SIOS SANless clusters

SIOS SANless clusters High-availability Machine Learning monitoring

You Might Want To Hold Off On The SP1 Upgrade For Your Cluster

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There are some reports on the newsgroups of storage validation failures after upgrading 3+ node clusters to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. It seems Microsoft is aware of the issue and they are investigating. I have been following this thread to keep up to date on the issue

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverClustering/thread/e67026af-7f9b-4698-9ca7-11853431ed86

Intend to upgrade to 3+ node clusters?

You might want to wait for some sort of resolution before you apply SP1 to your clusters.

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2011/03/31/you-might-want-to-hold-off-on-the-sp1-upgrade-for-your-cluster/

SQL Server Denali And Hadron

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Microsoft’s latest version of SQL, code named Denali, is currently in CTP. One of the most anticipated feature is something called HADRON. Basically, it is has been described as mirroring 2.0. The best features of HADRON as I can see compared to mirroring as it is in 2005/2008 are as follows:

  • You can query the mirror (now known as a replica)
  • You can have more than one replica
  • Database are grouped into availability groups to ensure related databases always fail over together
  • Support for replicating more than 10 databases

If you want a great preview, check out fellow MVP Brent Ozar’s post, SQL Server Denali Rocks!

From reading Brent’s post I gather Microsoft only plans to include this in the Enterprise version of SQL. That is too bad for the many customers running SQL Server Standard as traditionally there is a significant price jump to go from Standard to Enterprise. However, that is good news for the 3rd party replication vendors out there who are providing similar functionality today on SQL 2005/2008 on Standard and Enterprise Editions.

SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition for SQL Server

While it is not an exact duplicate of HADRON, a multi-site cluster using SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition for SQL Server gives you a great solution for HA/DR without requiring shared storage. So while we wait for Denali and all the application vendors to start supporting Denali you might want to have a look at what SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition can do for you today!

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2010/12/10/sql-server-denali-and-hadron/

Important Security Update For Windows Server 2008 R2 Clusters

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It seems as if there could be a vulnerability which would allow unauthorized access to administrative shares! You will certainly want this patch ASAP and also don’t forget to check the permission levels on your administrative shares after you apply this patch for Windows Server 2008 R2 Clusters.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS10-086.mspx

Recommendation. Microsoft recommends that customers consider applying the security update using update management software, or by checking for updates using the Microsoft Update service. Additionally, after applying the update, customers should check the permissions on existing cluster disk administrative shares and set the proper access levels for their environment.

 

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2010/10/13/important-security-update-for-windows-server-2008-r2-clusters/

Hyper-V Multi-Site Cluster Demo At Tech-Ed 2010 New Orleans

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Hyper-V cluster demo

If you are at Tech-Ed in New Orleans this week make sure you stop by the Windows Server Failover Cluster booth in the Technology Learning Center and have a look at the multi-site Hyper-V cluster demo using SteelEye DataKeeper Cluster Edition as the replication engine. I’ll also be in the booth to answer any questions you may have. SteelEye also has a booth at the show if you would like to discuss becoming a partner or customer!

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2010/06/08/hyper-v-multi-site-demo-at-tech-ed-2010-new-orleans/

Minimize Downtime Using High Availability Clustering And Data Replication For Sap

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Why implement high-availability cluster configuration?

What does it cost your business when your SAP system is down due to a hardware failure, an administrator mistake or for maintenance activities?  The impact can range from thousands of dollars lost in sales per minute to significant drops in employee productivity and customer satisfaction.  Through the implementation of a high-availability cluster configuration, downtime from both planned and unplanned outages can be virtually eliminated.

SteelEye and SAP AG have worked closely together to ensure that the availability needs which corporate users have for critical business infrastructure running on Linux and Windows platforms are achieved through the deployment of monitoring and switchover solutions for SAP Application Server (AS) and both JAVA and ABAP Web Application Server (WAS) environments.

Please join Steel Eye EVP of Product Management, Bob Williamson as he explains how you can minimize your downtime using SAP High Availability with SteelEye.

Reproduced with permission from https://clusteringformeremortals.com/2010/06/30/minimize-downtime-using-high-availability-clustering-and-data-replication-for-sap/