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Symantec AppHA doubt

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi all,

I need to understand Symantec AppHA can help me with the latest documentation to refer as well as the compatibility, prerequisites etc... And also how it differs from VmWare AppHA.

Thanks,

Nayab

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Hi Nayab,

 

You will find various docs (like Product Guide, compatilibity list etc) in SORT at:

https://sort.symantec.com/documents

 

In the "Products" list, select "ApplicationHA".

 

We have some analysis on Symantec ApplicationHA differs with (and better than) VMware AppHA.

Let me check, if there is any doc/ppt on this, in pulic domain.

View solution in original post

Virtually_LG
Level 4
Employee Accredited

Did you check out http://virtuallylg.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/comparing-vmware-vsphere-app-ha-with-symantec-applicationha/ it has a very detailed comparision between the solutions.

View solution in original post

18 REPLIES 18

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Hi Nayab,

 

You will find various docs (like Product Guide, compatilibity list etc) in SORT at:

https://sort.symantec.com/documents

 

In the "Products" list, select "ApplicationHA".

 

We have some analysis on Symantec ApplicationHA differs with (and better than) VMware AppHA.

Let me check, if there is any doc/ppt on this, in pulic domain.

spin999
Level 3
Employee Accredited

Hi Nayab,

 

APPHA is a high availability product that protects virtual machines against service failures.  It works in VMware virtual machines (Linux and Windows) as well as with HyperV, RedHat Enterprise Virtualization, and others.  

 

APPHA does not protect against disk failures or corruption, its not a traditional clustering product that can protect against say your operating system becoming corrupt, or something similar.  It watches services, daemons, processes and shares/exported mount points to make sure they are working properly.  If they fail, it tries to restart them using various native tools such as service restarts etc.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Chris

 

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Tripathy,

 

Thanks a lot for the info , Please help if you find any DOC/PPT's 

 

Regards,

Nayab

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Spin,

 

Thanks a lot for the overview :)

 

Regards,

Nayab

Virtually_LG
Level 4
Employee Accredited

Did you check out http://virtuallylg.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/comparing-vmware-vsphere-app-ha-with-symantec-applicationha/ it has a very detailed comparision between the solutions.

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi ,

 

Thanks a lot for the information in your blog Can help me clarify the things below

 

Thanks a lot for the information above, I have few question hope you are the right person to clarify them.

 

In the AppHA 5.1 version we have seperate options to install Console and AppHA components but in 6.1 i dont see any options like that. Can help me which machine Ip address i need to mention in the screenshots below. Note i am installing AppHA on a VM Windows 2008 machine which i want to use as console.

In the screen shot below i need to mention my Console server IP or I need to key all my VM's IP and hostname ( As i see option Add Multipple Systems next to Browse options ) ?

SymAppHA.jpg

 

In this screen shot at the configuration TAB it was asked to key-in HA Console IP which means is my HA should be a Remote one and i should install the AppHA on each and every VM machine ? Please confirm.

SymAppHA1_0.jpg

 

Thanks,

Nayab

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Hi Nayab,

 

In screenshot-1:

You can (optionally) specify IPs of other AppHA VMs (i.e. AppHA guest nodes. Not HA Console node) - if you want to install AppHA (guest components) in multile nodes simultaneously.

 

In screenshot-2:

Its asking the IP of HA Console node.

Note that, HA Console can be installed in the same box where AppHA is installed or it can a separate (dedicated) system altogether.

And for an environment (all VMs in a vCenter Server) you need only one HA Console node.

 

Thanks!

~Soumya Sakha Tripathy.

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Tripathy,

 

Now 

In screenshot-1:

You can (optionally) specify IPs of other AppHA VMs (i.e. AppHA guest nodes. Not HA Console node) - if you want to install AppHA (guest components) in multile nodes simultaneously.

Query :- You mean to say i am pusing the Guest Components by mentioning the IP's of my VM's ?????

Do i need to Push Guest components to my ESXi also ?? Or only my VM's are enough ?

Cross platform was supported i mean i can push the guest components from a Physicsl Windows machine to LINUX VM ?

 

In screenshot-2:

Its asking the IP of HA Console node.

Note that, HA Console can be installed in the same box where AppHA is installed or it can a separate (dedicated) system altogether.

And for an environment (all VMs in a vCenter Server) you need only one HA Console node.

 

Query:- If i key in the IP of AppHA CONSOLE NODE will it install AppHA console  ?? If not at what point during installation i will be installing AppHA console on my server ?

 

Thanks,

Nayab

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Tripathy,

 

Do you have any video of Installing AppHA on LINUX Machine ? If any please direct me with link or file.

 

Thanks,

Nayab

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Hi Nayab,

 

1)

a) Thats right. You can (optionally) specify the IPs of other VMs, to install AppHA guest component there.

b) No, you don't need to install anything in ESX

c) cross-platform installation is not available.

(Though there is an feature called vSphere Integrated Installation (also known as Push-Install), from where you can install AppHA guest components in both Windows & Linux, from the vSphere Client UI)

 

2) You should install AppHA Console first (before installing AppHA guest components in other VMs).

Then, during AppHA guest installation, it asks for AppHA Console IP (which is already installed), so that it can setup Single-Sign-On (SSO) between the two.

SSO is required for seamless communication between AppHA guests & AppHA Console going forward.

 

I will suggest you to go through the AppHA product docs.

They explain all these in more detail.

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Tripathy,

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

C) cross-platform installation is not available.

Means i cannot install Guest components from a Windows Machine to a Linux Machine ? So i need to use same OS type ?

 

2) You should install AppHA Console first (before installing AppHA guest components in other VMs).

 

This means first i need to install AppHA console on a decicated server ???? but during installation i don't see a seperate option stating Installing CONSOLE first i jus see screen popping up to install guest components . then at the last page it asks for the console IP . So at what point of installation CONSOLE will be installed .Please find the document with all installation screen shots attached.

I didn't find this infor in DOC 

 

 

 

 

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

1) Yes, thats correct. You have use same OS (unless you are using the vCenter Integrated Installation feature)

2) HA Console (earlier versions of HA Console used to be known as AppHA Console) can be installed on any server - it can be separate dedicated server (recommended) or it can be any of VMs (where you wish to install AppHA later on.)

The first screen in this document is referred as CD Browser. That provides the links for launching installers of different products.

HA Console installer launch point also appears here.

But I guess, you have got (downloaded ?) only the AppHA bit.

The full DVD of SFW-HA will have both AppHA & HA Console bits.

Otherwise, HA Console can be downloaded separately also.

 

Check the link or contact the channel, which provided you the AppHA installation media.

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Great Now i have got clear picture 

Is there any video installation of AppHA on LINUX ?

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Hi Tripathy,

 

I see from my LINUX DVD as below

AppHA_LNX.JPG

So as above if i need to install ha_console i need to install it from ha_console folder and for Guest components i need to do it from resepective directory but how i will be able to do it from the Vsphere Vcenter ? I find its quite confusing ?????

 

Thanks

Nayab

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Hi

I'm not aware of a ready video available for Linux.

You can refer to the product docs, to get more details about how to install.

Otherwise, contact Symantec support. They should be able to help you.

Virtually_LG
Level 4
Employee Accredited

Hi Nyab

there is a video on Youtube for the windows guest install process but you should be able to watch this and get a basic understanding on how this should work for Linux and its basically the same process.

the link is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dDSPvLjakM 

hope that helps

 

LG

Nayabsk
Level 6
Partner Accredited

Thanks a lot All, 

But now i am up with a new doubt Say i have SQL DB running on a 4 Node Cluster and if a configure AppHA for this how it can understand and restart the Application in case of failure ?????

 I mean to ask like say My DB is active on NODE1 and i have configured AppHA in case of failure if it goes to NODE2 how my AppHA will understand or i need to Configure AppHA on all the Hosts ???

One more Doubt what in Case if i have a Vmotion where in case of my ESX failure and all of my machines migrated to another ESX server ? 

Virtually_LG
Level 4
Employee Accredited

Hi

if you need the application SQLDB to failover to another node then ApplicationHA is not the solution for you will need VCS to do that instead. ApplicationHA is a single node solution that remediates application issues within the VM and tries to fix those, if it cannot it will restart the VM by carring out a software reboot or calling upon VMwareHA for a VM restart.

VCS has the ability to failover the application to another node in the cluster and the later versions from 6.0.x have the ability to work with VMDKs and can swap those between systems. see https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/videos/demo-keeping-applications-highly-available for more information on how that works.  

I hope that helps you understand the two solutions now.

regards

LG