Improving QAD Availability Through Virtualization Spring 2014 QAD Midwest User Group Meeting March 24, 2014 Itasca, IL Kirk Patten – Strategic Information Group
Overview Virtualization – Options High Availability Disaster Recovery Case Studies Questions
What is Virtualization? A way to run multiple operating systems on a single computer – A highly effective way to reduce IT expenses – A way to boost IT efficiency and agility – A platform for improving application availability
How to Virtualize? Start: Server Hardware – Rack, Blade Add: Networking – VLAN’s, Etherchannel Add: Storage – Fibre Channel, iSCSI, NFS
Virtualization Products Vmware – vSphere, Workstation, Fusion Microsoft – Hyper-V Red Hat – RHEV, Xen Citrix – XenServer Oracle – Virtual Box, Solaris zones IBM – LPAR, WPAR
Why Virtualize? Optimize resources Save money Hardware freedom Operational Strength – Availability – Disaster Recovery
QAD Support? Yes! QAD Cloud is built upon VMware vSphere product! Other vendors host QAD on VMware as well…
VMware QAD’s choice – The QAD cloud is built upon VMware – Other QAD hosting vendors utilize VMware 56% market share, Jan Nasdaq Licensing costs scale with features Skills economically found in the market Mature and widely used
Helpful Skills Networking – Generally higher req’s – VLAN’s – Etherchannel/LACP – Jumbo Frames Storage – iSCSI – Fibre Channel – NFS
High Availability (HA) A system design approach and implementation targeting superior levels of operational priority. – Usually includes redundant local systems. – Built upon clustering in the VMware platform
VMware HA vMotion Storage vMotion Cluster – HA – DRS – Fault tolerance
VMware HA Without impact to application availability: – Reduce after-hours maintenance – Enable patching and remediation – Facilitate hardware repairs
Disaster Recovery (DR) A part of a larger business continuity plan that includes processes and solutions to restore business critical applications, data, hardware, communications, and other IT infrastructure. 43% of companies experiencing disasters never re-open. 29% close within two years. Source - McGladrey and Pullen
DR Levels Cold – No licensing Warm – OS Licensing Hot – OS Licensing – Progress OE Replication
Cold DR Image CopyStore DB CopyStore DB Logs CopyStore
Cold DR Complete run-book documentation is created. OS Image is stored at DR facility. Database and DB logs are stored at DR facility DR system is built from the run-book documentation upon a declared disaster.
Warm DR Image PrepareRun DB CopyStore DB Logs CopyStore
Warm DR Complete run-book documentation is created. OS Image is operating at DR facility. Database and DB logs copied to OS image at DR facility DR database is built from run-book documentation upon a declared disaster.
Hot DR Image PrepareRun DB PrepareReplicate DB Logs PrepareReplicate
Hot DR Complete run-book documentation is created. OS Image operates at DR facility. Database operates as replication destination at DR facility Database logs replicate to database at DR facility DR system becomes primary using run-book documentation upon a declared disaster.
Case Study: Cold DR Medical Device Manufacturer DR Level: Cold Primary QAD: On-premise VMware DR QAD: Hosted VMware Recovery Point Objective: 4 hours Recovery Time Objective: 24 hours
Case Study: Cold DR Medical Device Manufacturer DR Level: Cold Primary QAD: On-premise VMware DR QAD: Cloud Appliance Virtualization Recovery Point Objective: 4 hours Recovery Time Objective: 24 hours
Case Study: Warm DR Medical Device Manufacturer DR Level: Warm Primary QAD: On-premise VMware DR QAD: Hosted VMware Recovery Point Objective: 4 hours Recovery Time Objective: 24 hours
Case Study: Hot DR Automotive Manufacturer DR Level: Hot Primary QAD: On-premise IBM LPAR DR QAD: Branch-office IBM LPAR Recovery Point Objective: 2 hours Recovery Time Objective: 12 hours
Summary Virtualization – VMware – QAD’s Cloud choice High Availability – Clustering, Vmotion, HA, Fault Tolerance DR – Cold, Warm, Hot
Questions?