Newton Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Our SIMS server just died and is currently waiting replacement parts (next day support contract, but the parts arnt in stock!!!!) Its got me thinking is there away to have SIMS running on two servers so if one failes the end users dont notice?
Theblacksheep Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Virtualisation in HA mode Fault Tolerance.... Although it doesnt account for the storage, but you could offload entire copies of the VM each day to a seperate storage area. 1
Newton Posted January 13, 2011 Author Posted January 13, 2011 Cheers this is a bit up the air at the moment, need to get the server working first, Log shipping sounds intresting, not something Ive herd of before.
localzuk Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 You could try SQL clustering. For this, though, you'll need shared storage. This is not supported by Capita, to the extent where I have been informed that it can actually cause issues with the SIMS DB as it changes Schemas and the like.
Butuz Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 This is not supported by Capita, to the extent where I have been informed that it can actually cause issues with the SIMS DB as it changes Schemas and the like. Strange. Are you sure capita don’t support it? Our LEA run SIMS clustered over two powerful servers to host SIMS for all primary schools. They told me "the servers are set up identically but one is always run in passive mode and only kicks in if the other server goes down. As there is only one active server at any time you only have to purchase one SQL 2008 licence." They are capita supported. I looked into clustering when I set up my latest SIMS server but decided it was a bit over extravagant for a single secondary school, and I didn't really have the spare time to experiment/implement it. We already have a fair amount of redundancy via VMWare and 2 x SANS. In an ideal world though it would be a good idea to have two SIMS VM's clustered as you can virtually grantee no down time then. Butuz
localzuk Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 Ah, I seem to have forgotten I had been updated on this. There are instructions on how to do it on Supportnet in KB72633. http://support.capitaes.co.uk/websupport/RenderXSL.aspx?KB=KB72633.xmlTrue Remember though, that there is more to SIMS than just SQL. The document server would also need mirroring.
matt40k Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 It'll be wiser to go down the VM path rather then clustering. Capita support SIMS clustered, if it's done right.
m25man Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 (edited) There is always Double-Take I have never used it myself as my mission critical SQL stuff is now hosted in Telehouse and failed over to Amsterdam by TicketMaster but it's commonly used to protect Access Control systems in mission critical environments such as Sporting Venues and Concerts where server failure is simply not an option..... Flash Demo Link Edited January 13, 2011 by m25man
irsprint84 Posted January 13, 2011 Posted January 13, 2011 in that case I have a VM template ready to go then do a data/ system state restore might not be instant but very low downtime
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