--- canonical: "https://safekit.eviden.com/wp-content/uploads/documents/high-availability-overview.pdf" llms_index: "https://safekit.eviden.com/llms.txt" llms_section: "Datasheets & White Papers" topics: "What is SafeKit?, What are the target markets?, Why choose SafeKit?, What are the benefits of SafeKit?, What are the best scenarios for using SafeKit?" --- # PDF Converted to Markdown ## Page 1 ``` Eviden SafeKit, the easiest-to- use redundancy software to achieve 24/7 high availability of business-critical applications In a world where continuous access to your data and applications is critical for busi- ness success, you need 24/7 uptime with zero scope for any deviations. Eviden SafeKit is a comprehensive, software-based high availability product that provides continuous, non-stop operations of your critical applications so your business runs like clockwork.S afeKit is an all-in-one offering from Eviden that provides business continuity and load-bal-ancing. SafeKit runs on Windows and Linux and eliminates t h e n e e d f o r s h a r e d d i s k s , O S a n d d a t a b a s e e n t e r p r i s e e d i t i o n s o r a n y s p e c i a l s k i l l s . This easy-to-deploy, cost-effective solution does not require any specialized computer or software training — enabling a shorter learning curve, simple assimilation and faster knowledge transfer. What is SafeKit? Why choose SafeKit? • Microsoft or Linux clustering is too complex • Shared disks on a SAN, network load balancers, enter- prise editions for database replication are too expensive • You need real-time synchronous replication with no data loss on failure contrary to asynchronous replication • You need automatic failover and failback • You need an agnostic high availability solution that works with physical machines, virtual machines and public cloud infrastructure What are the target markets? This platform agnostic, software-based solution can be seamlessly applied to critical applications in a broad range of industries such as manufacturing, transport, telecom, healthcare and finance. Its ease-of-use and adaptability makes it perfect for any company deploying a critical application in a vertical market, or those searching for a simple high availability solution that will work with their applications. SafeKit is the ideal solution for software pub- lishers, resellers and distributors. Real-time replication Automatic failover Network load balancing Software-only high availability Application SafeKit ``` ## Page 2 ``` ECT-230511-SB-SafeKit-Flyer Eviden is a registered trademark of BULL SAS. © Copyright 2023, BULL SAS. Confidential information owned by BULL SAS, to be used by the recipient only. This document, or any part of it, may not be reproduced, copied, circulated and/or distributed nor quoted without prior written approval from BULL SAS. Software clustering vs. hardware clustering A simple software cluster with the SafeKit package installed on two servers Complex hardware clustering with external storage or network load balancer Shared nothing vs. shared disk cluster SafeKit is a shared-nothing cluster — easy to deploy, even in remote sites A shared disk cluster is complex to deploy High availability vs. fault tolerance SafeKit doesn’t require a dedicated server; each server can be the failover server for the other Requires a secondary server dedicated to executing the same application, synchronized at the instruction level Synchronous replication vs. asynchronous replication SafeKit implements real-time synchronous replication with no data loss in case of failure With asynchronous replication, there is data loss on failure Byte-level file replication vs. block-level disk replication SafeKit implements real-time byte-level file replication and is simply configured with application directories to replicate, even in the system disk Block-level disk replication is complex to configure and requires putting application data in a special disk Heartbeat, failover and quorum to avoid 2 master nodes To avoid 2 masters, SafeKit utilizes a simple split brain checker configured on a router To avoid 2 masters, other clusters require a complex configuration with a third machine, a special quorum disk, or a special interconnect Virtual IP address and load balancing A SafeKit cluster requires no dedicated proxy servers or special network configuration for virtual IP addresses Special network configuration is required in other clusters for virtual IP addresses. Note: SafeKit offers a health check adapted to load balancers Application HA and full virtual machine HA SafeKit supports application HA with scripts for a quick restart or VM HA with reboot of VMs without additional scripts Hypervisor clustering solutions don’t support application HA and require shared disks for VM HA What are the best scenarios for using SafeKit? • A software publisher searching for a high availability add-on • A reseller wishing to deploy high availability in many companies • High availability and disaster recovery solution with 2 nodes in 2 remote sites • Replication of a few Terabytes, with less than 1,000,000 files • 1Gb/s or 10 G/s LAN or extended LAN between nodes • Load balancing of less than 10 servers • Replication of less than 32 VMs when full VMs are replicated under Hyper-V or KVM What are the benefits of SafeKit? • Zero specific skills are required to deploy a SafeKit high availability solution, instead leveraging a very simple web console to do the job • Zero extra hardware costs as the solution is indepen- dent of any hardware, and runs on existing physical servers, in virtual machines, or in the cloud • Zero extra software costs because SafeKit works with standard editions of OS and databases • Try and buy options enable you to test SafeKit for free on Windows or Linux. Free trial on SafeKit web site. • Synchronous replication to ensure no data loss, as any data committed to disk by a transactional application is replicated on the secondary node • Automatic failover, automatic failback on a secondary node in case of hardware/network/software failures ```