In one software product, SafeKit provides load balancing, synchronous byte-level file replication, application failover. Save costs of network load balancers, replicated SAN storage and enterprise editions of OS and DB.
No special computer skills are required to deploy a SafeKit high availability solution on two servers.
Forget about shared disks, replicated SAN storage… SafeKit is hardware independent and runs on your existing physical servers, or in virtual machines, or in the cloud.
SafeKit works with the standard editions of OS and databases: standard editions of Windows and Linux. Customization is done by means of high availability modules.
| OEM Software | Distributed Enterprise | Remote Sites |
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| A software publisher uses SafeKit as an OEM software for high availability of its application | A distributed enterprise deploys SafeKit in many branches without specific IT skills | SafeKit is deployed in two remote sites without the need for replicated bays of disks through a SAN |
Discover in 15 minutes how to implement a Business Continuity Plan and a Disaster Recovery Plan (BCP DRP) with a simple piece of software. This webinar presents SafeKit mirror and farm architectures, best use cases, comparison to other solutions, application integration, free trial.
In the following video, you will see real-time file replication and failover of the free Microsoft SQL Server Express edition between 2 Windows 2012 R2 servers (180 days evaluation).
All the steps are presented in less than 15 mn in the video: how to configure the cluster and how the cluster operates on failures? If you want to test this cluster in two VMs, see this article: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 cluster with replication and failover.
This video is an example of a mirror cluster architecture which works on Windows or Linux with other databases or flat files.
In the following video, you will see network load balancing and failover of Apache between 2 Windows 2012 R2 servers (180 days evaluation).
All the steps are presented in less than 5 mn: how to configure the cluster and how the cluster operates on failures? If you want to test this cluster in two VMs, see this article: Apache load balancing and failover.
This video is an example of a farm cluster architecture which works on Windows or Linux.
This video shows how to simply build a Hyper-V cluster with SafeKit. The video shows the example of 2VMs with load balancing between 2 physical servers, real-time replication of full VMs and automatic failover. Each VM is integrated inside an independent mirror module.
If you want to watch more videos, look at the tutorials which present the high availability cluster management with SafeKit.
In video surveillance systems, Evidian SafeKit implements high availability with synchronous replication and failover of
Harmonic is using SafeKit as a software OEM high availability solution and deploys it with its TV broadcasting solutions over satellites, terrestrials, cable, IPTV. Over 80 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Windows for replication of Harmonic database and automatic failover of the critical application. Philippe Vidal, Product Manager, Harmonic says: “SafeKit is the ideal application clustering solution for a software publisher looking for a simple and economical high availability software. We are deploying SafeKit worldwide and we currently have more than 80 SafeKit clusters on Windows with our critical TV broadcasting application through terrestrial, satellite, cable and IP-TV. SafeKit implements the continuous and real-time replication of our database as well as the automatic failover of our application for software and hardware failures. Without modifying our application, it was possible for us to customize the installation of SafeKit. Since then, the time of preparation and implementation has been significantly reduced.”
The European Society of Warranties and Guarantees in Natixis uses SafeKit as a high availability solution for its applications.
Over 30 SafeKit clusters are deployed on AIX and Windows in Natixis.
The Sydel software editor implements high availability of its ERP with SafeKit and deploys the solution in the food industry.
Over 20 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Linux and AIX with Oracle.
Air traffic control systems supplier, Copperchase, deploys SafeKit high availability in airports.
Over 20 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Windows.
Tony Myers, Director of Business Development says:
“By developing applications for air traffic control, Copperchase is in one of the most critical business activities. We absolutely need our applications to be available all the time. We have found with SafeKit a simple and complete clustering solution for our needs. This software combines in a single product load balancing, real time data replication with no data loss and automatic failover. This is why, Copperchase deploys SafeKit for air traffic control in airports in the UK and the 30 countries where we are present.”
Software vendor Wellington IT deploys SafeKit high availability with its banking application for Credit Unions in Ireland and UK.
Over 25 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Linux with Oracle.
Peter Knight, Sales Manager says:
“Business continuity and disaster recovery are a major concern for our Locus banking application deployed in numerous Credit Unions around Ireland and the UK. We have found with SafeKit a simple and robust solution for high availability and synchronous replication between two servers with no data loss. With this software solution, we are not dependent on a specific and costly hardware clustering solution. It is a perfect tool to provide a software high availability option to an application of a software vendor.”
Paris transport company (RATP) chose the SafeKit high availability and load balancing solution for the centralized control room of line 1 of the Paris subway.
20 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Windows and Linux.
Stéphane Guilmin, RATP, Project manager says:
“Automation of line 1 of the Paris subway is a major project for RATP, requiring a centralized command room (CCR) designed to resist IT failures. With SafeKit, we have three distinct advantages to meet this need. Firstly, SafeKit is a purely software solution that does not demand the use of shared disks on a SAN and network boxes for load balancing. It is very simple to separate our servers into separate machine rooms. Moreover, this clustering solution is homogeneous for our Windows and Unix platforms. SafeKit provides the three functions that we needed: load balancing between servers, automatic failover after an incident and real time data replication.”
And also, Philippe Marsol, Atos BU Transport, Integration Manager says:
“SafeKit is a simple and powerful product for application high availability. We have integrated SafeKit in our critical projects like the supervision of Paris metro Line 4 (the control room) or Marseille Line 1 and Line 2 (the operations center). Thanks to the simplicity of the product, we gained time for the integration and validation of the solution and we had also quick answers to our questions with a responsive Evidian team.”
The software integrator Systel deploys SafeKit high-availability solution in firefighter and emergency medical call centers.
Over 30 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Windows with SQL Server.
Marc Pellas, CEO says:
“SafeKit perfectly meets the needs of a software vendor. Its main advantage is that it brings in high availability through a software option that is added to our own multi-platform software suite. This way, we are not dependent on a specific and costly hardware clustering solution that is not only difficult to install and maintain, but also differs according to client environments. With SafeKit, our firefighter call centers are run with an integrated software clustering solution, which is the same for all our customers, is user friendly and for which we master the installation up to after-sales support.”
ERP high availability and load balancing of the French army (DGA) are made with SafeKit.
14 SafeKit clusters are deployed on Windows and Linux.
Alexandre Barth, Systems administrator says:
“Our production team implemented the SafeKit solution without any difficulty on 14 Windows and Linux clusters. Our critical activity is thus secure, with high-availability and load balancing functions. The advantages of this product are easy deployment and administration of clusters, on the one hand, and uniformity of the solution in the face of heterogeneous operating systems, on the other hand.”
“SafeKit is the ideal application clustering solution for a software publisher. We currently have deployed more than 80 SafeKit clusters worldwide with our critical TV broadcasting application.”
“WithNCompany has deployed in South Korea many SafeKit high availability solutions with the Samsung Video Surveillance Platform. SafeKit is appreciated because the product is easy to install and very quickly deployed.”
“Thanks to a simple and powerful product, we gained time in the integration and validation of our critical projects like the supervision of Paris and Marseille metro lines (the control rooms).”
There are different types of high availability solutions on the market and among these solutions, SafeKit is characterized by its simplicity as discussed below. Note that you can download this high availability guide for choosing the right solution for your critical application.
You have two choices when building a server cluster: either a software clustering like SafeKit or a hardware clustering. SafeKit is much more simple to implement.
SafeKit is a shared nothing cluster and not a shared disk cluster. There is no shared disk to configure and the servers can be easily put in remote computer rooms without the need of a SAN and replicated bays of disks.
With byte-level file replication and contrary to block-level disk replication, you just have to define the directories of files that you want to replicate in real-time. SafeKit is a file-based replication solution. There is no special disk to configure which would be entirely replicated. With SafeKit, you can replicate application directories inside the system disk without having to configure the application to put these directories in a special replicated disk.
If you choose the SafeKit synchronous replication and not an asynchronous replication, then you will have no data loss on failover.
SafeKit is an alternative to Microsoft NLB multicast or unicast in VMware without requiring special network configuration. And it is running on Windows (even editions for PCs) and Linux.
VM HA implements high availability at the virtual machine level, while Application HA implements high availability at the application level. To choose between VM HA vs Application HA, read this article.
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