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Think Before You Script: Best Practices for Gen/App Recovery

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Think Before You Script Best Practices for GenApp Recovery

Think Before You Script: Best Practices for Gen/App Recovery

SIOS Recovery Kits provide a wealth of best practices for application-aware monitoring and recovery.  In general, each SIOS recovery kit provides a step-by-step programmatic approach to restoring the application, database, or service in accordance with High Availability (HA) best practices.  The SIOS Recovery Kits provide the intelligence needed to restore operation after a normal system shutdown, after an unexpected system failure or crash, and even in the case where the application, database, or service itself crashes or becomes unavailable.   In addition, each recovery includes experiential wisdom and improvements from over two decades in the field.

However, if a customer still needs to roll their own script for providing HA, SIOS LifeKeeper for Windows and SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux include an option for script integration via the Generic Application (Gen/App) Recovery Kit.

Best Practices for Writing Gen/App Recovery Scripts

1. Use Modern, Supported Scripting Languages for Gen/App Recovery

A common practice with existing solutions is to use the old existing scripts on new systems and architecture.  However, it is essential to make sure you are using a modern, supported scripting language.

2. Avoid Hardcoded Values in Gen/App Scripts

Using hardcoded values can cause portability issues, as well as challenges with long-term maintenance.  Avoid using hard-coded values that are subject to change in future deployments, for example, directory paths, user names, or similar.

3. Practice Code Reuse to Improve Gen/App Script Quality

Duplicate code is a common problem in customer-developed scripts.  Duplicate code creates quality, maintenance, and troubleshooting problems.  Practice code reuse, such as inheritance, functions, and subroutines.

4. Choose Meaningful Names for Functions and Variables

Descriptive variables are more helpful than single-character variables such as ‘n’ or ‘i.  When looking at code months or years later, will the variable ‘n’ mean as much as iReturnCode?

5. Remove Unused Functions and Variables to Prevent Code Bloat

While meaningful names for functions and variables are important, avoid cluttering the code with unused variables and functions.  Declaring variables and not using them can create confusion during future updates and troubleshooting.  While the days of 8 MB of memory are long gone, additional variables or functions that provided limited reuse or no additional value are still burdensome and create code bloat.

6. Verify All Input Parameters for Reliable Gen/App Execution

In the rush to get something working, don’t ignore input variable validation.  Verify all input to the script and to functions.  Don’t assume that if “we got here,” all of our inputs are valid.

7. Log Helpful and Actionable Messages

Consider what output needs to be logged for status/progress, error conditions, or troubleshooting.  Each message should be thoughtfully considered and appropriately worded to provide helpful feedback to operators and future developers.

8. Check Return Codes on All Method/Function/API Calls and Take Defensive Action

Commands that are executed within the body of the script or function will have return codes, explicitly pass, fail, or other.  Be sure to check, log, and properly handle both expected and unexpected return codes from methods, functions, and API calls.

9. Use Defensive Programming Techniques

Apply best practices for defensive programming, including least privilege access, input validation, error handling, etc.

10. Test Gen/App Recovery Scripts Beyond the Happy Path

Working code is not enough.  Develop a robust validation plan and test the code extensively, especially beyond the happy path when everything is expected to work.

11. Use Version Control for Script Management and Troubleshooting

Use version control and code management tools.  Version control is essential for troubleshooting, management, and tracking the inevitable fixes required for your scripts.

12. Catch Errors Early with Code Inspections and Peer Reviews

Use code inspections and peer reviews to increase the resilience and robustness of the code.  Code reviews help find problems early and reduce the cost, risk, and burden of late-stage failures and bugs.

13. Verify Permissions Required for Execution in Gen/App Recovery

Having well-organized, modern, reviewed, inspected, tested, and controlled code is an essential part of a well-crafted gen/app script.  However, the best-coded script will fail to execute if it does not have the right permissions.  Ensure that the script has the correct permissions to execute standalone as well as under the service/user accounts of the HA solution.

14. Comment Code Clearly to Explain Logic and Business Use Cases

Provide comments that help explain the business logic and use case, describe expected function inputs and returns, and contribute to overall understanding.  Well-written code still needs comments, especially if it is not obvious what business logic or requirement is being addressed.  An example comment block could look like:
Name:

Purpose:

Preconditions:

Postconditions:

Returns:

Ready to Simplify Gen/App Recovery with Confidence?

Don’t leave high availability to chance. With SIOS LifeKeeper and the Generic Application (Gen/App) Recovery Kit, you can safeguard critical applications, streamline recovery, and reduce downtime.

Request a demo today to see how SIOS can help you achieve reliable, cost-effective high availability and disaster recovery.

Author: Cassius Rhue, VP, Customer Experience at SIOS

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

The Importance of Disaster Recovery Planning for Modern Businesses

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The Importance of Disaster Recovery Planning for Modern Businesses

The Importance of Disaster Recovery Planning for Modern Businesses

In today’s internet-driven world, a moment of downtime can cost businesses thousands and even millions of dollars. Users expect seamless, uninterrupted access to services and applications 24/7. When your system goes down, they notice instantly. What’s worse than a few minutes of inconvenience? A catastrophic failure where you lose access to your entire production environment. While modern cloud platforms have built-in resiliency, assuming you’re immune to disaster can be a costly mistake. Without a clear disaster recovery (DR) plan, what could be a seamless recovery can quickly spiral into chaos. In this post, we’ll explore why disaster recovery planning is crucial and how it can protect your business from both financial and reputational harm.

Disaster Recovery Preparedness vs. the High Cost of Downtime

Yes, setting up a disaster recovery plan takes time, resources, and strategic planning. But the investment pales in comparison to the costs of an unplanned outage. Lost revenue, damaged customer trust, compliance penalties, and operational disruption can devastate a business, especially if recovery takes days instead of minutes. A solid DR plan isn’t a luxury; it’s a fundamental business continuity requirement in the digital age.

How Disaster Recovery Protects Customer Satisfaction

When systems crash, customers don’t just get frustrated; they often leave. With social media amplifying every complaint, a short outage can become a public relations nightmare. But if you have DR mechanisms in place to ensure continuity, customers experience minimal or no impact. They stay satisfied, loyal, and confident in your brand’s reliability, even during unexpected events.

Turn Uptime into a Competitive Advantage to Over the Competition

Downtime isn’t just bad for you; it’s an opportunity for your competitors. But when their services fail and yours stay up, it sends a powerful message to the market. Reliable uptime can be a major differentiator, especially in industries where trust and availability are paramount. Disaster recovery planning can turn operational resilience into a competitive edge.

Gain Peace of Mind with Data Redundancy

Knowing that your critical data and infrastructure are backed up, replicated, and easily recoverable is invaluable. Whether it’s a cyberattack, hardware failure, or natural disaster, you can rest easy knowing your operations aren’t at the mercy of a single point of failure. DR planning helps you build redundancy so no single event can wipe out your progress or data.

Minimize Downtime and Accelerate Recovery

When disaster strikes, speed is everything. A well-designed disaster recovery plan includes clear steps, designated responsibilities, and automated recovery mechanisms. This significantly reduces the time it takes to return to full operations. Instead of scrambling to assess the damage and improvise a fix, your team can follow a tested recovery playbook to restore production quickly and efficiently.

Final Thoughts: Making Disaster Recovery a Priority

Disaster recovery isn’t just an IT issue; it’s a business imperative. In a world where downtime equals lost dollars and diminished trust, the ability to recover quickly and keep services running is a critical differentiator. Don’t wait for disaster to strike before realizing the value of preparation. Contact the SIOS team to start the journey to build your recovery strategy now, and position your business to weather any storm.

Author: Connor Toohey, Product Support Engineer at SIOS

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Webinar: Healthy IT in Healthcare: Protecting SQL Server with SIOS and Google Cloud

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Healthy IT in Healthcare Protecting SQL Server with SIOS and Google Cloud

Webinar: Healthy IT in Healthcare: Protecting SQL Server with SIOS and Google Cloud

Uninterrupted access to critical applications and patient data is vital in healthcare. In this on-demand webinar, you will learn how healthcare organizations achieve reliable and cost-effective high availability for SQL Server using SIOS DataKeeper and Google Cloud Platform, without the need for Enterprise Edition or Always On.

The session covers practical HA and DR strategies using Google Cloud’s secure and scalable infrastructure along with HA/DR Solution, SIOS DataKeeper. It includes a live failover demo between availability zones using SANless clusters, plus real-world examples of how healthcare providers meet compliance requirements while reducing cost and complexity.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

High Availability Health-Check Services, Optimization, and Training

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High Availability Health-Check Services, Optimization, and Training

High Availability Health-Check Services, Optimization, and Training

Customers regularly engage SIOS for consultancy services such as high availability (HA) health check services and training. This helps customers keep their IT infrastructure in good working order and keeps their staff trained to operate it.

High Availability Health-Check Services

Health check services are a Professional Services offering from SIOS that checks the customer’s SIOS server infrastructure and produces a report for the customer. A detailed review of the SIOS HA LifeKeeper environment is performed, as well as a thorough examination of the product logs and customer run logs. During this review, version levels, communication paths, quorum, Application Recovery Kits, and tuning parameters are examined and compared against recommended settings. A report is generated with any potential risks outlined and actionable suggestions for improvements.

High Availability Optimization

Optimization of High Availability services can be broken down into two areas:

  • High availability optimization – this optimization reduces downtime and maintains the operational uptime of a system. This is achieved by the use of system-initiated failovers and user-initiated switchovers to a backup hardware system that can take over when a primary system fails or is manually switched over. A Disaster Recovery (DR) node may be positioned on a WAN so that if the main LAN-based nodes go down, fast recovery can be achieved by failing over to the DR node. Backups may also be routinely made, so that recovery of specific files can be performed if needed.
  • Cost-optimized high availability – this optimization examines a customer’s system to determine the best way to offer redundancy, while keeping costs down. This may involve using cloud services for scaling and utilizing lower-tiered services to reduce cost. Serverless architectures with a pay-per-use model can also be used. All of this reduces hardware costs.

High Availability Training

SIOS offers on-demand high availability product training for LifeKeeper for Linux and DataKeeper for Windows products through the Udemy training platform.

Additionally, SIOS offers remote custom training for organizations via the Professional Services organization for these products, which come with training materials and self-guided exercises. For the DataKeeper course, an Individualized breakout/consultancy session is available.

SIOS Technology Corporation provides high availability cluster software that protects & optimizes IT infrastructures with cluster management for your most important applications. Request a demo today and see how easy clustering can be.

Author: Paul Scrutton, Software System Engineer at SIOS Technology Corp.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS

Eliminate Shadow IT High Availability Problems

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Eliminate Shadow IT High Availability Problems

Eliminate Shadow IT High Availability Problems

Many of us are familiar with the term Shadow IT.  Most often, the term is used to refer to technology systems, software, subscriptions, and other services that are used by employees of a particular company without the overall approval, knowledge, or oversight by the company’s official IT department.  Most often, these systems, services, or subscriptions are downloaded and installed, or used and managed by individuals outside of the IT department.

For example, perhaps your company officially uses Windows 365, but others prefer Dropbox, so they configured a Dropbox account to share files instead of OneDrive.  Another example of Shadow IT occurs when a company has settled on one messaging platform, but other teams or departments within the company download and configure Zoom for Slack or WhatsApp.

Common Examples of Shadow IT in the Workplace

Shadow IT occurs in many different areas, from messaging to meetings, coding tools to storage.  While most teams and organizations that have some form of Shadow IT do not deploy them maliciously or with evil intent, the presence of Shadow IT nevertheless introduces risks.

These services, software, systems, and subscriptions introduce potential risks, including:

  • Security issues
  • Data compliance
  • Support challenges
  • Management and maintenance issues (due to sprawl)
  • Additional cost (licensing and manpower)

How Shadow IT Impacts High Availability (HA)

In addition to security and data compliance risks, Shadow IT may also be introducing a significant High Availability (HA) risk.

While many examples of Shadow IT mentioned online are related to messaging applications, meeting tools, IDEs, and development applications, the breadth of Shadow IT can also impact High Availability (HA).  When Shadow IT includes the deployment of systems that store critical information and data, this creates a High Availability risk.

These systems, because of the nature of the data stored on them, need to be monitored and protected by a commercial HA solution.  In addition, critical data that is essential to business functions needs to be highly available and protected against data loss by a replication solution, backup solution, or both.

Business Risks of Unprotected Shadow IT Critical Applications

Lack of High Availability Protection

Often, when a team has deployed a system without input or authorization from IT, it may not be monitored, protected, backed up, or even paired with a HA system for failover recovery.  This is a significant risk to the organization’s HA strategy.  If the data is critical for an internal organization or project, leaving it unprotected could jeopardize the business.

Financial Losses and Business Disruption from Shadow IT Downtime

Shadow IT risks also arise when essential applications are downloaded, installed, and configured without the official IT department’s oversight.  If essential applications are running on an unprotected system or without HA monitoring and recovery protection, the risks and results can be catastrophic.  Imagine the scenario where an application is essential to the Sales workflow and orders system.  Because the software is a part of Shadow IT Infrastructure, the IT team has no knowledge of its use or its impact on the business.  If the application fails, the business will be impacted. Depending on the type of failure, the impact on operations could cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

When the critical application fails, without proper HA protection, the manual recovery process can be cumbersome, complex, and prone to errors.  This risk to the operation is due in part to the growing complexity of application environments and technical requirements. Exacerbating the complexity, when an application falls into the category of Shadow IT, the limited knowledge of the application’s existence and recovery procedures can lead to unplanned and unprepared actions to restore full operation.

Steps to Identify and Eliminate Shadow IT HA Problems

Identify All Shadow IT Systems That Impact High Availability

The first step in avoiding HA disasters due to Shadow IT is to identify the subscriptions, services, systems, applications, data, and software that have become a part of the unmanaged IT infrastructure.  Gain visibility into what tools are being used, by whom, and for what purpose.
This can be done by utilizing existing network monitoring, cloud monitoring, or endpoint detection tools.  You can also engage with the IT security and infrastructure analysis service vendors to perform a helpful audit of tools, services, systems, and subscriptions.

Remediate Risks and Remove Unnecessary Shadow IT Assets

Once this identification has been done, the next step is to start with remediation.  Remediation includes eliminating unused and unnecessary systems as well as implementing controls and processes for the administration of each acquired item. Be sure to adjust workflows for eliminated systems, as the removal of systems can impact several teams and activities within the organization.

Protect Critical Applications with High Availability and Replication

For systems, applications, and services that must remain, especially those housing critical data and applications, deploy a commercially available HA and replication solution to protect the business from the key threats of application downtime, data loss, system unavailability, and downtime of the systems hosting the critical data, applications, or tools.

Educate Teams on the Risks of Shadow IT to HA Systems

Lastly, educate the organization about the dangers and risks associated with Shadow IT, including the risks due to dependencies, architecture complexities, data vulnerability, and unexpected downtime of unprotected systems.

Build a Resilient HA Architecture to Eliminate Shadow IT Downtime

Shadow IT is not limited to meeting and messaging tools, development systems and services, nor apps like Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, and online services.  Shadow IT tools often lack proper backup and recovery mechanisms, as well as uptime guarantees.  As a result, critical business processes and data could be inaccessible or even permanently lost due to a failure scenario.  When not officially integrated into HA protection, failures at the system, application, network, or storage layer can lead to broken workflows, inefficiencies in processing, or business downtime and reputational loss.

Eliminate Shadow IT HA problems by creating a well-architected HA environment for the systems, services, applications, and workloads that your company identifies and chooses to incorporate into the official IT department offerings.  This architecture should include a commercially available HA, data replication, and backup solution that is deployed on an enterprise-ready hypervisor.

Ready to strengthen your HA architecture with proven expertise? Request a demo today and see how SIOS can help you design and deploy a high availability solution that protects your business from Shadow IT downtime.

Author:Cassius Rhue, VP, Customer Experience

Reproduced with permission from SIOS