What is Linux Clustering?

A high availability Linux cluster is a group of Linux computers or nodes, storage devices that work together and are managed as a single system. In a traditional clustering configuration, two nodes are connected to shared storage (typically a SAN). With Linux clustering, an application is run on one node, and clustering software is used to monitor its operation. If the software detects an issue, it moves operation of the application to the secondary node in a process called failover. Since the secondary node shares storage with the primary, operation can continue quickly, meeting very short (seconds to minutes) recovery time and recovery point objectives.

Linux High Availability Clustering

Some Linux operating system vendors offer clustering software, such as SUSE Linux HAE; Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL); and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC). While they allow you to create a failover cluster, they present a variety of challenges. First, choosing which software to use for each component of the HA configuration, which at a minimum, must include three related capabilities: data replication, server clustering and a resource manager with a heartbeat monitor. With SUSE and Red Hat, you are also locked into the OS. If you want to use other less expensive or free OS versions, such as CentOS or Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL), you will need to buy a separate HA solution.

Whichever you choose, creating a Linux clustering solution with open source software for high availability is a “Do-It-Yourself” (DIY) project, that is highly manual and prone to human error.

Linux HA extensions require a high degree of technical skill, creating complexity and reliability issues that challenge most operators.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux both solutions offer both a SAN and SANless environment but require that a replication software called DRBD be installed and configured in the OS to support data replication in the SANless environment. Unfortunately, this requires heavy custom scripting, which can take a long time to test and validate and requires retesting when any updates are made to the environment. Since these companies are operating system companies first and foremost, their support is geared towards operating system-level issues and often there is little to no HA expertise to help a customer with their issues.

Oracle RAC is a high availability solution, but it is primarily architected for the database management tier. This means you will need a different HA solution for those components that do the monitoring, management, and recovery of your application tiers. Oracle RAC is also very expensive – requiring you to upgrade to Oracle Enterprise Edition in addition to paying for the RAC option – typically hundreds of thousands of dollars – when compared to other Linux clustering solutions, such as SIOS Protection Suite.

SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux

The SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux provides a tightly integrated combination of high availability failover clustering, continuous application monitoring, data replication, and configurable recovery policies, protecting your business-critical applications from downtime and disasters. While SIOS LifeKeeper can operate in a SAN environment to support a traditional HA hardware-based cluster, the architecture takes a shared-nothing approach to server clustering allowing it to run SANless. It delivers a robust, versatile and easily configurable solution with automatic and manual failover/failback recovery policies for a wide variety of applications.

SIOS Protection Suite for Linux includes:

• SIOS LifeKeeper, which provides flexible failover clustering software that monitors the entire application stack
• SIOS DataKeeper, which provides fast, efficient host-based, block-level data replication for mirroring local storage in a SANless cluster configuration or replicating to remote locations or cloud for disaster recovery
• Multiple Application Recovery Kits (ARKs), with automated configuration and validation tools built into the product to protect your business-critical applications and data from downtime and disasters.

It is the SIOS’ team’s depth of knowledge in application recovery and the solution’s automation of application monitoring and recovery that makes it easier to use and a better, less expensive choice when compared to the Linux clustering solutions offered SUSE, Red Hat, and Oracle.

In addition, SIOS LifeKeeper supports all major Linux distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, CentOS, and Oracle Linux and accommodates a wide range of storage architectures. SIOS software has been adapted and optimized to run on these operating systems and the components are tested so ensure the SANless cluster solution will work on each OS.

Lastly, with the SIOS Protection Suite for Linux, you can run your business-critical applications in a flexible, scalable cloud environment, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) without sacrificing performance, high availability, or disaster protection.

Linux Clustering in AWS and Microsoft Azure

While cloud providers, such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, provide high availability options, they do not provide the level of high availability and breadth of protection across the whole application infrastructure that customers demand and that you once achieved by using clusters before cloud computing. That is why AWS is partnering with SIOS. SIOS Protection Suite for Linux achieves these desired levels of high availability for our mutual customers and the critical applications they are moving to the cloud.

SIOS LifeKeeper Linux provides all the elements you need to create a high availability Linux cluster in a virtual private cloud (VPC) within a single AWS or Azure Region across two Availability Zones. It also supports out-of-the-box protection for SAP systems, Oracle databases, and other business-critical applications.

SIOS LifeKeeper Quick Start Guide for AWS

A Quick Start, available in the AWS Marketplace for enterprise users who want to deploy SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux on AWS into their test or production environment. The SIOS Protection Suite Quickstart on the AWS Marketplace helps you create a fully configured and operational Linux high availability cluster in a few short steps. It sets up an AWS architecture for SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux and deploys it into your AWS account in about half an hour.

High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solutions for Applications in Google Cloud

Google Cloud Platform High Availability

SIOS DataKeeper is recognized by Google Cloud Platform (GCP) as the only high availability clustering solution that enables the accelerated delivery of high availability SQL Server clusters and other business-critical applications in GCP. SIOS DataKeeper enables Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) environments to protect applications in GCP without the need for shared storage. With it, SIOS DataKeeper lets organizations run their important applications in the cloud without sacrificing the high availability and disaster protection they have come to expect from failover clustering environments.

SQL Server High Availability Cluster in Google Cloud Platform

Organizations are often prevented from moving their business-critical applications, such as SQL Server, to public cloud environments where shared storage – a prerequisite for failover clustering – is not available. By adding SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition to a WSFC environment, companies can create a high availability SANless cluster, eliminating the need for shared (SAN) storage and enabling customers to capitalize on the benefits of GCP. Companies can use SIOS DataKeeper with SQL Server Standard Edition to create a SQL high availability cluster without the cost of Enterprise Edition licensing.

Configure Clusters Across Environments

SIOS DataKeeper synchronizes local storage in each cluster node in real time using highly efficient block-level replication to create a SANless cluster that appears to WSFC as shared storage. SIOS DataKeeper provides the flexibility to configure clusters across physical, virtual and cloud environments, freeing IT to drive additional value to the business.

Learn more about SIOS High Availability in Google Cloud Platform

• See how to get high availability for SAP and SAP HANA on Google Cloud Platform.
• See the webinar: SQL Server High Availability in Google Cloud Platform
• Learn more about Google Cloud Platform and achieving SQL Server high availability.

High Availability and Clustering Solutions for Applications in AWS

What is AWS Clustering?

AWS clustering ensures high availability protection for critical applications running in AWS EC2 environments by eliminating single points of failure. In an AWS cluster environment, two or more nodes in AWS are configured in a failover cluster using clustering software. The critical application is run on a primary node in the cluster. If clustering software detects an application operation failure, it orchestrates a failover of the application operation to secondary node(s) in the cluster.

AWS High Availability with SIOS DataKeeper

For customers running critical Windows applications in Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) environments, SIOS DataKeeper is the first high availability and disaster recovery solution to combine fully automated, application-centric clustering and efficient data replication. Seamless integration into Windows Server Failover Clustering environments enables high availability clusters without the need for costly shared storage. Simply add SIOS DataKeeper to a WSFC environment and it synchronizes local storage using highly efficient block-level replication, making it appear to WSFC as traditional shared storage. IT teams use SIOS DataKeeper to continue to use familiar WSFC in the cloud without the cost and complexity of a SAN or other shared storage.

SIOS LifeKeeper

While cloud providers offer high availability service levels for their hardware, they do not cover software-related downtime. Critical critical applications, databases, and ERPS, such as SQL Server, Oracle Database, SAP, HANA companies need 99.99% uptime at the application and data level using SIOS LifeKeeper. SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux and SIOS LifeKeeper for Windows provide application-aware HA/DR for complex, critical applications in AWS for reliable easy-to-manage clustering environment.

SIOS LifeKeeper is a certified SAP HA solution for both NetWeaver and HANA.

SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux is the only solution that provides a comprehensive range of Linux clustering, protecting applications in SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, Oracle Linux, and Rocky Linux clustering environments. SIOS LifeKeeper for Windows provides reliable failover clustering for applications in Windows environments. SIOS LifeKeeper comes with unique SIOS application recovery kits that provide application-specific intelligence to automate configuration and management steps and ensure failovers happen in compliance with application-vendor best practices for maximum efficiency and reliability.

SIOS LifeKeeper is sold as part of the SIOS Protection Suite (for Windows and for Linux), a tightly integrated combination of high availability failover clustering, continuous application monitoring, data replication, and configurable recovery policies. SIOS Protection Suite includes SIOS LifeKeeper clustering software, SIOS DataKeeper replications software, and multiple Application Recovery Kits (ARKs) to protect your business-critical applications and data from downtime and disasters.

SIOS Delivers High Availability in AWS

SIOS Technology has achieved AWS Microsoft Workloads Competency status, a designation that SIOS provides proven technology and deep expertise in helping customers in the protection, deployment and management of Microsoft-based applications on AWS, specifically with workloads based on Microsoft SQL Server.

Deployment Options in AWS

SIOS high availability clustering software is available on AWS Marketplace for both Windows and Linux environments. They can be deployed manually or automatically using an AWS QuickStart or AMI. The AWS Quick Start deployment is ideal for organizations making their first venture into high availability clusters in the cloud. AWS Quick Starts are automated reference deployments for key workloads on AWS. Each QuickStart launches, configures and runs the AWS service required to deploy a specific workload on AWS, using AWS best practices for security and availability. QuickStarts eliminate manual steps with a single click – they are fast, low-cost, and customizable. Several

SIOS DataKeeper and SIOS Protection Suite AMIs are also available for purchase on AWS Marketplace, enabling customers to add high availability to an existing deployment or to deploy a two-node SQL Server cluster in AWS.

Learn More About SIOS High Availability in AWS

• Purchase SIOS DataKeeper through the AWS Marketplace
• View the Quick Start for SIOS Protection Suite for Linux on AWS
• See how SIOS customers, Gulliver and Epicure, use SIOS high Availability clustering software in AWS

High Availability Clustering Solutions for Microsoft Azure

What is Microsoft Azure Clustering?

Microsoft Azure clustering ensures high availability protection for critical applications running in Azure environments by eliminating single points of failure. In an Azure cluster environment, two or more nodes in Azure are configured in a failover cluster using clustering software. The critical application is run on a primary node in the cluster. If clustering software detects an application operation failure, it orchestrates a failover of the application operation to secondary node(s) in the cluster.

Microsoft Azure High Availability with SIOS DataKeeper

For customers running critical Windows applications in Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) environments, SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition is the first Azure certified high availability and disaster recovery solution in the Azure Marketplace. It provides efficient data replication and seamless integration into Windows Server Failover Clustering environments for high availability clusters without the need for costly shared storage. Simply add SIOS DataKeeper to a WSFC environment and it synchronizes local storage using highly efficient block-level replication, making it appear to WSFC as traditional shared storage. IT teams use SIOS DataKeeper to continue to use familiar WSFC in the cloud without the cost and complexity of a SAN or other shared storage.

SIOS LifeKeeper

While cloud providers offer high availability service levels for their hardware, they do not cover software-related downtime. Critical critical applications, databases, and ERPS, such as SQL Server, Oracle Database, SAP, HANA companies need 99.99% uptime at the application and data level using SIOS LifeKeeper. SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux and SIOS LifeKeeper for Windows provide application-aware HA/DR for complex, critical applications in Azure for reliable easy-to-manage clustering environment.

SIOS LifeKeeper for Linux is the only solution that provides a comprehensive range of Linux clustering, protecting applications in SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, Oracle Linux, and Rocky Linux clustering environments. SIOS LifeKeeper for Windows provides reliable failover clustering for applications in Windows environments. SIOS LifeKeeper comes with unique SIOS application recovery kits that provide application-specific intelligence to automate configuration and management steps and ensure failovers happen in compliance with application-vendor best practices for maximum efficiency and reliability.

SIOS LifeKeeper is sold as part of the SIOS Protection Suite (for Windows and for Linux), a tightly integrated combination of high availability failover clustering, continuous application monitoring, data replication, and configurable recovery policies. SIOS Protection Suite includes SIOS LifeKeeper clustering software, SIOS DataKeeper replications software, and multiple Application Recovery Kits (ARKs) to protect your business-critical applications and data from downtime and disasters.

Azure Site Recovery Compatibility for High Availability and Disaster Protection

SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition is the only high availability solution certified for use with Microsoft Azure Site Recovery for cost-efficient high availability and disaster recovery protection for business-critical applications in Azure.

SIOS DataKeeper provides broad compatibility, enabling customers to protect important applications, including SAP, SQL Server, and Oracle, on Azure. SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition provides a simple way to use Windows Server Failover Clustering – including SQL Server Always On Failover Clustering – in a cloud environment. Customers can replicate the cluster to a geographically separated location using Azure Site Recovery for cost-efficient, robust disaster protection. Learn more about SQL Server High Availability in Azure.

Together SIOS DataKeeper and Microsoft Azure Site Recovery enable the only option for local high availability protection along with disaster recovery in a highly flexible and on-demand solution.

Protect Linux Applications in Azure

SIOS Protection Suite for Linux lets you run your business-critical applications in Azure or Azure Stack without sacrificing performance, high availability or disaster protection.

Learn more about SIOS SANless Software for Cloud High Availability.

SIOS is SAP Certified

SIOS Protection Suite is fully SAP-certified for your SAP NetWeaver and SAP HANA, including high availability, data replication, and disaster recovery in an easy, cost-efficient solution that can operate in the cloud, on-premises or in hybrid cloud configurations.

Learn more about SIOS High Availability for SAP on Azure

• Read the White Paper:  High Performance and High Availability for SAP on Azure
• Read the Microsoft White Paper: Microsoft High Availability for SAP HANA database on Azure using SIOS Protection Suite
• Learn how Zespri International Protects SAP and SQL Server on Azure using SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition