High Availability Solutions
LINBIT HA is a framework for building high availability server clusters.
It includes DRBD, which ensures data availability and resilience to node-level failures through block replication. It also includes other open source software, such as Pacemaker or DRBD Reactor, which maximizes service uptime in the cluster.
LINBIT HA Components
Kernel Driver
Cluster Engine
or
Cluster Engine
LINBIT Expert 24/7 Support
High Availability Solution Use Cases
Database
-
MySQL
-
Oracle DB
-
PostgreSQL
- Redis
File Servers
- NFS
- Samba
- AFP
- FTP
Storage Targets
- iSCSI
- Fibre Channel
-
Flash Cache
- NVMe-oF
- And more!
Application Stacks
- SAP DB Clusters
- Web Servers
- Database Servers
- Email Servers
- And more!
How It Works
LINBIT® HA can cluster any application or service that runs on Linux and give you the reliability of a SAN or NAS, by using commodity hardware. The LINBIT HA solution uses DRBD® to mirror block device data in a cluster of nodes and a cluster resource manager (CRM), either Pacemaker or DRBD Reactor, to handle failover in the cluster.
DRBD replicates data writes in real time with high performance, continually setting IOPS records. When a failover event happens, the CRM handles failing applications and services over to another cluster node that already has, thanks to DRBD, a perfect copy of your data. With the LINBIT HA solution, your applications, services, and any data that they depend on, are available to your users with maximal resiliency and minimal to no downtime.
DRBD and Pacemaker are open source software that have been used and trusted to keep enterprises up and running in production for nearly two decades. DRBD Reactor is newer LINBIT-developed open source software that can offer CRM functionality in a cluster that uses DRBD. While DRBD Reactor is not as flexible as Pacemaker, it is simpler to configure and is a suitable replacement for Pacemaker in many use cases.
Enterprise High Availability Support
LINBIT’s Enterprise support mirroring data for Linux high availability clusters leverages our DRBD®– open source software that can cluster any application that runs on Linux with the reliability of a SAN. As a testament to the software’s stability, it has been integrated into the mainline Linux kernel since 2010 with the Linux Kernel 2.6.33 release. Since the software performs at the block-level in the stack, replication performance is unparalleled.
Over 20 years ago, LINBIT successfully created DRBD software to replace expensive SAN and NAS hardware with resilient, commodity servers. Now, LINBIT is focusing on tackling cloud and virtualization environments with its suite of Software Defined Storage technologies.
The DRBD software will work with any application or database and can be used to replicate multiple applications at a time. With LINBIT’s Enterprise Support Services, rest assured that DRBD, the leading open source high availability software, is a reliable platform for your mission-critical storage.
Enterprise Support Benefits
High Performance
RDMA-enabled systems see 200% increased output with 50% less CPU use. Read Balancing raises read performance by 70%.
Flexibility​
We ensure that our solution works with every major Linus OS seamlessly, even when you need to scale to meet demands.
Safety
We implement synchronous data replication to achieve the complete safety of high-end transactional applications.
Stability
DRBD is a trusted and globally renowned software that has supported organizations for more than 20 years.
LINBIT HA Technical Benefits
Synchronous Replication
DRBD® is a block device that synchronously mirrors your storage. It is capable of replicating a single data any number of times. Anything you put on a hard drive or disk array can be mirrored utilizing DRBD.
High Availability
Our high availability services exists by combining DRBD, Corosync, and Pacemaker & LINBIT’s Enterprise Support offerings. Any application or virtual machine can be made highly available by enabling DRBD as your backing storage.
Seamless Integration
DRBD includes a Python based API allowing for any application or appliance to interact with it. With Auto Promote, DRBD doesn’t require manual interaction to make data accessible.
Large Scale Integration
Many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) leverage DRBD to enable High Availability and redundancy within their appliances. Because DRBD is part of the Linux Kernel, adding HA and DR to your appliance is possible, no matter what software sits on top.
DRBD is open source
The kernel driver is part of the upstream kernel as of 2009. Many of DRBD’s features are sponsored by users. Have a feature or use case you’d like to see in DRBD? LINBIT can develop it!
High Performance
DRBD supports RDMA on Infiniband, Sockets Direct Protocol on Dolphin Interconnects, and Zero Copy Receive on Intel 10Gbe. RDMA enabled systems see 200% increased throughput with 50% less CPU utilization. Read Balancing enables you to increase your read performance by 70%
Cluster Manager
Our high availability software support solutions are enabled by installing both the DRBD replication software and the Pacemaker cluster manager. The combination creates a High Availability Cluster which replicates data and automatically Fail-overs during outages.
Pacemaker
DRBD ships with seamless integration to Pacemaker. Allowing Pacemaker to start, stop, promote and demote DRBD. With the fence-peer mechanism, DRBD utilizes Pacemaker’s CIB to help avoid split-brain situations.
Others
Lastly, we’d like to note that using the Pacemaker cluster manager is not required, due to DRBD’s new auto-promote feature. DRBD version 9.0 allows you to arbitrarily leverage other cluster managers, as long as those cluster managers can mount a file system on a shared storage device. This is perfect for OEM and ISVs who develop in-house cluster managers.
LINBIT HA Subscription Tiers
Find our open source software here. Below are our subscription tiers with up to 24/7 global support services.
The LINBIT engineers are perfectly trained to help your team design, deploy, and support your infrastructure.
LINBIT Starter
Includes access to our certified repositories and Community non-SLA support.
- DRBD 9, Including LINBIT HA (Open Source)
- Access to LINBIT's Extensive Documentation (Open Source)
- Self-service / Community Support (Open Source)
- Repository Access
- Latest Software Updates
- Online Training Workshop
Basic
Offers the addition of SLA backed business hour support.
- All LINBIT Starter features plus:
- Access to LINBIT's Repository to Download the Tested, Certified Linux Packages
- New Packages upon Request: Within 3 Business Days
- 5 Support Tickets Per Year
- Annual Health Checks
- Updates, Including New Features
- Device Size: up to 8TB
- Initial Support Response Time: 2 Days Maximum
Plus
Offers the addition of unlimited support tickets and remote installation support.
- All Basic features plus:
- Unlimited Support Tickets
- New Packages upon Request: Next Business Day
- Remote Installation/Troubleshooting by SSH/VPN
- Failover Testing
- Emergency Support
- Device Size: up to 32TB
- Emergency Initial Response Time: 4 Hours Maximum
- Initial Support Response Time: 8 Hours Maximum
- Email/Phone Support: 9/5 CE(S)T or PT
Enterprise
Offers 24/7 access to our expert support with our fastest turnaround times.
- All Plus features plus:
- Technical Assistance and Best Practice Advice Before Deployment
- New Packages upon Request: Within 24 Hours
- Performance Tuning
- Emergency Support
- Remote Support / Remote Management
- Device Size: Unlimited
- Emergency Initial Response Time: 1 Hour Maximum
- Initial Support Response: 4 Hour Maximum
- Email/Phone Support: 24/7