Marathon Product Frequently Asked Questions
Below is a list of commonly asked questions for Marathon's
everRun HA and everRun FT products.
Click on a question to reveal a short answer.
For more depth on an explanation and for questions not covered below, please
contact Pete Elliot at Key: telephone 1.818.737.2804, email pelliot@keyinfo.com.
- How do the Marathon availability solutions work?
- What is the difference between everRun FT and everRun HA?
- What is a CoServer?
- Where does the Virtual OS run?
- Is EverRun FT like a cluster?
- How many application licenses do I need to purchase?
- Are Marathon products like a replication solution?
- What's required to install and configure a Marathon solution?
- How are Marathon products different from other virtualization software like VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server?
- What versions of Windows does everRun FT run on?
- What versions of Windows does everRun HA run on?
- Does everRun FT or everRun HA run on Web Edition or Small Business Server?
- What servers do Marathon solutions run on?
- What are the minimum hardware requirements to run everRun FT?
- What are the minimum hardware requirements to run everRun HA?
- Where does my application run - in the virtual or CoServer level?
- Can I run Windows applications at the CoServer level?
- How many Windows licenses do I need to run everRun FT or everRun HA?
- Do the Windows versions have to be identical in all 3 environments?
- How do Marathon products protect my network connections?
- How do Marathon products accomplish disk mirroring?
- Do the two servers have to be exactly identical?
- Does Marathon support SAN and NAS storage configurations?
- What is involved in migrating our existing applications to a Marathon environment?
- How does Marathon qualify Windows security patches?
- How does everRun provide Disaster Tollerance?
- How far can a SplitSite configuration span?
How do the Marathon availability solutions work?
everRun FT and everRun HA are software solutions that enable essentially any two standard Windows servers to operate as a single, fully redundant Windows environment, protecting applications from costly downtime due to failures within the hardware, network, and data. The software creates a virtual Windows environment on top of the two physical servers (and their installed Windows operating environments) upon which your applications are installed and run. With everRun FT, the virtual layer enables the two servers to operate in ?lockstep? ? executing identical instruction paths at the exact same time to ensure the application never suffers downtime or loss of data due to a device or even complete server failure. With everRun HA , the virtual layer utilizes the redundancy of the two physical servers to eliminate downtime due to device and storage failures. Should the active device fail, everRun HA will immediately utilize the redundant device on the second server to continue processing application requests without interruption. A complete server failure will result in the immediate migration of the virtual Windows environment to the secondary server.
What is the difference between everRun FT and everRun HA ?
everRun HA is a High Availability solution that provides protection for any Windows applications from the effects of hardware and server failures. everRun HA is for those systems and applications that require an automatic and immediate recovery should a complete server fail. The applications typically have a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of a few minutes or less.
everRun FT provides complete fault tolerance for any Windows application, preventing application interruptions regardless of the severity of the failure. Even a complete server failure has no impact on the application state. everRun FT is for those mission critical applications that can?t afford ANY downtime, as even a few minutes of downtime is costly and unacceptable. These systems and applications generally have an RTO of 0.
What is a CoServer?
A CoServer, in Marathon terminology, is a physical server configured with a licensed version of Windows and with Marathon software and drivers installed. A pair of CoServers form the base upon which the Marathon software creates a virtual Windows environment.
Where does the Virtual OS run?
With everRun FT , the virtual OS runs on each CoServer simultaneously and in lockstep to ensure both physical servers are completely synchronized, including CPU, memory, I/O, and disk. With everRun HA , the virtual OS runs on just one of the CoServers at any given time, however it has a fully mirrored copy on the other CoServer. Should the active CoServer suffer a complete failure, the virtual environment will immediately start on the standby server. With either product, the virtual OS appears as a single Windows environment to administrators and users.
Is EverRun FT like a cluster?
Not at all. Clustering technologies accomplish increased availability by use of failover techniques in order to minimize downtime. everRun FT eliminates downtime by not requiring a failover at all; rather, failed components are taken offline while applications continue to run using their redundant counterparts. everRun FT enables continuous availability while clusters enable high availability.
In addition, everRun FT works with ANY Windows-based application without modification, whereas clustering technologies require some amount of application awareness of the clustering technology. This typically will require either writing scripts or rewriting the applications to conform to the cluster API (Application Programming Interface).
Cluster deployments also require significant design considerations with ongoing maintenance and support to maintain high availability of applications. everRun FT works ?out of the box? and requires no special scripting or ongoing maintenance to assure continuous availability.
How many application licenses do I need to purchase?
Just one. The virtual OS environment is a single Windows environment that requires only a single installation and license of the application.
Are Marathon products like a replication solution?
No. Replication solutions can provide data redundancy by copying data to a remote location. Some offer a failover option to have a standby server assume processing for a failed production server. These are generally asynchronous copy solutions and will inherently incur data loss in the event of a failover. Failover is generally only a redirection of the server identity. Depending on the particular environment, completing the failover could take over an hour and require clients to be restarted. The two systems must have licensed copies of the application installed on each server and be managed separately, incurring cost and management complexity. everRun performs simultaneous writes to two storage devices in a synchronous manner to guarantee data and transactional integrity. With everRun, there is only one single Windows operating environment exposed to your network and users. The two servers in the configuration appear as one and are managed like any other standalone server, with only one application license, simplifying management and reducing costs. All fault management is handled automatically by everRun with no setup, scripting, or custom coding to protect all of your Windows applications.
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What's required to install and configure a Marathon solution?
One of the significant advantages that Marathon offers over other availability solutions is ease of implementation. From an initial starting point of two Windows-based servers, typical installation and configuration can be performed within hours. This provides a virtual Windows environment upon which any application can then be installed. Installing the application is as simple as installing on a standalone server, with no special coding or scripting needed. There is no need to configure failover policies or routines or set up error handling scenarios. Your applications are protected as soon as they are installed.
How are Marathon products different from other virtualization software like VMware and Microsoft Virtual Server?
Marathon utilizes virtualization to provide application availability with complete hardware redundancy, creating a single virtual operating system environment using two servers. Server virtualization solutions allow for consolidation of servers by allowing multiple virtual operating system environments to be run on a single physical server.
What versions of Windows does everRun FT run on?
everRun FT has been qualified on Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server and Windows Server 2003 Standard and Enterprise Editions.
What versions of Windows does everRun HA run on?
everRun HA has been qualified on Windows Server 2003 Standard and Enterprise Editions with SP1.
Does everRun FT or everRun HA run on Web Edition or Small Business Server?
Marathon products have not been qualified on either Web Edition or Small Business Server based on customer demands and market analysis. Marathon continuously monitors the market for changes in user trends and will qualify additional operating system editions as these trends dictate.
What servers do Marathon solutions run on?
Marathon products have been designed and proven to be hardware agnostic, however Marathon recommends basic formal qualification testing be performed for non-qualified platforms being considered for use. We continue to qualify new platforms as they become available. For a complete list of qualified hardware platforms, please contact Marathon.
What are the minimum hardware requirements to run everRun FT ?
Two identically configured, Marathon-qualified servers each containing: Pentium 4 Xeon processors (dual processors or single processors with HT technology) 768 MB RAM 1 Gigabit Ethernet port 1 Standard Ethernet port 1 IDE/SCSI controller or RAID controller 1 CD-ROM (IDE or SCSI)
What are the minimum hardware requirements to run everRun HA ?
Two Marathon-qualified servers each containing: Pentium 4 Xeon processors ? Single, dual, or multi socket SMP 768 MB RAM 1 Gigabit Ethernet port 1 Standard Ethernet port 1 IDE/SCSI controller or RAID controller 1 CD-ROM (IDE or SCSI)
Where does my application run ? in the virtual or CoServer level?
Applications in a Marathon environment run in a virtual OS environment to enable the availability provided by everRun. The application is installed and managed in only one place, the virtual environment, which provides for very simple deployment and management. It?s the same as if the application were installed on a single standalone server, yet it is protectedagainst device and hardware failures. The Marathon software handles all of the underlying logic for providing redundancy and availability without any changes to the application.
Can I run Windows applications at the CoServer level?
It is possible to run additional applications on the physical CoServer.
How many Windows licenses do I need to run everRun FT or everRun HA ?
everRun FT and everRun HA each require three (3) distinct Windows licenses ? one for each of the two CoServers, and one for the virtual environment created on top of the physical servers. With Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition R2, only two Windows licenses are required, one for each CoServer. The Windows licensing model allows for up to four virtual instances to be installed with the same license.
Do the Windows versions have to be identical in all 3 environments?
No. Running Standard Edition on the CoServers and Enterprise Edition on the Virtual, is a common practice. It is recommended that OS updates and service packs are applied to all instances at the same time.
How do Marathon products protect my network connections?
Both everRun FT and everRun HA protect network connectivity by creating a single ?virtual? NIC from two physical NIC?s; one from each CoServer. In essence, the two network cards share a MAC address, and Marathon provides a single network connection and IP address to applications. Should one physical NIC fail, the application will continue processing without interruption utilizing the other physical NIC.
How do Marathon products accomplish disk mirroring?
everRun guarantees data and transactional integrity by performing simultaneous writes to each CoServer, ensuring each is committed before giving acknowledgement back to the application. These writes are done at the same time to prevent performance impact to the application.
Do the two servers have to be exactly identical?
With everRun FT , in order to operate in lockstep, both CoServers need to be identical with respect to CPU and memory configurations. Network adapters do not need to be identical but need to operate at the same speed. Storage configurations do not need to be identical; however mirroring disks of different sizes will result in a virtual disk limited by the smaller of the two disks. everRun HA allows for different hardware configurations within each CoServer.
Does Marathon support SAN and NAS storage configurations?
While not requiring any specific shared storage architecture, Marathon products provide general SAN and NAS support as part of the base product. To assure a successful implementation, Marathon recommends formal qualification with any SAN or NAS architecture not already qualified by Marathon.
What is involved in migrating our existing applications to a Marathon environment?
The servers to be used for the Marathon environment will need to be configured with just a base Windows OS installed. The Marathon software is then installed on top of these environments to create the virtual Windows environment, on which applications can then be installed. For existing servers, Marathon and its partners can work with you to develop a migration plan that assurs minimal impact to users.
How does Marathon qualify Windows security patches?
Because of their critical nature, we screen and test Microsoft Security Updates that apply to Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 and are posted on Microsoft?s automatic update website area. In the majority of cases, Windows security updates are fully compatible with Marathon products. In the rare cases where an issue is found, we post an advisory on our support website knowledgebase and provide an update to resolve the issue.
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How does everRun provide Disaster Tollerance?
The everRun SplitSite option provides the ability to separate the two everRun CoServers geographically to provide protection against site and regional failures.
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How far can a SplitSite configuration span?
The distance limitations of SplitSite are dependent on the network connections between the two CoServers. SplitSite requires a 10ms or less round trip latency between CoServers.
