March 26, 2025 |
SIOS High Availability Software Now Validated for Cimcor’s CimTrak Integrity SuiteSIOS High Availability Software Now Validated for Cimcor’s CimTrak Integrity SuiteSAN MATEO, Calif., March 04, 2025 — SIOS Technology Corp., a leading provider of application high availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) solutions, today announced that SIOS LifeKeeper and SIOS DataKeeper clustering software have been validated for use with Cimcor’s cybersecurity solution, the CimTrak Integrity Suite. This collaboration allows Cimcor customers to seamlessly integrate high availability and disaster recovery into their CimTrak environments, ensuring continuous protection against cyber threats and minimizing downtime in critical cybersecurity operations. SIOS LifeKeeper is a high availability solution that ensures critical applications are always available, automatically detecting failures and initiating failover to standby systems to maintain uninterrupted service. SIOS DataKeeper offers synchronous data replication, ensuring that data is consistently mirrored across multiple servers for fast recovery in case of server failure. Together, these solutions provide comprehensive protection for business-critical applications like CimTrak, helping organizations minimize the risk of downtime and data loss while maintaining secure, highly available systems. CimTrak is the industry’s leading System Integrity Assurance platform that provides real-time monitoring and protection of critical IT assets – from servers and networks to cloud configurations, containers, databases, and industrial control systems. Its patented real-time detection technology lets CimTrak instantly detect and remediate unwanted and unexpected changes across your infrastructure while maintaining system integrity. The platform helps organizations strengthen their security posture, maintain continuous compliance, and protect against external and internal threats through automated workflows and comprehensive change management. “We’re excited to strengthen our partnership with Cimcor and offer SIOS high availability and disaster recovery solutions for their CimTrak customers,” said Masahiro Arai, COO of SIOS Technology. “As cybersecurity becomes even more critical for organizations worldwide, SIOS is committed to helping our joint customers achieve the highest levels of resilience and uptime, ensuring that their security systems remain operational and effective against evolving threats.” “Our collaboration with SIOS brings their proven high availability and disaster recovery solutions to our CimTrak customers,” said Robert E. Johnson, III, President and CEO of Cimcor. “As organizations work to protect increasingly large and complex infrastructures, ensuring cybersecurity resilience is more critical than ever. This partnership provides a seamless and reliable HA/DR solution, helping our joint customers stay secure, operational, and prepared for unexpected disruptions.” About SIOS Technology Corp. SIOS Technology Corp. high availability and disaster recovery solutions ensure availability and eliminate data loss for critical Windows and Linux applications operating across physical, virtual, cloud, and hybrid cloud environments. SIOS clustering software is essential for any IT infrastructure with applications requiring a high degree of resiliency, ensuring uptime without sacrificing performance or data – protecting businesses from local failures and regional outages, planned and unplanned. Founded in 1999, SIOS Technology Corp. (https://us.sios.com) is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices worldwide. SIOS, SIOS Technology, SIOS DataKeeper, SIOS LifeKeeper and associated logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of SIOS Technology Corp. and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Beth Winkowski Reproduced with permission from SIOS |
March 17, 2025 |
White Paper: Ensuring Operational Continuity and Security: HA for Airports, Aviation Services and AirlinesWhite Paper: Ensuring Operational Continuity and Security: HA for Airports, Aviation Services and AirlinesAirports and airlines rely on complex digital systems for flight reservations, baggage handling, security, and more. Any downtime can lead to costly delays, operational disruptions, and passenger dissatisfaction. High availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) solutions play a crucial role in ensuring these systems remain operational, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments. By reducing downtime and enabling fast recovery from failures, HA/DR solutions help maintain seamless operations, improve efficiency, and strengthen security. Learn more about protecting your critical aviation systems from downtime. Reproduced with permission from SIOS |
March 11, 2025 |
Webinar: Mastering High Availability for On-Prem SQL ServerWebinar: Mastering High Availability for On-Prem SQL ServerEnsuring high availability for SQL Server is critical for minimizing downtime and protecting business-critical data. This webinar explores key high availability considerations for on-premises SQL Server deployments. Learn about SQL Server Failover Cluster Instances (FCI), SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and innovative SANless clustering solutions using SIOS DataKeeper. Whether you’re planning a new deployment or optimizing an existing one, this session will provide practical insights and strategies to meet your organization’s availability and performance needs. Watch to discover how to design cost-effective, resilient SQL Server solutions tailored for your infrastructure. Reproduced with permission from SIOS |
March 4, 2025 |
Nodes and Clusters: The Building Blocks of High AvailabilityNodes and Clusters: The Building Blocks of High AvailabilityI wanted to spend some time reviewing the terms “nodes” and “clusters.” For the purposes of this blog, I will explain how SIOS uses these terms and others and what they specifically mean. These might be considered standard terms in the world of distributed computing, but if you are new to the field, you may wonder exactly what they mean. What Are Nodes in Distributed Computing?When I started with SIOS, I noticed that the terms node and cluster were common, everyday words that you would hear many times daily. I kept asking myself, ‘Why are they using the word “node”’? It sounds from the context that they mean server, but why do they say node? To explain, a node can be a server, but it can also be a client computer or a peer; it is essentially any component used to perform computing duties and route traffic. In Amazon Web Services (AWS), a node can be a virtual machine implemented as an EC2 instance. You can install and run software on it, and it can have a network interface that can be used to communicate with it and for it to connect to other nodes. When you SSH into an AWS EC2 instance, the client computer from which you are launching your SSH session is an example of a client node, and you are connecting to an EC2 server instance node. Nodes can be a physical machine on-premises or a virtual machine (VM). Understanding Clusters: How Nodes Work TogetherLet’s move on to the term “cluster”. This word might make one think of things that are stuck together. In the distributed computing world, this means nodes that are linked together to form a combined resource that might handle a bigger task than a single node can handle. At SIOS, we have special cluster protection software on each node that monitors the volumes and can launch failover operations when problems are detected or respond to resources being intentionally taken in and out of service by a user. You might link nodes together in a cluster to perform automatic backups. You could run a database server on a separate node to isolate the computing power/disk I/O and the data from other operations. The Role of Redundancy in High-Availability ClustersClusters can also provide redundancy to allow services to remain up when one node fails. Redundancy of operation is not a new concept. The days of running any vital operation on a single server that has no redundancy are hopefully well behind us. For example, in the blade-computing world, redundancy is facilitated in a blade server configuration by running two computing modules within the same unit. The server firmware handles the failover/switchover logic. Power supplies, and rack KVM, are shared amongst the load of server hardware for cost savings. Facility operators may add more hardware to a server in an incremental fashion to handle extra load. This allows an operator to right-size their system and purchase / build it using standardized components from the rack manufacturer. This provides a more limited but similar scaling mechanism to that in the cloud world, the difference being that it is all hosted in one box. On-premises rack hardware such as this or similar can be used to construct clustered nodes. Cloud-Based Clusters vs. On-Premises ClustersCloud clusters benefit from all of the attributes of redundancy built into rack server equipment, as they are basically discrete VMs that run on shared data-center hardware owned by the cloud provider. However, they permit the customer to spread their clusters over different locations, intentionally load-slicing their computer needs into VM’s running in different physical buildings in other areas of the cloud provider’s physical data centers. This provides an enormous resiliency to single-site outages. A cluster implemented in the cloud utilizing servers in various locations can tolerate complete power loss to one location. Nodes and Clusters ExplainedSome questions that come up: Q. Is a cluster the same as a node?A. No, a node is typically one component that can perform computer duties. A cluster consists of 2 or more nodes. Q. What is a 3-node cluster?A. A 3-node cluster is a cluster of 3 nodes with communication paths between each of the respective nodes. 3 nodes, being an odd-numbered configuration, typically one of the nodes will be a so-called ‘witness’ node and may not perform other work. In the event of a partially failed network, and a node being unable to communicate with its peer, the two main server nodes may not be able to determine who should take control (this phenomenon is called ‘split-brain’). A witness node can offer information on what nodes it can see are in service, providing data to resolve the split-brain to bring up one active node and put the other node into standby mode, regaining correct control of the nodes. Q. What is 2 node cluster?A. A 2 node cluster is a cluster of 2 nodes with one or more communication paths between them. This is typically used to run services on a primary node and have the second node on standby. Q. How many nodes make a cluster?A. 2 or more nodes make a cluster. Maximizing High Availability with Nodes and ClustersIn summary, clusters are formed from nodes; a node is an independent computing module with networking capabilities. Be aware of the benefits of putting your nodes in different physical locations to guard against downtime in one area. Contact SIOS today to learn how our clustering solutions can help you optimize high availability and minimize downtime. Author: Paul Scrutton Reproduced with permission from SIOS |
February 23, 2025 |
Updating LifeKeeper for Linux: A Checklist for SuccessUpdating LifeKeeper for Linux: A Checklist for SuccessKeeping your LifeKeeper for Linux software updated is essential for maintaining high availability (HA), system security, performance, and compatibility. This blog will guide you through a structured process for performing software updates with minimal risk. Following these steps can ensure a smooth update process. 1. Check the Support MatrixBefore proceeding with an update, consult SIOS’s support matrix: docs.us.sios.com/spslinux/9.9.0/en/topic/sios-protection-for-linux-support-matrix This document provides essential compatibility information, including:
Failing to verify compatibility can result in conflicts or degraded system performance. If your setup isn’t supported, consider upgrading related components or delaying the update. 2. Create a RunbookA runbook is your detailed guide to executing the update process. It minimizes confusion and ensures every step is accounted for. Key elements should include:
Keep the runbook accessible to all team members involved in the process. 3. Take a Backup of the hierarchy:Before performing a LifeKeeper or OS upgrade, create a backup of your Lifekeeper hierarchies on all nodes. To create a backup, run the following command: /opt/LifeKeeper/bin/lkbackup –c The backup will be created in a file called: /opt/LifeKeeper/config/archive.<date-time-stamp>.tar.gz 4. Test in a QA EnvironmentAlways test updates in a QA or staging environment before deploying them in production. This step allows you to:
Document any issues that arise and adjust your runbook accordingly. 5. Execute the Update on your Production SystemsWith preparation complete, proceed with the update:
6. Validate and Monitor Post-UpdateAfter the update, perform thorough validation:
Best Practices for a Successful LifeKeeper UpdateTo ensure clarity and simplicity, we recommend implementing one update or patch at a time and testing its impact before moving on to the next. This approach helps isolate the effects of each action, making it easier to identify what works best and avoid potential complications. As part of the OS upgrade process, we recommend rerunning the LifeKeeper for Linux setup script to ensure all configurations are updated and compatible with the new environment. This helps prevent potential issues and ensures everything is functioning correctly after the upgrade. Reach out to support@us.sios.com or open a case in the Support Portal if you have any questions prior to upgrading: https://supportportal.us.sios.com/User/Login Author:Bill Darnell Senior Product Support Engineer at SIOS Technology Corp. Reproduced with permission from SIOS |
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