Microsoft Azure: The Simplest High Availability Cluster with Synchronous Replication and Failover

: The Simplest High Availability Cluster with Synchronous Replication and Failover

Evidian SafeKit provides a high availability cluster with real-time replication and failover in Microsoft Azure, the Microsoft cloud. This article explains how to implement quickly such a cluster in Microsoft Azure. A free trial is offered in the installation instructions section.

This clustering solution is recognized as the simplest to implement by our customers and partners. It is also a complete solution that solves hardware failures (20% of problems) including the complete failure of a computer room, software failures (40% of problems) including software error detection and automatic restart and human errors (40% of problems) thanks to its simplicity of administration.

How the Evidian SafeKit software simply implements high availability with real-time synchronous replication and failover in Microsoft Azure?

How the Evidian SafeKit mirror cluster implements real-time replication and failover in Microsoft Azure?

On the previous figure,

On the previous figure, the server 1/PRIM runs the critical application. Users are connected to the virtual IP address of the mirror cluster. SafeKit replicates files opened by the critical application in real time. Only changes in the files are replicated across the network, thus limiting traffic (byte-level file replication). Names of file directories containing critical data are simply configured in SafeKit. There are no pre-requisites on disk organization for the two servers. Directories to replicate may be located in the system disk. SafeKit implements synchronous replication with no data loss on failure contrary to asynchronous replication.

In case of server 1 failure, there is an automatic failover on server 2 with restart of the critical application. Then, when server 1 is restarted, SafeKit implements automatic failback with reintegration of data without stopping the critical application on server 2. Finally, the system returns to synchronous replication between server 2 and server 1. The administrator can decide to swap the role of primary and secondary and return to a server 1 running the critical application. The swap can also be done automatically by configuration.

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Mirror cluster in Microsoft Azure: a single click to install a high availability cluster with real-time replication and failover (Windows or Linux)

Single click to deploy a Microsoft Azure template

To deploy the Evidian SafeKit high availability cluster with replication and failover in Microsoft Azure, just click on the following button which deploys everything:

- Mirror Cluster

Configure the Microsoft Azure template

After the click:

After deployment

Azure Quickstart Output Panel

After deployment, click on 'Microsoft.Template' (previous image), then go to the output panel and

Demonstration of the Microsoft Azure mirror template deployment

Accessing the VMs through SSH (Linux) or remote desktop (Windows)

If you want to connect to Virtual Machines through SSH (Linux) or remote desktop (Windows), you can use the SafeKit web console to know IP addresses or DNS names of VMs (next images). Use the user/password entered during the template configuration for accessing the VMs.

Step1. Where are the IP addresses of servers in the console

Step2. Where are the IP addresses of servers in the console

Deployed resources

In term of VMs, this template deploys:

In term of load balancer, this template deploys:

Key differentiators of replication and failover with the Evidian SafeKit mirror cluster

Evidian SafeKit mirror cluster with real-time file replication and failover

All clustering features All clustering features

Like  The solution includes all clustering features: server failure monitoring, network failure monitoring, software failure monitoring, automatic application restart with a quick recovery time, a virtual IP address switched in case of failure to automatically reroute clients

Dislike  This is not the case with replication-only solutions like replication at the database level

Dislike  Quick application restart is not ensured with full virtual machines replication. In case of hypervisor failure, a full VM must be rebooted on a new hypervisor with an unknown recovery time

Like   The cluster configuration is very simple and made by means of a high availability application module. There is no domain controller or active directory to configure on Windows. The solution works on Windows and Linux

Synchronous replication Synchronous replication

Like  The real-time replication is synchronous with no data loss on failure

Dislike  This is not the case with asynchronous replication

Fully automated failback procedure Automatic failback

Like  After a failure when a server reboots, the replication failback procedure is fully automatic and the failed server reintegrates the cluster without stopping the application on the only remaining server

Dislike  This is not the case with most replication solutions particularly with replication at the database level. Manual operations are required for resynchronizing a failed server. The application may even be stopped on the only remaining server during the resynchonization of the failed server

Replication of any type of data

Like  The replication is working for databases but also for any files which shall be replicated

Dislike  This not the case for replication at the database level

File replication vs disk replication File replication vs disk replication

Like  The replication is based on file directories that can be located anywhere (even in the system disk)

Disike  This is not the case with disk replication where special application configuration must be made to put the application data in a special disk

File replication vs shared disk File replication vs shared disk

Like  The servers can be put in two remote sites

Dislike  This is not the case with shared disk solutions

Remote sites Remote sites

Like  All SafeKit clustering features are working for 2 servers in remote sites. Performances of replication depends on the interconnect latency for real-time synchronous replication and on the bandwidth for resynchronizing data on a failed server

Like  If both servers are connected to the same IP network through an extended LAN between two remote sites, the virtual IP address of SafeKit is working with rerouting at level 2

Like  If both servers are connected to two different IP networks between two remote sites, the virtual IP address can be configured at the level of a load balancer. SafeKit offers a health check: the load balancer is configured with a URL managed by SafeKit which returns OK on the primary server and NOT FOUND else. This solution is implemented for SafeKit in the Cloud but it can be also implemented with a load balancer on premise

Quorum Quorum

Like  With remote sites, the solution works with only 2 servers and for the quorum (network isolation), a simple split brain checker to a router is offered to support a single execution

Like  This is not the case for most clustering solutions where a 3rd server is required for the quorum

Uniform high availability solution Uniform high availability solution

Like  SafeKit implements a mirror cluster with replication and failover. But it imlements also a farm cluster with load balancing and failover. Thus a N-tiers architecture can be made highly available and load balanced with the same solution on Windows and Linux (same installation, configuration, administration with the SafeKit console or with the command line interface). This is unique on the market

Dislike  This is not the case with an architecture mixing different technologies for load balancing, replication and failover

Mirror cluster in Microsoft Azure: installation on existing Microsoft Azure virtual machines (Windows or Linux)

Configuration of the Microsoft Azure load balancer

The load balancer must be configured to periodically send health packets to virtual machines. For that, SafeKit provides a health probe which runs inside the virtual machines and which

You must configure the Microsoft Azure load balancer with:

For more information, see the configuration of the Microsoft Azure load balancer.

Configuration of the Microsoft Azure network security

The network security must be configured to enable communications for the following protocols and ports:

Package installation on Windows

On both Windows servers

Package installation on Linux

On both Linux servers

Configuration instructions

The configuration is presented with the web console connected to 2 Windows servers but it is the same thing with 2 Linux servers.

Important: all the configuration is made from a single browser.

It is recommended to configure the web console in the https mode by connecting to https://<IP address of 1 VM>:9453 (next image). In this case, you must configure before the https mode by using the wizard described in the User's Guide: see "11.1 HTTPS Quick Configuration with the Configuration Wizard".

Start the https SafeKit web console for configuring

Or you can use the web console in the http mode by connecting to http://<IP address of 1 VM>:9010 (next image).

Start the SafeKit web console for configuring

Note that you can also make a configuration with DNS names, especially if the IP addresses are not static.

Enter IP address of the first node and click on Confirm (next image)

SafeKit web console - first node in the cluster

Click on New node and enter IP address of the second node (next image)

SafeKit web console - second node in the cluster

Click on the red floppy disk to save the configuration (previous image)

In the Configuration tab, click on mirror.safe then enter mirror as the module name and Confirm: next images with mirror instead of xxx

SafeKit web console - start configuration of module SafeKit web console - enter module name

Click on Validate (next image)

SafeKit web console - enter module nodes

Change the path of replicated directories only if necessary (next image).

Do not configure a virtual IP address (next image) because this configuration is already made in the Microsoft Azure load balancer. This section is useful for on-premise configuration only.

If a process is defined in the Process Checker section (next image), it will be monitored on the primary server with the action restart in case of failure. The services will be stopped an restarted locally on the primary server if this process disappears from the list of running processes. After 3 unsuccessful local restarts, the module is stopped on the local server and there is a failover on the secondary server. As a consequence, the health probe answers OK on the new primary server to the Microsoft Azure load balancer and the virtual IP address traffic is switched to the new primary server.

start_prim and stop_prim (next image) contain the start and the stop of services.

SafeKit web console - enter parameters

Note:

Click on Validate (previous image)

SafeKit web console - stop the module before configuration the configuration

Click on Configure (previous image)

SafeKit web console - check the success green message of the configuration

Check the success green message on both servers and click on Next (previous image). On Linux, you may have an error at this step if replicated directories are mount points. See this article to solve the problem.

SafeKit web console - select the node with the up-to-date database

Select the node with the most up-to-date replicated directories and click on start it to make the first resynchronization in the right direction (previous image). Before this operation, we suggest you to make a copy of replicated directories before starting the cluster to avoid any errors.

SafeKit web console - the first node starts as primary and is alone

Start the second node (previous image) which becomes SECOND green (next image) after resynchronisation of all replicated directories (binary copy from node 1 to node 2).

SafeKit web console - the second node starts as SECOND

The cluster is operational with services running on the PRIM node and nothing running on the SECOND node (previous image). Only modifications inside files are replicated in real-time in this state.

Be careful, components which are clients of the services must be configured with the virtual IP address. The configuration can be made with a DNS name (if a DNS name has been created and associated with the virtual IP address).

Tests

Check with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or with Linux command lines that the services are started on the primary server and stopped on the secondary server.

Stop the PRIM node by scrolling down the menu of the primary node and by clicking on Stop. Check that there is a failover on the SECOND node. And check the failover of services with Windows Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or with Linux command lines.

To understand what happens in the cluster, check the SafeKit logs of the primary server and the secondary server.

To see the module log of the primary server (next image):

SafeKit web console - Module Log of the PRIM server

To see the application log of the primary server (next image):

SafeKit web console - Application Log of the PRIM server

To see the logs of the secondary server (previous image), click on W12R2server75/SECOND (it will become blue) on the left side and repeat the same operations. In the secondary module log, you will find the volume and the reintegration time of replicated data.

Advanced configuration

In Advanced Configuration tab (next image), you can edit internal files of the module: bin/start_prim and bin/stop_prim and conf/userconfig.xml (next image on the left side). If you make change in the internal files here, you must apply the new configuration by a right click on the blue icon/xxx on the left side (next image): the interface will allow you to redeploy the modified files on both servers.

SafeKit web console - Advanced configuration of module

Configure boot start (next image on the right side) configures the automatic boot of the module when the server boots. Do this configuration on both servers once the high availability solution is correctly running.

SafeKit web console - Automatic boot of module

Support

For getting support on the call desk of https://support.evidian.com, get 2 Snaphots (2 .zip files), one for each server and upload them in the call desk tool (next image).

SafeKit web console - snaphots for support

Internal files of the Windows mirror.safe module

userconfig.xml

<!DOCTYPE safe>
<safe>
   <service mode="mirror" defaultprim="alone" maxloop="3" loop_interval="24" failover="on">
      <!-- Server Configuration -->
      <!-- Names or IP addresses on the default network are set during initialization in the console -->
      <heart pulse="700" timeout="30000">
         <heartbeat name="default" ident="flow"/>
      </heart>
      <!-- Software Error Detection Configuration -->
      <!-- Replace
         * PROCESS_NAME by the name of the process to monitor
      -->
      <errd polltimer="10">
        <proc name="PROCESS_NAME" atleast="1" action="restart" class="prim" />
      </errd>
      <!-- File Replication Configuration -->
      <rfs async="second" acl="off" nbrei="3">
         <replicated dir="c:\test1replicated" mode="read_only"/>
         <replicated dir="c:\test2replicated" mode="read_only"/>
      </rfs>
      <!-- User scripts activation -->
      <user nicestoptimeout="300" forcestoptimeout="300" logging="userlog"/>
   </service>
</safe>

start_prim.cmd

@echo off

rem Script called on the primary server for starting application services

rem For logging into SafeKit log use:
rem “%SAFE%\safekit” printi | printe "message"

rem stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running start_prim %*"

set res=0

rem Fill with your services start call

set res=%errorlevel%

if %res% == 0 goto end

:stop
“%SAFE%\safekit” printe "start_prim failed"

rem uncomment to stop SafeKit when critical
rem “%SAFE%\safekit” stop -i "start_prim"

:end

stop_prim.cmd

@echo off

rem Script called on the primary server for stopping application services

rem For logging into SafeKit log use:
rem “%SAFE%\safekit” printi | printe "message"

rem ----------------------------------------------------------
rem
rem 2 stop modes:
rem
rem - graceful stop
rem call standard application stop with net stop
rem
rem - force stop (%1=force)
rem kill application's processes
rem
rem ----------------------------------------------------------

rem stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running stop_prim %*"

set res=0

rem default: no action on forcestop
if "%1" == "force" goto end

rem Fill with your services stop call

rem If necessary, uncomment to wait for the stop of the services
rem “%SAFEBIN%\sleep” 10

if %res% == 0 goto end

“%SAFE%\safekit” printe "stop_prim failed"

:end

Internal files of the Linux mirror.safe module

userconfig.xml

<!DOCTYPE safe>
<safe>
   <service mode="mirror" defaultprim="alone" maxloop="3" loop_interval="24" failover="on">
      <!-- Server Configuration -->
      <!-- Names or IP addresses on the default network are set during initialization in the console -->
      <heart pulse="700" timeout="30000">
         <heartbeat name=”default” ident=”flow”/>
      </heart>
      <!-- Software Error Detection Configuration -->
      <!-- Replace
         * PROCESS_NAME by the name of the process to monitor
      -->
      <errd polltimer="10">
        <proc name="PROCESS_NAME" atleast="1" action="restart" class="prim" />
      </errd>
      <!-- File Replication Configuration -->
      <rfs mountover="off" async="second" acl="off" nbrei="3" >
         <replicated dir="/test1replicated" mode="read_only"/>
         <replicated dir="/test2replicated" mode="read_only"/>
      </rfs>
      <!-- User scripts activation -->
      <user nicestoptimeout="300" forcestoptimeout="300" logging="userlog"/>
   </service>
</safe>

start_prim

#!/bin/sh
# Script called on the primary server for starting application

# For logging into SafeKit log use:
# $SAFE/safekit printi | printe "message" 

# stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running start_prim $*" 

res=0

# Fill with your application start call

if [ $res -ne 0 ] ; then
  $SAFE/safekit printe "start_prim failed"

  # uncomment to stop SafeKit when critical
  # $SAFE/safekit stop -i "start_prim"
fi

stop_prim

#!/bin/sh
# Script called on the primary server for stopping application

# For logging into SafeKit log use:
# $SAFE/safekit printi | printe "message" 

#----------------------------------------------------------
#
# 2 stop modes:
#
# - graceful stop
#   call standard application stop
#
# - force stop ($1=force)
#   kill application's processes
#
#----------------------------------------------------------

# stdout goes into Application log
echo "Running stop_prim $*" 

res=0

# default: no action on forcestop
[ "$1" = "force" ] && exit 0

# Fill with your application stop call

[ $res -ne 0 ] && $SAFE/safekit printe "stop_prim failed"