Improving QAD Availability Through Virtualization

Spring 2014QAD Midwest User Group Meeting

March 24, 2014Itasca, 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 2014 -- 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 Copy Store

DB Copy Store

DB Logs Copy Store

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 Prepare Run

DB Copy Store

DB Logs Copy Store

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 Prepare Run

DB Prepare Replicate

DB Logs

Prepare Replicate

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?