2 Standalone Servers and HA

[Rgomes]

Hi,

We have 2 Proliant DL-series servers. One of them is running MS-SQL database. How can we achieve high availability of this database by VMWare.

I read, vmware cluster can do this but is it without any central (SAN) storage?
What are the VMWare software I should look for?

TIA.

Rgds,
Richard

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

check the HP VSA.

mikap

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

you could have the data stored on some NFS server or ISCSI server.

mikap

[Rgomes]

Hi Mikap,

But will NFS or iSCSI provide that kind of high availability that VM cluster can give.
Automated failover?

Rgds,
Richard

[Jan Soska]

if you want have HA based on vmware products, you need:

1) at least 2 ESX servers with HA availability (where run VMs)
2) vCenter server which manages HA
(vmware offers bundles for your case there is Essentials Plus Kit, check http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/buy/small_business_editions_comparison.html )
3) shared storage between ESX servers - SAN, iSCSI, NFS (not very suitable for real production but will work)

vCenter server could run as VM, so you need at least 2 real servers.

This setup solved HA for your servers - will protect from hardware failure. BUT remember, server could die from internal software problems (OS patches/failure, DB failure) so backup and backup and buckup... :)

Jan

[Rgomes]

Hi Jan Soska,

Thank you for your email.
I got uninspired when I saw your item#3, a shared storage.
We do not have any external storage, which can be used as shared storage for these two servers. Isn't it possible without shared storage.

I know it is design level issue, without any shared storage, common data won't be possible.

However, let me know.....

Rgds,
Richard

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

Hi Jan,

3) shared storage between ESX servers - SAN, iSCSI, NFS (not very suitable for real production but will work)

We have very good exeperieneces with iSCSI tested 2 nodes HP Lefthand alias P4000

And also we tested the NetAPP iSCSI / NFS,
without any problem in real production.

Now we will implement the Vmware solution for our customer ESX + SAN storage ( Symmetrix DMX ).

iSCSI is very vell if you dont have exisiting SAN infrastructure if yes i would recommend to use SAN instead of ISCSI.

Of course this is only my personal opinion.

mikap

[Uwe Zessin]

> to use SAN instead of ISCSI.

iSCSI is a SAN protocol.

[Jan Soska]

To Michal -
it is misunderstanding, I ment NFS is not very suitable for production env... ;)
I do not have problem with FC or iSCSI SAN... :)

Jan

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

more about iSCSI can be found in RFC.

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3720.txt

mikap