At last, an affordable business continuity solution for Hyper-V!

Double-Take Software adds powerful new functionality to the Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization platform.

With the release of Windows Server 2008 R2 in late 2009, Microsoft's virtualization solution is now enterprise-ready. Version 2 of the Hyper-V hypervisor claims to be the best virtualization platform for Windows. But, compared with historic rival VMware, certain features are still missing from the Microsoft solution.

If you've been hesitating to deploy Hyper-V virtualization because of the lack of high availability and fast disaster recovery features, Double-Take Software resolves the issues. Double-Take Software solutions are compatible with any hardware platform and don't need a costly dedicated SAN infrastructure, allowing you to implement Hyper-V on your existing multi-vendor infrastructure.

Hyper-V in brief

Hyper-V is a server virtualization technology supporting the deployment of Windows or Linux virtual machines - called "partitions" by Microsoft. A parent or root partition executes on the physical hardware, hosting one or more child partitions.

Child partitions do not have access to hardware resources. Resources are allocated by the hypervisor. The virtualized disk storage linked to a child partition uses the VHD format. Files may be stored on an iSCSI or Fibre Channel SAN fabric, a NAS array or on disk storage directly attached to the hardware.

The essentials

Who is it for?

For any enterprise planning to deploy a virtualized infrastructure or seeking disaster recovery solutions for the Hyper-V environment, Double-Take Software offers a solutions suite that fills in the gaps in the Hyper-V feature set, covering all your needs for high availability.

With the Double-Take Software solution, cost-effective business continuity and disaster recovery for remote Hyper-V virtualization deployments becomes a reality, without the need to invest in Microsoft Failover Cluster.

Key strengths

Double-Take Software has built its reputation on the effectiveness of its replication engine, the core of the Double-Take solutions suite. It delivers real-time replication of Hyper-V virtual systems without the need to deploy costly and complex server clustering and shared storage solutions.

Cost-effective

The Double-Take Software solution is affordable and allows any enterprise to plan for ambitious Hyper-V deployments without stretching the budget.

Four deployment scenarios

1. Backup and recovery of Hyper-V virtual servers

While virtualization is an integral feature of the Windows 2008 Server operating system, backing up Hyper-V virtual systems isn't easy. A simple backup of the VHD files is not enough, as there's no guarantee of the integrity of the data contained on the virtual machine. Additional tools are necessary for ensure complete, dependable backups and reliable recovery.

Microsoft recommends the use of VSS (Volume Shadow Service), with a backup solution. While this works, it frequently results in overlong recovery times due to round-tripping between VSS and the backup solution. Backups at regular intervals are possible, but for rapid recovery it's necessary to turn to solutions offered by Microsoft partners. Certain offerings effectively back up the parent system but their architectural limitations mean they are not effective at protecting multiple virtual workloads.

Double-Take Availability and Double-Take Backup integrate with the parent partition in Windows 2008, delivering real-time protection for Hyper-V virtual machines. VHD files and their configuration data are fully backed up. Continuous real-time replication ensures every modification occurring in the virtual machine is captured and in just a few minutes, full recovery of the VM is possible.

2. Disaster recovery/ business continuity planning

When it comes to the replication of Hyper-V machines, nobody is better qualified than Double-Take Software. A long-standing partnership with Microsoft has its advantages, allowing Double-Take to develop the first host-level replication solution for Hyper-V. Both LAN-based and WAN-based replication is supported for any number of Hyper-V virtual systems.

Compared with classic solutions, Double-Take Move, Double-Take Availability and Double-Take Backup deliver a more cost-effective response to enterprise continuity requirements.

3. High availability

Microsoft understands that enterprises need high availability when they virtualize the datacenter, to protect uptime in the virtualized infrastructure. A key element in achieving this is real-time migration, as offered by VMware with Vmotion. Microsoft positions Failover Hot Clustering with the Live Migration functionality as the answer for Hyper-V environments, but this solution depends on a SAN fabric and is only effective for local VMs.

Where a SAN is not a possibility, or when the enterprise needs to manage remote sites, Double-Take Availability for Virtual Host is the solution.

Double-Take Availability for Virtual Host supports automatic failover. When an incident occurs the execution environment is switched to another virtual machine. Double-Take Availability can migrate hundreds of remote virtual machines with no difficulty.

4. Managing remote sites

Backing up servers at remote sites is an ongoing headache for system administrators. Double-Take Backup makes centralized back-up and recovery of remote Hyper-V virtual servers easy, for dependable disaster recovery planning even over the WAN.

With integrated data compression and bandwidth management features, Double-Take Backup delivers reliable centralized protection for virtual servers, even over limited bandwidth networks

Double-Take Software solutions for Hyper-V environments

The Workload Optimization Suite by Double-Take Software covers all your needs for high availability, backup, and replication. Double-Take recommends three key products for Hyper-V environments, with an optional fourth product for certain clustered deployments.

Double-Take Move

An essential tool in Hyper-V virtualized environments, Double-Take Move supports real-time X2X migration, with no production downtime. Double-Take Move has revolutionized migration in virtualized environments with its real-time approach and platform-independent conversion capabilities.

Double-Take Backup

Designed with the needs of small businesses and remote offices in mind, Double-Take Backup enables real-time WAN-based replication of physical and virtual servers on multiple sites. Double-Take Backup includes features such as Continuous Data Protection and deduplication, and supports HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) environments.

Double-Take Availability (for Virtual Host)

Double-Take Availability meets the needs of the most demanding virtualized environments, including support for Hyper-V. The real-time host-level replication features of Double-Take Availability allow for an improved RTO compared with Double-Take Backup.

Double-Take GeoCluster™

An option for Double-Take Availability, Double-Take GeoCluster offers enhanced protection for Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) server clusters. Double-Take GeoCluster supports real-time replication for geographically distributed clusters complementing the native failover and monitoring features of MSCS.

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