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EV 8 - High Availability & Disaster Recovery Question ?

SMBData
Level 2
Partner Accredited

Hi Everyone,

We need both an HA solutions as well as a DR solution for Enterprise Vault 8. Our typical clustering technology is MSCS.

 

In our "production" data center, I am building an MSCS cluster using the N+M methodology for Enterprise Vault ( 2 EV mailbox archiving servers, 1 EV Journal archiving server, and 2 passive standby nodes).

 

In the DR center, manual intervention is OK, so I was thinking of creating 3 servers there and use Update Service Locations/ Building Blocks to move services/tasks from my 3 "virtual" EV servers to the 3 Building Blocks servers, but I don't know if this will work.

 

Another option would be to create 3 new "passive" cluster nodes in the DR center and add them as "Possible Hosts" for the exisiting cluster (our connection is a dedicated 100Mbps MPLS link with only 50-60ms latency).

 

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas concerning this configuration ?

 

Thanks,

Chris

 

4 REPLIES 4

kknight
Not applicable
USL is not supported when used in a cluster.  The better (supported) method would be to use MSCS Majority Node Set (MNS) clusters where failover can be managed by the cluster.  SFWHA (VCS) would also be a great option as it can failover between subnets and control replication technology to ensure a reliable and automated solution.

Faxson
Level 5

Building blocks + clustering is an appealing idea, but apparently it is not supported.  Which is a shame as I don't understand why it would not work.

 

Windows 2003 clustering requires all node to be on teh same LAN segment.  This makes it impratical to use across multiple sites (unless you do some network jiggery).  There may also be some problem in transferring your storatge in this scenario.

 

It is possible to use Veritas clustering with the global cluster option to cluster within and between sites.  You have to use a compatable storage replication technology with this for it to work really effeciently.

 

Windows 2008 clustering can allow you to cluster across sites (I believe, but I have not tried it).  However looking at the current complataibilty document, Windows 2008 clustering is not supported.

 

Ben Jackson

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Paul_Grimshaw
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

There has been recent discussions on an internal forum about the exact subject of USL with cluster which prompted discussions between Product Management, Engineering and certification teams and the result of this was that this configuration is supported.

Also a technical architect was in the discussion and attested to its functionality as a few clients do have this configuration.

The thing is that it has not been officially tested and certified which is why you do not see this information in the compatilbility list.

Since USL is DNS alias based if you failover the alias for one EV server (clustered or otherwise) to another EV server and run USL the process will work.  Obliviously you would have to prepare the SQL, storage components, etc… at the DR site, but nothing in EV would prevent it from working if all the pieces are set appropriately.

 

Additionally Clustering in EV 8 with Server 2008 is supported, last I heard from Certification Team the compatibility list was being updated. I  believe if you use the same “rules” as with Server 2003 you’re OK……

Faxson
Level 5

Wow this is indeed great news.  If I were to build a dual site syste today, I would look seriously at W2K8 clustering across sites. 

 

Ben

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