Find out what visibility has to do with Windows high availability

Out of all the solutions available for Windows high availability you are expected to choose the ones that let you determine if your systems are as good at responding as you think. Furthermore, if data replication is also covered then you won’t require finding additional solutions.

               

While taking advantage of Windows environments you also have to ensure that adequate measures are taken and suitable solutions are adopted for Windows high availability (HA). Interestingly, you’d come across solutions that will claim you won’t require dealing with complexities and still be able to address replication as well as HA. It is undeniable that adopting one of these solutions will be in your best interest but not when you are denied granular visibility. This is because if you are made capable of finding out if your systems are properly responding then you cannot expect much from any of the solutions.

Of course, visibility will still be followed by you taking corrective measures but at least your business won’t suffer if the systems are merely running instead of responding. Nevertheless, while you are finding out whether or not any of the solutions has provision for granular visibility you should keep in mind that you’d require leveraging this provision for Exchange Server and Oracle, among other things. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that visibility will only be there at your disposal when any of the solutions can be integrated with add-ons. Just to let you know, the add-ons are likely to encompass application recovery kits or ARKs.

However, you also ought to understand that lack of complexities and inclusion of granular visibility won’t make any of the solutions appropriate for Windows high availability unless the features given below are also there:

• Application awareness: Even if you were making the most of Linux environments you’d have been responsible for ensuring continuous up-time. The bottom line is that when you are using Windows to your advantage your requirements won’t change. Furthermore, under all circumstances you’d be expected to ensure that Microsoft File Server and multi-site clusters get adequate protection.

• Replication: Focusing all your energies on HA and completely overlooking data replication assuming that the latter won’t affect your business is most certainly not in your best interest. Simply put, the latter has to be taken care of and it’s only possible when there is a provision to facilitate replication between data centers.

Simplicity: It’s not recommended that you keep the rest of the features in mind but forget your primary should be to ensure that there won’t be any complexities at all. Interestingly, you can determine if complexities exist by taking a closer look at the type of installation that you are being offered. Furthermore, when you are made to re-install the OS you are obviously not looking at one of the solutions with a simple path to availability.