cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

differences between Symantec ApplicationHA for Vmware and Symantec High Availability Solutions Guide for VMware

ylin-123
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

hi,

Can anyone explain the main differences between Symantec ApplicationHA for Vmware and Symantec High Availability Solutions Guide for VMware?

Kind of confuse about these two products.



Thanks

Allen

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Clifford_Barcli
Level 3
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi Allen.

 

The guide gives details on the Symantec HA console.   This is just a plugin to VMware's vCenter.   This plugin supports two different products:  Application HA and VCS for VMware.  The HA console provides for a VMware centric managment environment.   The products can also be managed outside the console.

Regarding the two products, here is how I explain it to customers:

Do you need a fixed SLA or not?  Symantec ApplicationHA is more or less a single-node cluster.  It provides deep visibility into the applcation status that in running insdie one or more VMs.   It heartbeats back to vCenter.  It monitors an application, performs actions based on configurations when the applcation fails.  ApplcationHA is VMware aware.  Works with vMotion, DRS, SRM, etc.  But, it is still single node.  If the image is corrupt or the application is broken, then one must recover from a snap or backup, hence the idea of a variable SLA.   Upon failure, the application could be restarted or the image rebooted.  But, as I said before, if the image is corrupt, then one must resort to other means of recovery.   ApplicationHa is perfiect for what I call Tier 2 applicaitons or, applications that do not have any state, such as web servers.  One normally does not care if one web server goes down, but one wants to know the status, know when web servcie capacity is diminished, and automate the recovery.

VCS for VMware is tradional clustering, but within VMware.  It allows for true image failover and works gracefuuly with vMotion, DRS, SRM etc (unlike all other clustering solutions).  Upon an unrecoverable error the application fails over to another running O/S image (another node or host) just like a physical cluster.  This allows for a fixed SLA since, at worst case, the applicaiton will restart on another VM.  While VCS can use shared SCSI buses for storage, this is no longer a requirement, hence the ability to work with vMotion, DRS, and SRM.  VCS is for what I suggest are Tier 1 applications.  Ones that need a fixed recovery to operations. 

 

It is possible to combine both AppHA and VCS to manage large, complex, multi-tier applications across operating systems, physical and/or virtual,  One can set dependecies and propagae actions so that services become self-healing.

 

Let me know if you need more clarification.

 

Cheers

 

 

View solution in original post

4 REPLIES 4

Clifford_Barcli
Level 3
Employee Accredited Certified

Hi Allen.

 

The guide gives details on the Symantec HA console.   This is just a plugin to VMware's vCenter.   This plugin supports two different products:  Application HA and VCS for VMware.  The HA console provides for a VMware centric managment environment.   The products can also be managed outside the console.

Regarding the two products, here is how I explain it to customers:

Do you need a fixed SLA or not?  Symantec ApplicationHA is more or less a single-node cluster.  It provides deep visibility into the applcation status that in running insdie one or more VMs.   It heartbeats back to vCenter.  It monitors an application, performs actions based on configurations when the applcation fails.  ApplcationHA is VMware aware.  Works with vMotion, DRS, SRM, etc.  But, it is still single node.  If the image is corrupt or the application is broken, then one must recover from a snap or backup, hence the idea of a variable SLA.   Upon failure, the application could be restarted or the image rebooted.  But, as I said before, if the image is corrupt, then one must resort to other means of recovery.   ApplicationHa is perfiect for what I call Tier 2 applicaitons or, applications that do not have any state, such as web servers.  One normally does not care if one web server goes down, but one wants to know the status, know when web servcie capacity is diminished, and automate the recovery.

VCS for VMware is tradional clustering, but within VMware.  It allows for true image failover and works gracefuuly with vMotion, DRS, SRM etc (unlike all other clustering solutions).  Upon an unrecoverable error the application fails over to another running O/S image (another node or host) just like a physical cluster.  This allows for a fixed SLA since, at worst case, the applicaiton will restart on another VM.  While VCS can use shared SCSI buses for storage, this is no longer a requirement, hence the ability to work with vMotion, DRS, and SRM.  VCS is for what I suggest are Tier 1 applications.  Ones that need a fixed recovery to operations. 

 

It is possible to combine both AppHA and VCS to manage large, complex, multi-tier applications across operating systems, physical and/or virtual,  One can set dependecies and propagae actions so that services become self-healing.

 

Let me know if you need more clarification.

 

Cheers

 

 

Clifford_Barcli
Level 3
Employee Accredited Certified

Allen,

To clarify, the ApplicationHA console is now called the Symantec High Availability Console.  The product just now has more functionality i.e. supports both ApplicaionHA and VCS.  So, when using the latest version of software, you will only see guides for the High Avaialbilty Console.

Unless there is some technical reason, I would install and use the newer, High Availabilty Console, regardless of whether using ApplicaitonHA or VCS for VMware.  If you already have the AppHA console installed, follow the procedures in the install guide to upgrade to the HA console.

 

Cheers

Soumya_Tripathy
Level 4
Employee

Just to add..

Following is a small technote document, that explains the difference between ApplicationHA Console & SymantecHA Console:

http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC6668

 

Thanks!

Soumya.

ylin-123
Level 4
Partner Accredited Certified

Thanks~