Video: TechStrongTV: Empowering HA Cluster Administrators with SIOS Technology’s Aaron West

Video: TechStrongTV: Empowering HA Cluster Administrators with SIOS Technology’s Aaron West

In this video interview, Aaron West, Sales Engineer at SIOS Technology, discusses the release of SIOS Technology’s new LifeKeeper Web Management Console. Enterprises heavily depend on vital systems like SAP, HANA, and Oracle, making robust High Availability and Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) solutions imperative. The complexity of these environments often exceeds the expertise of in-house IT teams, leading to potential downtime and financial losses. Aaron shares how SIOS emphasizes empowering generalist IT administrators, ensuring critical systems’ uninterrupted functionality.

Watch the interview HERE.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Maintain HA and DR When Converting a Shared Storage Cluster to a SANless Cluster with DataKeeper

Maintain HA and DR When Converting a Shared Storage Cluster to a SANless Cluster with DataKeeper

1. Prepare the Environment

• Backup Data: Ensure that you have a complete backup of your current shared storage data.
• Install DataKeeper: Download and install SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition on both nodes of your cluster.
• License Activation: Activate the DataKeeper license on both nodes.

2. Put the Shared Storage Cluster into Maintenance Mode

• Maintenance Mode: Put the cluster into maintenance mode to prevent any changes during the configuration process.

3. Adjust Shared Disk Access

• Restrict Access: Adjust the shared disk configuration so that only one node has access to the disk. This is typically done through your SAN management software or server settings.

4. Remove the Shared Storage Cluster Disk Resources

• Remove Resources: Remove the cluster disk resources from the cluster configuration completely, including Available Storage.

5. Add Local Disk on Secondary Node

• Add Local Disk: Add an additional local disk to the secondary node. This disk should be the same size and have the same drive letter as the original shared disk.
• Format Local Disk: Format the new local disk and ensure it is ready for use.

6. Create SIOS DataKeeper Replication Job

• Launch SIOS DataKeeper UI: Open the DataKeeper user interface on the primary node.
• Create Job: Create a new replication job by specifying the source volume (the shared disk on the primary node) and the target volume (the local disk on the secondary node).
• Select Replication Mode: Choose the appropriate replication mode (synchronous or asynchronous) based on your requirements.
• Start Replication: Initiate the replication process to synchronize data from the shared disk to the local disk.

7. Register SIOS DataKeeper Volume in the Cluster

• Register Volume: Register the DataKeeper volume in the cluster. This involves adding the DataKeeper volume as a clustered resource in WSFC.

8. Reconfigure Cluster Resource Dependencies

• Add SIOS DataKeeper Volume: Add the newly created DataKeeper volume to the existing cluster resource configuration.
• Recreate Dependencies: Recreate the dependencies for the DataKeeper volume to ensure it works seamlessly with your clustered applications.

9. Configure a New Witness

• Remove Disk Witness: If you are using a disk witness, remove any disks used as a disk witness from the cluster.
• Configure File Share Witness or Cloud Witness:
  • File Share Witness: Create a file share on a separate server and configure the cluster to use this file share as a witness.
  • Cloud Witness: Configure a cloud witness by setting up a storage account in Azure and configuring the cluster to use this storage account as a witness.

10. Bring the New Resource Online

• Bring Online: Bring the new DataKeeper volume resource online.
• Test Failover: Perform a failover test to ensure that the DataKeeper volume and your clustered applications function correctly on all nodes.

11. Finalize the Configuration for the SANless Cluster

• Exit Maintenance Mode: Take the cluster out of maintenance mode.
• Backup Configuration: Take a backup of your new SANless cluster configuration.
• Document Changes: Document all changes made during the conversion process for future reference and troubleshooting.

By following these steps, you will successfully convert your shared storage cluster into a SANless cluster using local disks and SIOS DataKeeper while maintaining high availability and data replication without relying solely on shared storage. Additionally, you will have configured a File Share Witness or Cloud Witness, ensuring proper quorum configuration in your cluster.

SIOS Technology Corporation provides high availability cluster software that protects & optimizes IT infrastructures with cluster management for your most important applications. Contact us today for more information about our professional services and support.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Webinar: Optimizing SQL Server Costs in Azure HA/DR Deployments

Webinar: Optimizing SQL Server Costs in Azure HA/DR Deployments

Register for the On-Demand Webinar

One of the challenges with moving to Azure is keeping monthly costs in check. Several Azure services are offered for SQL Server, but you need to be aware of what services you really need and how these fit into your SQL Server cloud strategy.

In this webinar, we delve into High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) for SQL Server deployments in Azure, focusing on cost-efficient methodologies. The session aims to provide a comprehensive understanding and practical demonstrations of three key technologies: Basic Availability Groups, SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI) with Azure Shared Disks, and Azure Site Recovery. You will gain insights into each method’s architecture, setup, and operational nuances.

We will specifically emphasize optimizing costs without compromising reliability and performance. The session is structured to benefit both newcomers and seasoned professionals in the field of cloud-based SQL Server deployments. By the end of this session, participants will be equipped with the knowledge to make informed decisions about HA/DR strategies in Azure, ensuring both economic efficiency and robustness in their SQL Server environments.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Find it faster: 8 Secrets to Navigating Product Documentation

Find it faster: 8 Secrets to Navigating Product Documentation

Here are a few ways you can find exactly what you are looking for in Product Documentation. Product documentation is very thorough and finding what you need can appear overwhelming at first glance but it is easy to navigate when you know how. Let’s use SIOS documentation as an example. It is here to answer your questions and help resolve issues that you may be running into.

There are several tips to search for what you are looking for in SIOS product documentation:

When you go to docs.us.sios.com you will first need to select Windows or Linux depending on which product you are using to get you to the correct documentation.

Are you using Windows or Linux Products?

Choose the type of information you are looking for.

Once you have selected your Product (Windows or Linux), you will select the Topic that relates to what you are looking for.  Do you need information on upgrading to the latest SIOS version? Have questions about installation? Need an application recovery kit?  You can also hover over each topic to see what’s included. Here’s an example of the topics that are available in the Linux documentation.

Try these best practices for using search most effectively.

Once you select a topic, you can search for the information you are looking for. Here are a few ways to search most efficiently…

1. Searching for the right keyword –  Searching for a word with a similar meaning to the document you are looking for. Use words that are likely to be used in the document.  For example, if you are growing or expanding a volume, you may want to use the search term “resize”.

2. Ensure you are searching for the SIOS product that you are using – SOIS provides HA/DR protection for Windows and Linux operating systems. Double-check that you are searching in the documentation for the correct product. For example, LifeKeeper for Linux vs LifeKeeper for Windows.

3. Include the correct product version. Ensure your search matches the version of the SIOS software you are using you can check the version you are running in the GUI under About, Help.

4. Search for terms related to SIOS HA – Commercially available HA and replication solutions will often have unique terms and concepts.  For example, one provider may use the phrase takeover to indicate moving resources to a standby node, while another vendor will use the terminology switchover. Be sure that you are searching the documentation using SIOS terminology.  Refer to concepts and terminology in the docs <insert link> to get an understanding of the SIOS specific key terms and terminology.

5. Ask for help from the support team. Some support tools and procedures require the Support team’s assistance and therefore are not documented in the public documentation.

6. Searching for SIOS or SIOS Technology – Many years ago, SIOS Technology Corp. was called SteelEye Technology. Be sure to use the correct company name in searching product names.

7. Avoid searching for acronyms – It’s important to search for words related to your query instead of abbreviations or acronyms.

8. Search for the product error code –  The quickest way to resolve an issue is to search for the error code you are getting in the GUI, from the command line, or the error log.  This will return specific information on what the code means and how best to resolve it.

Note: We’d love to hear your feedback on SIOS product documentation! Feel free to post comments and suggestions in the feedback section at the bottom of every topic in the documentation pages.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Webinar: Achieving HA/DR Objectives in the Cloud

Webinar: Achieving HA/DR Objectives in the Cloud

Register for the On-Demand Webinar

There still seems to be confusion about cloud SLAs. Cloud availability SLAs cover infrastructure availability, but what about applications like SAP, SQL Server, and Oracle? Do your applications need availability, high availability, or disaster recovery protection in the cloud? This Actual Tech Media MegaCast session covers how to achieve HA/DR objectives for your mission-critical applications in the cloud.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS