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Monday, October 26th, 2009 - 9:39 am EDT

everRun 2G live demo Q&A

Posted by: Michelle Liro

Thanks again to those who joined us for the everRun 2G live demo. An on-demand recording is now available to watch at your convenience.

We had quite a few questions and couldn’t get to all of them during the webinar, so we’ve put together a recap of all of the questions and answers below, including the ones we weren’t able to get to during the live event.

Q: You said that everRun supports any Windows application. Does that include Oracle DB too?
Yes. Any application that runs on Windows is supported by everRun. Custom applications that run in Windows are supported as well.

Q: Does workload mean a virtual machine that is running inside of everRun 2G?
Yes, that’s correct. A workload is a virtual machine that has its own Windows environment, its own application environment, and its own identity.

Q: Can you upgrade to everRun 2G from 7.1 or is it a new installation?
everRun 7.1 is the previous version of our product, and sits on a Windows base. everRun 2G is based on XenServer. As such it requires a new installation. We have a process to help you migrate your virtual machine from everRun HA or FT to everRun 2G. We also offer services to perform this migration.

Q: In everRun FT we need 3 windows licenses, 2 for co-servers and 1 for FT... how many Windows licenses do we need for 2G?
We always recommend that your check with your software vendors and license agreements on this question. For Windows, you do need a valid licensed copy of Windows on both hosts. If you have the Enterprise version of Windows, you can have multiple workloads there using the same enterprise license. Be sure to check with your Microsoft representative or other vendors for specific licensing questions.

Q: What is the base operating system running on Xen Hosts?
XenServer is the base operating system. everRun runs on top of XenServer.

Q: In an environment such as the one shown on your slide, would you be paying for two licenses of MS Exchange?
You should always check with your vendor and/or license agreement to ensure you have your applications licensed correctly.

Q: Can everRun be deployed on an existing server without a rebuild of the OS or server?
It can be if the existing server is running Citrix XenServer. In this case you would simply layer on everRun. If you have a Windows server with Windows on the bare metal, you would have to reconstruct that environment.

Q: What are the benefits of moving to everRun 2G for customers who are currently running everRun HA or FT?
everRun 2G is the next generation of everRun HA and FT, enabling multiple levels of protection within a single solution. While there are a number of new capabilities within everRun 2G, one of the most significant enhancements is the ability to protect multiple Windows workloads on a single pair of servers. With everRun HA and FT, only a single Windows workload can be protected on a pair of servers. everRun 2G allows multiple workloads to be protected on the same pair of servers to help reduce hardware costs and take advantage of more powerful servers. From a supported platform standpoint, everRun HA and FT support Windows Server 2003 32-bit Standard and Enterprise. everRun 2G supports Windows Server 2003 32- bit and 64-bit Standard and Enterprise as well as Windows Server 2008 64-bit Standard and Enterprise.

Q: How would you plug the NICs from each server to your network so that a faulty switch would not mess up the redundancy?
As a best practice to remove any single point of failure, redundant switches would be deployed.

Q: What is the maximum distance/geographic location for two physical servers to work using everRun?
The answer to this question is based on latency and bandwidth. It depends on the network connection. We have a latency requirement of 5ms roundtrip between the two servers to maintain the synchronous state that we provide. We have customers that separate servers campus-wide, and customers that run up to 50-100 miles with a dedicated fiber connection between the two servers. It depends on what your needs and requirements are and the network that runs between the two locations.

Q: At what intervals does everRun monitor the standby server?
It checks constantly. One of the things everRun does that is unique is active validation. We are constantly utilizing and validating the secondary server and all its devices. We’re doing disk I/O, we’re doing network reads, taking packets in from the network so that we know the network is good and the CPU is good. We’re actively validating all of the components. With a back-up site, it could be weeks or months since anything has run on the secondary server. So if there’s a failure that goes unnoticed on the backup server, and then there’s a failure on the primary, it has nowhere to go. With everRun, the secondary system is being actively validated at all times so that you know it will work in the event of a failure.

Q: Does Level 3 protection require shared storage?
It does not. everRun offers two storage configuration options; mirrored storage and a shared storage model. When using mirrored storage, everRun will synchronously mirror all data between paired hosts; this includes the OS, the application, data, etc. This does not require similar storage vendors or types. One host can have SAN-attached storage while the other has local SCSI storage. In a shared-storage configuration, the everRun paired hosts must be connected to the same storage device with access to the shared LUN’s. In this configuration, everRun does not mirror the data or protect against failures within the storage subsystem. Because of this, it is critical that you ensure proper configuration of the storage devices to protect against failures.

Q: How much hardware similarity do you need between the hosts in a pool?
It’s really tied to similarities in processors, not servers or disks. For a complete list of hardware that is supported, view our Supported Processor List.

Q: Does everRun having rolling upgrade support?
There are capabilities to assist with applying updates and performing maintenance. To be clear, everRun does not allow applying a service pack without having to reboot the server, if the service pack requires it. Contact Marathon for more information on this capability.

Q: Do you have plans to support Hyper-V?
We plan to support Hyper-V in a future release.

 Q: Do you have some experience about Oracle Applications in that (virtual) environment - are there any references?
We do have customers running Oracle. Please contact our sales department for references.

Q: Is the Xen server running over Windows, Linux, Unix?
XenServer runs on the bare metal. It does not run ‘over’ any other OS.

Q: If you have an Exchange server that is separated by a WAN, how does the client connect to the 2nd server when we lose network connection on primary?
Each of the everRun-protected hosts must be in a common subnet or vLAN.

Q: Will the system still run in this scenario: disk is not working / has fault on host 1 while host 2 has a problem on the NIC both at the same time?
Absolutely. everRun will handle each of these failures simultaneously without any disruption or interruption to the application.

Q: Can a workload be running on Linux?
Linux workloads are not currently supported for protection by everRun. Unprotected Linux workloads can be created, however.

Q: How do you remotely monitor the system and get automatic notification of hardware failures – e.g. SNMP?
SNMP will be available in the near future.

Q: Will everRun work over WAN and if so what is required?
5ms latency and 155Mb bandwidth per protected workload.
 

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