If you have
critical applications then you most likely require a high availability cluster.
This is because if you do not have the cluster then you won’t be able to ensure
that the applications remain available even when there is a crash. In other
words, if the server that you are using to run the applications crashes then
consequently you will have to deal with unavailability of the applications. Of
course, if you try to fix the server then it will take some time. In the
meanwhile, if your applications continue to remain unavailable then you will
have to incur losses as far as your business is concerned.
Interestingly,
if you have the high availability cluster with you then you won’t have to worry
about the aforesaid situations. Just to let you know, the cluster won’t be able
to prevent your server from crashing. However, if it is reliable then it will
certainly succeed in detecting some of the relevant faults related to hardware as
well as software. Of course, timely detection will give you some time to
prepare for situations where applications may be unavailable. Nevertheless, the
cluster won’t only detect faults but is also likely to restart the
applications. Surprisingly, the applications can be easily restarted without
any administrative intervention.
Furthermore,
if the cluster is good enough then it can easily take full advantage of another
system for restarting the applications. Interestingly, for ensuring that your
applications continue to remain available, the cluster may have to configure
some things. For example, it might happen that the applications that have
stopped running because of the crashed server will only run if some supporting
applications continue to run as they were running before the crash. In such a
situation, the cluster should do everything that is required for keeping the
applications up and running. The bottom line is that without the cluster, your
critical applications are unlikely to help you with your business.
Anyways, if
you want that the applications should be continuously available then you’d also
have to give some thought to replication. For this, you may start looking for a
solution that is not only efficient as far as replication is concerned buy also
ensures that your TCO gets reduced. Perhaps if you look for a solution that has
the capability of replicating such data and applications that are considered to
be a part of shared storage cluster then you’d be able to achieve what is
desired or expected.