Q : Does the backup server only backup to itself or can I send backups to a NAS device or any remote server?
A : Backup host must have SERVERware system installed.
Q : Do we need the Hardware RAID and working cache battery?
A : Hardware RAID is not required, but if there is a RAID controller present and you want to use it, battery and write cache are a must. Any hardware RAID without battery backup and write cache enabled can't be supported. Fake RAID is not supported, should not be used, and must be turned off if supported by the motherboard (Fake RAID is essentially software RAID provided by the BIOS on the motherboard).Hardware RAID controllers AND OpenZFS
Q : Can the OS drives be on hardware RAID?
A : The OS filesystem is ZFS and it's not recommended to use hardware RAID.
Q : Is 64 GB enough RAM for OS? How much does the OS take up?
A : The question is what is your average RAM per VPS? Let's say it's 2G per VPS, 64G of RAM will run about 32 VPS, the more VPSs the more RAM needed.
Q : What is the upgrade path to cluster edition?
A : Upgrade from Standalone to Cluster/Mirror is not possible, however to upgrade from Mirror to Cluster is possible. For upgrade one need a new license and hardware upgrade, for details and pricing please contact Account Manager.
Q : What is offloaded to the processing server in a cluster environment?
A : Processing Host is a computation resource, VPSs will use hosts CPU and RAM.
Q : As for the 10GB network ports. Are 2 ports enough to cover and upgrade to cluster edition or more is needed?
A : Detailed specifications for cluster requirements can be found in the wiki section Deployment Requirements
Q : Do we need 10GB Switch between Storage and Processing Hosts?
A : This depends on the number of the hosts and network load they produce. The higher the bandwidth speed of the network hardware the better performance.
Q : How many VPS is recommended on the mirror until there should be an upgrade to cluster?
A : There is no certain threshold for this purpose, however, if you want more scalability and options to your Cloud Hosting platform you should upgrade. Cluster Edition expands on the capabilities and features of Mirror Editions by introducing Fault Tolerance and allowing the addition of more Processing Host units to SERVERware. With Processing Hosts providing resources and SERVERware Host providing the centralized storage you get very high availability and fault-tolerance.
More on: https://www.bicomsystems.com/products/serverware/cluster/.
Q : Are we understanding correctly that at the most basic level, all VPSes will be stored on the Storage Host and run on a Processing Host? So, the Storage Host has to have large storage but not as much processing power whereas the Processing Host should have high processing power but small storage?
A : This is partially true, the VPS data of all VPSs are stored on Storage Host and this storage is virtually mounted in the Processing Host whose CPU and RAM is used to run these VPSs. The CPU and the RAM of the Storage Host is also important for managing large datasets.
11. Q : The Storage Host should have a RAID1 logical volume out of 2 disks for the OS and each additional disk should be in a RAID0 config by itself so the OS can build its own storage infrastructure with them?
A : The recommendation is to Storage Host disks are not within server RAID configuration or if this is not possible every disk should be set as RAID0 or JBOD. Redundancy is assured within the ZFS filesystem.
12. Q : The Processing Host should have a RAID1 logical volume out of 2 disks for the OS only?
A : The processing Host system pool is recommended to have 2 disks without RAID or with RAID0, Redundancy is assured within the ZFS filesystem.
13. Q : For the most trivial setup all we need is 1 Storage Host and 1 Processing Host right?
A : Most trivial setup is Standalone SERVERware and in this case, we need one Storage Host + one Backup Host
14. Q : What is expected to happen when the RAN LINK is down on the primary STORAGE HOST?
A : When the RAN link is lost on the Mirror/Cluster STORAGE HOST, the SERVERware/VPSs will continue to work without interruption, the alarm will be triggered (only if enabled in SERVERware alarms). Failover will not be initiated
15. Q : What is expected to happen when the LAN LINK is down on the primary STORAGE HOST?
A : When the LAN link is lost on the Mirror/Cluster STORAGE HOST, the SERVERware/VPSS will not be accessible, the alarm will be triggered (only if enabled in SERVERware alarms).GUI will also be inaccessible until manual failover.
16. Q : What is expected to happen when the SAN LINK is down on the primary STORAGE HOST?
A : When the SAN link is lost on the Mirror/Cluster STORAGE HOST, the SERVERware/VPSS will not be accessible, the alarm will be triggered (only if enabled in SERVERware alarms).GUI will be accessible and processing hosts will lose storage connection until manual failover.
17. Q : What is expected to happen when the LAN and RAN LINK are down on the primary STORAGE HOST?
A : When the LAN and RAN links are lost on the Mirror/Cluster STORAGE HOST, the SERVERware/VPSS will not be accessible, the alarm will be triggered (only if enabled in SERVERware alarms). GUI will also be inaccessible until. This is also a potential split-brain situation and both STORAGE HOSTS have had to be rebooted after the LINK is repaired.