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SIOS For U.S. Navy’s High Availability Data Replication Needs

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SIOS For U.S. Navy's High Availability Data Replication Needs

SIOS Provides GTS with High Availability Data Replication and Business Continuity for U.S. Navy Combat Systems

Global Technical Systems (GTS) had to find a technical solution to meet the U.S. Navy’s high availability data replication needs; one that could keep data synchronized among cabinets and would meet the requirements for the Navy’s mission critical needs. They issued a request for proposal (RFP), which consisted of a need to find an enclosure and Common Processing System (CPS) for the Navy to feed various programs of record, such as the ship self-defense system.

The Solution

SIOS Protection Suite was the optimal solution to provide multi-site cluster configurations and enable cascading of multiple node failovers. They was selected by GTS to monitor and protect the Navy’s IBM BladeCenter BCHT and storage infrastructure against planned and unplanned network downtime. With the ability to combine the robustness of a classic, shared storage cluster with efficient, blocklevel data replication to a disaster recovery site, SIOS Protection Suite also enabled automatic replication redirection to deliver comprehensive disaster recovery protection for the Navy’s combat systems.

In certain configurations, the Navy has two data centers with two servers that provide local availability. Inside the data centers are two node clusters that are connected to shared storage. Both sets of machines exchange data replication on a continuous basis. GTS liked how SIOS Protection Suite combined shared storage support, cascading failover, real-time continuous data protection, and application level monitoring.

Ensuring High Availability Data Replication All The Time

Since these systems run with a rack of servers that will travel out at sea, GTS needs to ensure there is continuous availability in the event that there is combat. With the SIOS failover advantage, the Navy is protected from hardware issues that may surface. SIOS’s solutions allow business data to appear as is, showing no changes in the secondary server. Its application awareness feature has the ability to comprehend the interdependencies that occur between all system components, which greatly differs from competitors whose features are limited to monitoring the hardware, operating system, and database.

Ease Of Installation

There were no integration issues in terms of implementing this solution into the system baseline. GTS took the baseline and loaded the solution into the system. Next, it ran quality control and operational qualification tests then shipped the units to the Navy. The deployment process from start to finish was roughly a yearlong activity for all software and hardware subsystems that, for SIOS products, was both hassle free and easy.

The SIOS Protection Suite allows the end user to choose or use the capability. This means if the user chooses to not deploy the SIOS Protection Suite, they will not receive the added benefit of having SIOS protection. Services are billed on a monthly basis. For this extra fee, customers can receive the added benefit of having a disaster recovery solution that maintains uninterrupted access to data. SIOS takes over the failover of the solution and ensures a resilient environment by monitoring each server.

Benefits

SIOS Protection Suite enables the Navy to meet its mission critical requirements by helping GTS maintain the availability of data. The Navy must be able to meet their mission at hand with high availability. If the enclosure is not able to fail over, they are not able to meet their mission. This solution concisely affords the Navy to meet their mission requirements.

GTS completed an extensive trade study prior to selecting Lifekeeper. SIOS Protection Suite’s price point and its ease of deployment was a key factor in GTS’s decision to select this solution. In addition, the solution’s unique composition provides GTS with the flexibility and savings that are associated with open source platforms.

The robustness of the SIOS Protection Suite provides enterprise class high availability data replication and failover. Protecting critical data is absolutely an imperative necessity for the Navy. The fact that SIOS was chosen for this project speaks volumes, as it ensures systems are 100 percent secure and reliable.

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS helped US Navy achieve high availability data replication, go here

ezRez® Turns To SIOS For Failover Cluster Solution

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ezRez® Turns To SIOS For Failover Cluster Solution

Platform supporting Web-centric travel services seeks failover cluster solution with SIOS Protection Suite for Linux

ezRez® needed a failover cluster solution to protect their databases. San Francisco-based Software, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of online travel and loyalty solutions, enables its clients to deliver a variety of travel products, including airline, car and hotel reservations, as well as vacation activities and travel insurance. Whether a business wants to provide a standalone offering or products packaged with other services, the ezRez platform allows a company to launch online travel services with the look and feel of a customized implementation.

The Challenge

ezRez has unique data protection requirements for its online travel services solution. The company operates separate databases for each client. It has developed its own platform based on the PostgreSQL open source database management system to support its services. However, PostgreSQL does not contain failover-clustering capabilities. If ezRez’s systems were to go down, the company and its clients would lose revenue, productivity and brand equity. ezRez needed an affordable failover cluster solution solution that could assure their systems remained available. They conducted a thorough search for a solution that would easily integrate with the company’s PostgreSQL-based platform. Soon after, ezRez determined that SIOS Technology and its SIOS Protection Suite for Linux was the best choice.

Maintain Online Stability And Eliminate Downtime

As a company whose platform processes thousands of transactions each day, ezRez needed a failover solution to monitor the databases. It has to provide a strong level of protection in case of a failure. In addition to requiring a failover cluster solution that would accommodate its PostgreSQL-based platform, ezRez wanted a solution that would eliminate downtime. When a system fails, it causes a lot of inconvenience for the enduser. In an online environment these failures are magnified. Experiencing downtime can be detrimental to a company’s revenues, reputation and success. This is especially so for a company such as ezRez whose core business depends on maintaining online stability. “Our clients expect a high percentage of uptime,” said Bruttig.

SIOS Failover Cluster Solution

SIOS Protection Suite for Linux ensures the continuous availability of ezRez’s data by creating a fault resilient environment. In addition, SIOS Protection Suite for Linux monitors each database instance to ensure that any fault is automatically detected and corrected while also maintaining uninterrupted access to the data. The solution is the only commercial product that works seamlessly with ezRez’s PostgreSQL database infrastructure. SIOS has been supporting the PostgreSQL open source database management platform for several years. The software provide solutions that allow businesses to add data protection functionality into PostgreSQL-supported database management systems. In addition to SIOS Data Protection Suite for Linux, SIOS Data Replication for Linux supports PostgreSQL 7 and 8 out of the box, which was a key prerequisite for ezRez. ezRez currently runs on Dell servers to manage its 8 node clustering environment and operates EMC PowerPath – a combination that often proves to be troublesome when searching for a HA failover solution. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux works in conjunction with EMC PowerPath. It does not require a proprietary file system. The solution’s compatibility with shared storage configurations, such as EMC PowerPath, as well as other types of storage configurations, made the SIOS Protection Suite for Linux the clear choice for ezRez.

Benefits

“It’s been 2.5 years since we deployed SIOS Protection Suite for Linux into our architecture,” said Bruttig. “During this time our uptime has been over 99.95 percent.” SIOS Protection Suite for Linux’s price point and its ease of deployment was an additional key benefit in ezRez’s decision to select the data protection solution. “The solution caught a crucial issue that had potential to result in a global outage. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux failed it over successfully, which resulted in no downtime to our customers,” said Bruttig. “If SIOS Protection Suite for Linux was not in place it would be extremely expensive to maintain our 99.95% uptime. The solution performs at the highest degree, delivering exactly what it promises to do.”

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS’ failover cluster solution helped ezRez®, go here

SIOS Protection Suite Ensures High Availability Cluster Solution

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SIOS Protection Suite Ensures High Availability Cluster Solution

Protecting Data Aggregation, Processing And Transition Of The Central Bank of the Russian Federation With SIOS

The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (the Bank of Russia) payment system needed a High Availability Cluster Solution. The bank comprises more than 600 bank offices, 1,100 commercial banks and 2,400 side offices that provide financial services to hundreds of thousands of governmental and public organizations, and commercial companies across Russia. The complex daily account routines at all these organizations generate more than a billion electronic filings every year. In the Moscow region, these functions are performed by a dedicated organization called the Interregional Center for Informatization of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (ICI BR). ICI BR has built a special Information and Reference System (IRS) that works as a wide area network (WAN) with geographically dispersed data sources that send information to the main data center. To protect this critical system, they chose SIOS Protection Suite for Linux with data replication to ensure high availability and data integrity of IRS’s key components.

The Challenge

ICI BR chose FOBOS PLUS Co., Ltd., an experienced system integrator that specializes in building highly available data centers with an emphasis on data integrity and security features to develop the Bank of Russia payment system’s IRS. After conducting a thorough and comprehensive analysis of the IC BR needs and requirements, FOBOS PLUS engineers set out to create a system that would combine the required functionality at a moderate price. Cost factors guided the company’s choice to use industry standard platforms and open source operating systems. To achieve high availability, they implemented key components of the Bank of Russia’s IRS as fault tolerant cluster solutions. FOBOS PLUS engineers needed a solution that met a broad range of requirements.

They needed a cluster solution that would ensure high availability for both Oracle databases and custom applications and enable data replication over local area networks to eliminate shared storage use.

High Availability Cluster Solution

After detailed analysis of various cluster solutions’ features and specifications, they chose SIOS Protection Suite for Linux with data replication. SIOS Protection Suite would provide safe and seamless failover in the event of primary system faults and the ability to maintain continuous data replication between cluster nodes. The cluster was initially configured in a test environment to assure its effectiveness. And also to fine-tune the custom applications that should work in high availability mode. After the full testing cycle was completed, they needed less than a week to deploy the cluster at the ICI BR data center. They built twin two-node clusters, one located at a primary data center and the other at a backup center. Both clusters maintain continuous data replication between cluster nodes. The key reasons for choosing SIOS Protection Suite as a cluster solution included the platform’s affordable price. As well as open source operating system and support for Oracle DBMS support and custom applications. The SIOS Protection Suite High Availability Cluster Solution virtually eliminates data loss due to hardware or software faults. Also it provides high availability for applications and processed data.

Benefits

SIOS Protection Suite and its high availability cluster core achieved all project objectives quickly and with minimal expense. The solution’s scalability also allows the system to convert into geographically dispersed clusters with primary and backup data centers operating as nodes. This allow them to add disaster recovery at virtually no additional cost. The SIOS clusters will easily withstand not just one server loss but an entire primary site loss. In the worst-case scenario, SIOS Protection Suite will seamlessly restart all applications on the backup site machines. Then it would continue to provide continuous data replication to ensure little to no data loss. Finally this would enable the entire system to continue operating normally. After finishing test and deployment procedures, both FOBOS PLUS and ICI’s engineers praised SIOS Protection Suite’s intuitive graphical user interface. It allowed them to easily configure and monitor the cluster status. Furthermore, it provided comprehensive information on node and application status on a single screen. It even extends high availability by making potential problems immediately identifiable to users.

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS helped Central Bank of Russia achieve high availability cluster solution, go here

Achieve High Availability Data Replication In Cluster Solution With SIOS

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Achieve high availability data replication in cluster solution with SIOS

High Availability, Data Replication, Cluster Solution Guards Institution’s Linux-based Resources From Downtime

Serving nearly 19,000 students and supporting nearly 170 academic programs, Boise State University is Idaho’s largest university. The university needed a cluster solution offering high availability data replication. The data protection requirements include maintaining continuous availability of their Linux-based network file system and replication of all data and applications located within its Linux Red Hat server environment. To ensure students, faculty and staff have continuous access to Blackboard resources, Boise State IT staff implemented a SIOS #SANLess cluster using SIOS Protection Suite for Linux solution. This cluster uses local attached storage for each server in the cluster. SIOS software keeps this storage synchronized using real time block-level replication. It eliminates the cost, complexity, and single point of failure risk of traditional shared storage clusters.

The Challenge

The school did not want anyone to lose their data, hence the importance of having high availability data replication. The systems must experience very little downtime, if any. In addition, the university wanted technology that was easy to implement and maintain. And at the same time, provide the highest level of protection and availability of data and applications contained inside the Red Hat servers.

Getting A High Availability Data Replication Cluster Solution

The Boise State University IT department implemented a cluster solution using SIOS software. This cluster maintains high availability for their Blackboard and other critical applications and data by monitoring system and application health, preserving client connectivity and providing uninterrupted data access. If SIOS Protection Suite detects a failure in the application, network, or server hardware, it attempts to restart the application. If the restart fails, it automatically moves operations to backup servers and redundant copies of the data in the Linux cluster through a system failover process. The solution also enables continuous operations during planned downtime for maintenance or upgrades. SIOS software creates a fault resilient environment that meets the University’s stringent high availability requirements. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux works on both physical servers and virtual machines.

Benefits

SIOS software not only provides failover and disaster recovery protection, but it also eliminates the risk associated with a single point of failure contained in shared storage SAN cluster configurations. The SIOS failover process enables automatic system and application recovery if a server goes down.

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS helped Boise State University achieve high availability data replication in their cluster solution, go here

Meet Your Failover And Disaster Recovery Needs With SIOS

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Meet Your Failover And Disaster Recovery Needs With SIOS

SIOS Software Ensures 24/7 Availability, Failover And Disaster Recovery Of Theatre’s Online Ticketing System

The theatre with the highest regular annual attendance in the United Kingdom uses SIOS Protection Suite software. The software safeguard the online ticketing system keeping it available 24/7, even in the event of software bugs, hardware failure or unanticipated outages. SIOS Protection Suite meets Birmingham Hippodrome’s failover, replication and disaster recovery needs. The company moved off a hosted server and onto its own in-house networking infrastructure. By doing so, the theatre has freed itself to develop a new marketing strategy based around its website and database of customers.

The Challenge

Birmingham Hippodrome wrote a detailed specification. It called for a new network infrastructure that would deliver full failover and disaster recovery, with no single point of failure. The new infrastructure would need to be flexible and resilient. It would also need to enable them to tailor the system to improve marketing around its website and database of customers. That meant the infrastructure would essentially need to run all back office tasks. This includes a new e-mail system, the theatre’s own ticket booking, de-booking and credit card service.

The Solution

To deliver full failover and disaster recovery protection, IT infrastructure consultancy eSpida built two server rooms approximately one mile apart. Each replicating to the other. If one server failed, the other server would continue operations. They also implemented two leased lines and established two service providers at two points in the city with two separate main supplies. Birmingham wanted to simplify server “housekeeping.” The Hippodrome’s network infrastructure has been virtualised with 20 virtualised servers on IBM x3650 hardware and twin dual-core CPUs with 32 GB RAM and local disk. They use SIOS software to ensure continuous availability of applications and the online ticketing system.

SIOS Protection Suite creates a “mirrored” server system on the remote site that is identical to the primary server. If the primary server fails, SIOS software can shut it down and transfer all operations to the backup server while providing continuous access to applications and data. This capability ensures that both Birmingham Hippodrome staff and customers shopping for tickets online are unaffected by system failures or maintenance. SIOS software monitors system and application health, maintains client connectivity. It provides uninterrupted data access, giving Birmingham Hippodrome the reliable, fault-resilient system they need.

Benefit Of Failover And Disaster Recovery Solution

Another benefit of SIOS software is that installation and set-up is a quick and hassle-free process. High availability and protection of the theatre’s overall operations may have seemed like a daunting task. But SIOS Protection Suite was installed, configured, tested and in production within a few days.

For the first six months of operation, one of the servers was freezing up about once a month. In each case, SIOS software failed over to the back-up server in under a minute. The few initial instances of server failure went largely unnoticed, thanks to SIOS.

SIOS software enables Hippodrome to provide a total solution that includes hardware, installation, as well as supplementary services related to disaster recovery.

To find out more about SIOS products, go here
To read about how SIOS can meet your failover and disaster recovery needs, go here