Failover
Automated high-availability for Ubisense systems, using a simple protocol running over a standard network to co-ordinate between N active machines and N standby machines
Summary
SmartSpace Failover automates switching from active to standby machines in case of machine failure, or to enable maintenance or backups, in a manner that protects data integrity by ensuring that active and standby machines never run at the same time.
Failover is based around the ‘two machine’ setup in which pairs of machines are configured so that at any one time only one machine is active whilst the other is on standby. If the active machine stops or fails, the standby machine takes over.
SmartSpace Failover ensures platform availability by automating switchover to an alternative host. It assumes an up-to-date copy of production data is made available by some method, for example by using SmartSpace Replication.
Ubisense Failover runs on Linux and Windows platforms.
Benefits
The benefits of SmartSpace Failover are:
- Automated
Failover is automated so that the standby machine will take over from the active machine if it detects that the active machine has timed out. This ensures continuity without manual intervention. - Maintenance and backups
Maintenance that requires a machine to be taken out of service can be performed while the system is live so long as only one machine in a pair is halted at a time with Failover ensuring continuity of service on the other machine.
Failover also allows scheduled dataset backups to be taken while the system is live. - Data integrity
Failover implements a protocol between two machines to make them work in a two machine setup, controlling Ubisense services on both machines, and minimizing the likelihood of both machines simultaneously becoming active. - Scalable
Failover can be implemented with a single pair of machines running all necessary Ubisense services or it can be scaled to encompass many pairs of machines, including pairs running different operating systems. For example the real-time control elements could run on Linux machines whilst the web visibility features run on Windows machines.
Failover uses standard hardware and software and can be conveniently configured across whatever virtual machine and hardware configuration is required.