New DataCore Business Continuity Solution for Windows Server Farms

DataCore Software Corporation announced the addition of a specialized business continuity solution to its portfolio of virtualization technologies.

The DataCore STAR HA (high availability) solution is primarily aimed at the large installed base of Microsoft servers running lines of business applications as well as Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint, eager for better data protection and performance.

Many of these IT organizations realize they must move their data from internal server disks to shared SAN to meet growth needs, improve uptime, and enhance productivity. However, some have concluded that this migration could add more risk, disruption, and cost than they can currently afford. Thus, they seek a solution that minimizes these obstacles. They need a way to enhance the performance and resiliency of their application servers, while providing easy access and a transition path to the advantages of shared SAN.

The STAR HA solution is tailored for these IT organizations seeking the benefits of a SAN, while allowing their data to remain safely stored on their servers. DataCore also offers alternative, high-availability, high performance packages for architecting solutions using redundant, two node configurations, and scale-out grid designs.

The new business continuity solution enhances the resiliency and performance of Windows server farms enabling those systems to stay up longer, their applications to run faster, and shorten the time to recover from unexpected situations. It is most appealing for customers wishing to keep their data distributed across their server disk drives, while at the same time gaining the centralized and advanced services made possible by a SAN.

Star Topology Leverages Central Server
for Faster Recovery from Failures
Rather than migrate server data to an external SAN, the  STAR HA software automatically mirrors the data drives on each Windows server to a central  STAR server for safekeeping. In addition, the Window’s host-resident software speeds up applications by caching repeated disk requests locally from high-speed server memory.

If an application server in the farm goes down, another server can resume its operations by retrieving a current copy of its data drive from the central  STAR server. It also offloads replication requests across the farm. It can take centralized snapshots of the data drives and remotely replicate all critical data to a remote disaster recovery site. The solution has the added benefit of automatically redirecting requests to the central STAR server when a local server data drive is inaccessible.

Compatible with Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V
Physical machines hosting standalone applications under Windows Server 2008 R2 as well as systems hosting multiple virtual machines under Microsoft Hyper-V can take advantage of the data protection and performance enhancement benefits. The STAR HA software is compatible with, and transparent to Windows server applications including Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and line of business applications.

The business continuity solution is centrally managed from a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) plug-in which can run directly on the STAR server or on a separate PC. Once installed, the STAR host software runs across all the application hosts and discovers their data drives, implements caching, and sets up the mirror protected copies.

"The DataCore STAR HA solution helps customers improve business continuity across their Windows server farms without taking on a major irreversible overhaul of their systems," said Augie Gonzalez, director of product marketing, DataCore Software. "Additionally, when using the DataCore STAR HA solution, they will experience a noticeable boost in overall performance and functionality."

STAR HA has additional benefits including:

• Enables other servers in the Windows server farm to independently access mirrored copies when authorized;
• Restores a replacement drive using the mirrored disk copy;
• Replicates the mirrored disk offsite for disaster recovery purposes;
• Generates point-in-time snapshots of the mirrored disks; and
• Thin provisions replicas to occupy less disk space on the central STAR server.

SAN-Averse Customers Can Take Advantage
of Business & Financial Benefits
"While many IT managers are eager to exploit the benefits of centralized and shared data that SANs deliver, they also often worry that migrating to a central storage system could prove to be risky and disruptive," said Mark Peters, senior analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. "The STAR HA software from DataCore provides a solution to this conundrum by combining the comfort and familiarity of distributed data with the attractive attributes of a central SAN in an efficient manner that is both unobtrusive and cost-effective."

The STAR HA software supporting multiple servers is available, starting at $9,000.