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Archives for February 2015

Continuity Central: Strategies For Protecting SQL Server In The Cloud

February 27, 2015 by Tony Tomarchio

SQL Server is a business critical application that requires high availability protection, regardless of where it is deployed. Even in the cloud, you still need to protect SQL Server from downtime if the cloud instance or the cloud provider fails. However, traditional solutions, such as shared-storage clusters may not be practical or even possible in the cloud. SANless software can provide enterprises with high availability and disaster recovery protection for SQL Server in the cloud without the limitations of shared storage. This article will look at strategies for how this can be achieved.

Most cloud providers allow you to deploy your applications across multiple separate and redundant data centers. However, they do not offer shared storage (i.e., a SAN), which is required to support traditional Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) across these computing resources. The solution is to use SANless software instead of a shared storage to create a high availability cluster using WSFC with local storage. You can deploy a highly available SQL Server Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) across multiple windows instances in the cloud. When a failure occurs, WSFC will coordinate the SQL Server failover and restart SQL on another node in the cluster. SANless software as an ingredient in your WSFC environment in a cloud deployment eliminates the need for shared storage. Instead of a SAN, the software keeps storage in all nodes synchronized (identical) using real time, block level replication. Replication can be performed in either synchronous or asynchronous modes. Cluster nodes can also be located in separate cloud regions for added protection. The local, replicated storage is presented to WSFC as if it was shared storage. Using SANless clusters is a fast, easy way to deploy SQL Server in a highly available configuration in the cloud while continuing to use Windows Server Failover Clustering.

To provide high availability and disaster protection for SQL Server in the cloud, you may also want to configure a failover cluster with nodes in different geographically separate areas (e.g., AWS or Microsoft Azure Regions). One way to achieve this is using the AlwaysOn Availability Groups feature that is built into SQL server itself. However, Availability Groups requires SQL Server Enterprise Edition, which can be very cost prohibitive for simple two node deployments in this configuration. Unfortunately, Availability Groups also has a number of limitations you should be aware of: it isn’t compatible with distributed transactions, so if your application relies on the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) you cannot use AlwaysOn Availability Groups because the instance ID of the server changes upon failover and the distributed transaction coordinator is not aware of the new instance ID. Additionally, Availability Groups only replicates user defined databases and NOT system databases (like Master and MSDB). SQL Agent jobs and SQL logons are not automatically synchronized and will not fail over as part of the Availability Group. Finally, Availability Groups introduces additional administrative overhead you might not want to deal with. Availability Groups are configured and managed at the database level, not at the SQL Server instance level. Therefore, administrators must reconfigure protection every time a database is added or dropped. Essentially, you are managing two separate instances of SQL and have to take great care that you keep their configurations in sync.

In these cases, SANless software can be used to deploy a SQL Failover Cluster Instance (FCI) to provide high availability failover for the entire SQL instance, even across different subnets, using cost-efficient SQL Server Standard Edition. You can build a cluster using SANless software to enhance WSFC enabling failover of SQL Server Standard Edition across cloud availability zones or regions. This can be the best choice for companies that want full high availability and disaster recovery protection of the entire SQL instance; gaining the affordability of SQL Server Standard Edition, maximum application compatibility, and reduced administrative overhead.

Summary

For many years, WSFC has been used to provide high availability and disaster recovery protection for SQL applications in traditional on-site environments. Until recently, managing site failures has been very complex and expensive, requiring large investments in specialized hardware and software as well as the availability of a second data center site. The cloud offers an attractive and cost-effective second site in which to locate a cluster member and to handle a failover when the local site fails. However, because traditional clusters require shared storage between all cluster nodes across local and cloud resources, this has not been a practical architecture for traditional clusters. In these cases, SANless software can be used to create clusters that provide high availability across local and cloud resources and extend an on-premises SAN-based or SANless cluster for SQL Server to the cloud for disaster recovery protection without the cost of a remote recovery site or SQL Server Enterprise Edition licenses. SANless software can be an easy, cost-efficient high availability and disaster recovery solution for companies that are continuing to manage their SQL environments on physical, private cloud, or on-premises VM environment.

The author:
Tony Tomarchio is director of Field Engineering at SIOS Technology Corp. Tony is responsible for defining and delivering technical pre-sales services, support and best practices to SIOS customers, prospects and partners. Tony has more than a decade of experience providing systems management and high availability solutions to enterprise customers.

Read the Article at ContinuityCentral.com

Filed Under: News and Events, News posts Tagged With: #SANLess Clusters for Windows Environments, Cloud, News, Tony Tomarchio

March 28, 2015: SIOS Sponsoring and Presenting at SQLSaturday Silicon Valley

February 25, 2015 by Margaret Hoagland Leave a Comment

Image -- SQLSaturday Silicon Valley #375Register Now for SQLSaturday Silicon Valley
When: Saturday, March 28, 2015 (8:00am – 5:00pm)
Where: Microsoft  – 1065 La Avenida, Building One, Mountain View, CA, 94043
Cost: $10 to cover the cost of lunch, the event itself is free

SIOS is proud to be a platinum sponsor at SQLSaturday Silicon Valley. Be sure to visit the SIOS table for your chance to learn more about our SAN and #SANLess solutions, enjoy some candy and drop off your raffle ticket for your chance to enter our end of day $100 Amex raffle. There are a number of great tracks so be sure to plan your schedule well in advance (schedule). Also be sure to join our “Clusters Your Way.™” panelist discussion presented by Microsoft MVPs Denny Cherry and Joey D’Antoni. The details are as follows.

Lunch Session

Clusters Your Way Discussion Panel — A real-world take on flexibly protecting SQL Server and beyond
Presented by: Denny Cherry, Joey D’Antoni and SIOS Technology
When: 1:00pm
Where: Room – Saturn (located on the second floor)

In this unique lunch session Microsoft SQL Server MVPs Denny Cherry and Joey D’Antoni will discuss their own personal experiences for creating and implementing a cost effective high availability and disaster recovery solutions. They’ll be covering the protection of Tier-1 applications in the cloud, getting the most out of SQL Server Standard Edition, and of course be there to answer your own clustering questions. Attend and you could win – up to $100.

About SQLSaturday Silicon Valley

SQLSaturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. This event will be held March 28, 2015 at the Microsoft Technology Center – 1065 La Avenida, Building One, Mountain View, CA, 94043. Speakers include several well-known professionals, SQL Server Masters, trainers, mentors, conference presenters and book authors from all over the world, the US, and our local community. These are many of the same industry leaders who present many of the same sessions at the PASS Global Summit and other international conferences. Lunch, snacks and raffle prizes are included for registered attendees. Registration begins at 7:30. Sessions run throughout the day from 8:30 to 5:30. Admittance to this event is free, but there is a small $10 fee to help cover the cost of lunch – not pizza. Please register soon as seating is limited, and invite friends and colleagues to join us. Please check this site as we get closer to the event for session scheduling and other announcements.

 

Filed Under: Event posts, News and Events Tagged With: #SANLess Clusters for SQL Server Environments, Denny Cherry, Joey D'Antoni, SQLSaturday

Press Release: SIOS Clustering 101 Webinar Series Will Answer Key Questions about Configuring a Windows Cluster Quorum

February 23, 2015 by sios2017

MATEO, CA – February 23, 2015 – SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com), maker of SAN and #SANLess clustering software products, today announced that the next session in its Clustering 101 webinar series featuring Microsoft Clustering MVP and SIOS Senior Technical Evangelist Dave Bermingham will discuss how to configure a Windows cluster quorum.

Titled, “Configuring a Windows Cluster Quorum – Five Things You Need to Know,” this webinar will be held on Wednesday, February 25 at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST.  To register, please visit:  http://us.sios.com/2015-02-clustering101/

In this webinar Dave will simplify the complexity of choosing a new quorum configuration and provide the building blocks to improve existing cluster configurations. Dave will also break down quorum configurations based on current server version, explain upgrade advantages and showcase new options to achieve a majority. He will discuss solutions to challenging use cases such as how to implement clusters in environments with no shared storage and how to use the cloud as a file share witness.

Dave Bermingham is recognized within the technology community as a high availability expert and has been honored by his peers by being elected to be a Microsoft MVP in clustering since 2010. Dave’s work as director, technical evangelist at SIOS Technology Corp. has him focused on Microsoft high availability and disaster recovery solutions as well as providing hands on support, training and professional services for cluster implementations. Dave holds numerous technical certifications and draws from more than twenty years of experience in IT, including work in the finance, healthcare and education fields, to help organizations design solutions to meet their high availability and disaster recovery needs. Learn more at http://us.sios.com

About Clustering 101

Clustering 101 is a webinar series hosted by Microsoft MVP, Dave Bermingham focused on addressing the numerous facets of clustering for high availability, data replication and any combination thereof. This series will air monthly, the fourth Wednesday of the month at 10:00a PST / 1:00p EST. Check our events page for details: http://us.sios.com/about/news-events/

About SIOS Technology Corp.

SIOS Technology Corp. makes SAN and #SANLess software solutions that make clusters easy to use and easy to own.An essential part of any cluster solution, SIOS SAN and #SANLess software provides the flexibility to build Clusters Your Way™ to protect your choice of Windows or Linux environment in any configuration (or combination) of physical, virtual and cloud (public, private, and hybrid) without sacrificing performance or availability. The unique SIOS #SANLess clustering solution allows you to configure clusters with local storage, eliminating both the cost and the single-point-of-failure risk of traditional shared (SAN) storage.

Founded in 1999, SIOS Technology Corp. (www.us.sios.com) is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the United States, United Kingdom and Japan.

# # #

SIOS, SIOS Technology, SIOS DataKeeper, SIOS Protection Suite, Clusters Your Way, 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.

# # #

Contact:

Beth Winkowski
Winkowski Public Relations, LLC for SIOS
Phone: 978-649-7189
Email: bethwinkowski@US.SIOS.com

Filed Under: News and Events, Press Releases

March 19, 2015: Live Webinar: High Availability, Disaster Recovery, Low Cost Storage in Virtual and Cloud Environments

February 23, 2015 by Margaret Hoagland

In this session presented by Microsoft MVP, MCM and MCSM Denny Cherry will discuss some of the high availability options which are available to you when it comes to Microsoft SQL Server in virtual server and cloud environments. We will also review some of the problems (both technological and financial) with these options, and how we can overcome these various problems.

This webinar is interactive so come ready to ask your questions, add your comments, and join the discussion.

Register Now

Date: March 19, 2014
Time: 10:00a PST / 1:00p EST

About Denny Cherry

Denny Cherry is the owner and principal consultant for Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting and has over a decade of experience working with platforms such as Microsoft SQL Server, Hyper-V, vSphere and Enterprise Storage solutions. Denny’s areas of technical expertise include system architecture, performance tuning, security, replication and troubleshooting.

Denny currently holds several of the Microsoft Certifications related to SQL Server for versions 2000 through 2012 including the Microsoft Certified Master as well as being a Microsoft MVP for several years. Denny has written several books and dozens of technical articles on SQL Server management and how SQL Server integrates with various other technologies.

Filed Under: Event posts, News and Events Tagged With: #SANLess Clusters for Windows Environments, MSSQLTips, Webinar

March 25, 2015: Live Webinar – Clustering 101: Windows 10 Technical Preview – What You Need To Know About Windows Server 10 Failover Clustering

February 23, 2015 by Margaret Hoagland

In this month’s Clustering 101 session, Microsoft Cluster MVP, Dave Bermingham will give a preview the new Windows 10 features, including the introduction of Cloud Witness, Rolling upgrades, Storage Replica, VM Compute Resiliency, Improved Diagnostics and more. Join Dave Bermingham for the must see clustering features of Windows 10.

You can participate before the event by tweeting your questions to @SIOSTech using #Clustering101 and of course bring your own questions and comments.

Register Now

Windows 10 Technical Preview – What You Need To Know About Windows Server 10 Failover Clustering
Date: March 25, 2014
Time: 10:00a PST — 1:00pm EST

About Clustering 101 Series

Clustering 101 is a webinar series hosted by Microsoft MVP, Dave Bermingham focused on addressing the numerous facets of clustering for high availability, data replication and any combination there of. This series will air monthly, the fourth Wednesday of the month at 10:00a PST / 1:00p EST.

About Dave Bermingham

David Bermingham is recognized within the technology community as a high availability expert and has been honored by his peers by being elected to be a Microsoft MVP in clustering since 2010. David’s work as director, technical evangelist at SIOS Technology Corp., has him focused on Microsoft high availability and disaster recovery solutions as well as providing hands on support, training and professional services for cluster implementations. David holds numerous technical certifications and draws from more than twenty years of experience in IT, including work in the finance, healthcare and education fields, to help organizations design solutions to meet their high availability and disaster recovery needs. Learn more at www.us.sios.com

Filed Under: Event posts, News and Events Tagged With: #SANLess Clusters for Windows Environments, Clustering 101, Webinar, Windows 10

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