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Webinar: Maximizing Uptime: High Availability Strategies for SQL Server and Multi-Platform Environments

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Maximizing Uptime High Availability Strategies for SQL Server and Multi-Platform Environments

Webinar: Maximizing Uptime: High Availability Strategies for SQL Server and Multi-Platform Environments

Register for the On-Demand Webinar

High availability is a critical requirement for any modern database system, and Microsoft SQL Server is no exception. Ensuring that your SQL Server databases remain available and operational in the face of hardware, software, and network failures requires careful planning and deployment of appropriate high-availability solutions.

In this webinar, Dave Bermingham, SIOS Director of Customer Success, will explore the various high availability options available for SQL Server, including AlwaysOn Availability Groups, failover clustering, and database mirroring – as well as the advantages and limitations of each approach, and how to choose the right one for your particular needs. Dave will also discuss strategies for managing cross-platform compatibility, data consistency, and failover across different systems.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

2023 Predictions: Data Democratization To Drive Demand For High Availability

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2023 Predictions: Data Democratization To Drive Demand For High Availability

In this video of 2023 Predictions, our VP of Global Sales and Marketing Margaret Hoagland shares her thoughts on what will happen in the industry this new year.

Hoagland predicts two trends for 2023:

  • Data democratization will drive the need for high availability. As more and more people have access to data and use it in their day-to-day business than ever before, there is a pressing need for high availability.
  • Companies will perform cloud evaluation and reassess their cloud stance. After COVID, there is a need to examine if they want to go back to an on-premise environment or move different workloads in different clouds.

This year, SIOS will continue to focus on

  • High availability, ensuring companies can set up, configure failover, and maintain their systems as cost effective as possible.
  • Cloud enablement and ease of use.
Reproduced with permission from SIOS

SIOS DataKeeper Clustering Software Enables Gulliver International to Move Internal IT Systems to Amazon Web Services Safely

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SIOS DataKeeper Clustering Software Enables Gulliver International to Move Internal IT Systems to Amazon Web Services Safely

SIOS DataKeeper Clustering Software Enables Gulliver International to Move Internal IT Systems to Amazon Web Services Safely

SIOS software provides high availability in AWS environments, enabling leading pre-owned vehicle company to move all IT system to the cloud.

Gulliver International is a leading pre-owned car company based in Tokyo with 420 locations throughout Japan. Over the next four years, the company plans to expand into a global business with 1600 stores worldwide. To ensure its IT infrastructure can accommodate this rapid growth, the company is migrating all of its internal systems to AWS and promoting a company-wide “cloud-first” policy for all new applications.

“Moving our systems to the cloud will give us flexibility and scalability we need to grow quickly and cost-efficiently, while continuously providing excellent service to our customers,” said Manabu Tsukishima, IT Manager, Gulliver International.

The Challenge

To ensure the success of their cloud-first initiative, Gulliver needed to protect their business critical applications from downtime in a cloud environment, where traditional failover clusters are not possible.

“We would not consider moving our applications to the cloud without an efficient, easy-to-implement high availability solution,” said Tsukishima. Gulliver chose to use SIOS DataKeeper software, which is sold in Japan by SIOS Technology, Inc.

The Solution

SIOS DataKeeper software enables Gulliver to use Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) to build a failover cluster in a cloud environment, where traditional shared- storage clusters are not possible.

SIOS software uses efficient, real time replication to synchronize storage between servers operating as a WSFC cluster in an AWS environment.

Using SIOS software, Gulliver can configure two servers operating as a cluster across separate Amazon Availability Zones.

Just as in a traditional physical environment, if there is a failure on the primary server in the AWS cloud within one Availability Zone, WSFC moves the application to the second server located in another Amazon Availability Zone, providing full disaster tolerance and recovery in the cloud.

The Results

“We are extremely pleased with the value that SIOS DataKeeper software brings to our company’s cloud-first initiative,” said Tsukishima. With SIOS DataKeeper software, Gulliver can move to the cloud without adding complexity or disruption to existing operations.

“By enabling us to use a clustering configuration in the cloud in the same way we would in a physical environment, SIOS DataKeeper software made it possible for us to migrate to AWS without sacrificing application protection or changing the configuration of our existing system at all.”

About 30 percent of Gulliver’s existing on-premises systems have been migrated to AWS without any changes to the company’s system administration or added complexity.

As Gulliver continues to execute its expansion plan, it will soon need to protect even larger volumes of data and a wider range of applications. To meet thi s need, it will continue to use SIOS DataKeeper software as it migrates systems to the cloud. As a Standard Consulting Partner of APN (AWS Partner Network), SIOS is committed to continuing to provide high availability systems that operate on AWS.”

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Create A Disaster Recovery Plan For Critical Applications

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Create A Disaster Recovery Plan For Critical Applications

Create A Disaster Recovery Plan For Critical Applications

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

SAP on Azure High Availability Best Practices

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SAP on Azure High Availability Best Practices

In the following video, Bala Anbalagan, senior SAP architect for Microsoft with 20 years of experience in SAP, explains the best practices for configuring high availability to protect SAP solutions in Azure. He also reviews the mistakes often made when implementing HA solutions in the cloud and key factors that users should know about when configuring SIOS LifeKeeper.

Configuring SAP High Availability Solutions in the Cloud

Bala explains that every SAP user should remember that a high availability solution is indispensable, especially in the cloud. Any cloud provider will need to make changes in their environments. Even though they have high service levels for their hardware infrastructure, there will be brief periods downtime that can bring your SAP systems down completely.

It is also critical that users configure SAP HA properly. The main purpose of installing HA solutions is to protect against downtime, but if you don’t do it properly, you are just wasting time and money, regardless of the cloud you’re running in. It is essential to follow the configuration rules of your cloud provider. If you misconfiguration your HA or fail to test failover and failback, it can result in a business disruption when you are least expecting it – particularly during a period of high-utilization.
SIOS LifeKeeper can detect errors during the configuration process. For example, it sends warnings if you only configure a single communication channel, as you always want a redundant communication channel, or a secondary network connection, between the nodes in the HA cluster. If you use SIOS DataKeeper, it will also show warnings if something is wrong with the configuration during the replication process.

What makes configuring SIOS straightforward?

SIOS has a pretty straightforward configuration process. Basically, you just need LifeKeeper installed in each of your cluster nodes and you use different types of SIOS application-specific recovery kits (ARK) modules (that come with LifeKeeper) depending on the application you want to recover. Also, the process is very easy to follow with a straightforward GUI – intelligence is built in, and you don’t need to change the details of the GUI. It automatically detects most of the information, further simplifying the set up process.

Knowing which ARK to use and how to use it is important in the configuring process. The ARK is a software module that provides application-specific intelligence to the LifeKeeper software. SIOS provides separate ARKs for different applications. For example, for SAP HANA, you install the SIOS SAP HANA ARK to enable LIfeKeeper to automate configuration steps, detect failures and manage a reliable failover for SAP HANA while maintaining SAP’s best practices.

Biggest Mistakes in Implementing HA for SAP in Azure

Users commonly implement HA for SAP solutions in Azure with the same process as they do in an on-premises environment. They need to change their mindset. Always make sure to follow the recommendations provided by the cloud provider, that is, read documents and keep the parameters as recommended by the cloud providers.

Another common mistake is adding too much complexity. Some customers put everything into a single cluster, but clusters should be separated for different servers. Making a cluster too large adds unnecessary complexity and potential risk.

Thorough testing in every aspect is critical when it comes to HA clustering. Testing HA configurations before going live as well as periodically (and frequently) are the best things you can do to prevent unexpected downtime.

Learn more about SAP high availability best practices in the video below or contact us to for more information about implementing high availability and disaster recovery for your essential applications in the cloud.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS