said computer processor, said plurality of physical sub-clusters to perform independent tasks such that first packages of said packages performing heavy duty workloads are deployed on higher capacity sub-clusters than second packages of said packages performing less demanding workloads than said heavy duty workloads; and

deploying, by said computer processor, said second packages on lower capacity sub-clusters such an output of said single logical cluster is maximized.

16. The computer program product of claim 14 , wherein said method further comprises:

wherein communication between said packages is established using an interconnection between said plurality of physical sub-clusters such that said interconnection is transparent to application users.