This set of articles is dedicated to providing High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR) options overview for SQL Server. In this very first part, we will guide you through the process of configuring SQL Server AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances (FCI).

AlwaysOn FCI is a natural part of the SQL Server AlwaysOn HA / DR strategy and has been designed to protect your SQL Server infrastructure from the unplanned cluster node failures. With this tech, even if one of your nodes goes down, the SQL Server will continue running on one of the remaining cluster nodes with zero downtime and no data loss to meet the most strict RTO / RPO requirements.

Read the full article by Bogdan Savchenko, a Solutions Engineer at StarWind, referencing our technical paper created with Data Platform MVP Shashank Singh to learn how to configure SQL Server AlwaysOn FCI in a detailed step-by-step walkthrough style.

Maintenance Mode is a StarWind Virtual SAN feature that eliminates the downtimes caused by the planned nodes’ shutdowns. It allows keeping nodes in the pre-synchronized state so that synchronization resumption is not needed. As a result, the system doesn’t experience any performance and availability degradation.

Discover all the benefits of StarWind Virtual SAN new feature - Maintenance Mode.

Watch the video: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/increase-system-uptime-with-new-starwind-feature-maintenance-mode

StarWind takes part in Storage Focus 2017 in Barcelona, Hammer’s established channel event dedicated to delivering a comprehensive view of the changing storage, server & networking marketplace. It will bring together more than 20 leading industry vendors to showcase their products, exchange information and experience.
Watch StarWind elevator pitch video on Twitter @hammerplc at 3.30 pm (GMT+2)!

Microsoft has extended the Azure functionality with Nested Virtualization support for Dv3 and Ev3 VM sizes recently.

What you get with StarWind’s help is the ability to create a “stretched” Hyper-V cluster between on-premises and Azure. By configuring Failover Clustering with StarWind Virtual SAN handling distributed shared storage across locations, you achieve the maximum level of availability and redundancy for your mission critical data and applications: you can juggle with your virtual machines and decide where you want to run them: on-site or in Azure. Live Migrate, failover, HA etc.: you can treat your Azure instance as your Hyper-V cluster node.

Read the full article by Dmytro Malynka, a Solutions Architect at StarWind, to learn more about the Nested Virtualization support in Azure and what StarWind does to bring it to another level.

Server maintenance is usually followed by the time- and effort consuming period of synchronization resumption. Furthermore, the system performance drops significantly since only one node is running the entire production. Fortunately, this scenario can be avoided by setting the StarWind infrastructure in the “maintenance” mode.
In this Tap Room, StarWind expert discusses the benefits of the StarWind "maintenance" mode and demonstrates the feature working.

Join our live session to find out a way to keep the system running as fast as usual right after maintenance!

Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/increase-system-uptime-with-new-starwind-feature-maintenance-mode

StarWind works on the cutting edge of virtualization. We build reliable infrastructures that are powered by StarWind Virtual SAN, the high-performing, and fault-tolerant Software-Defined Storage platform. What is more, we offer the ProActive Support, the service aimed at the elimination of infrastructure problems before they result in severe failures. Last, StarWind Cloud VTL for AWS and Veeam accelerates the backup process and provides a ransomware-proof virtual vault for tapes.

Discover the power of StarWind hyperconvrged, SDS and backup solutions. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-storage-solutions-for-any-needs?utm_source=mangolassi&utm_medium=mangolassi&utm_campaign=ecocast_webinar_09_08

Ceph is a unified, distributed storage system delivering the ability to scale up to exabyte level while maintaining high reliability. This makes Ceph attractive for workloads’ distribution, storing and replication of data. Thus, StarWind has utilized Ceph in its new Enterprise Storage Appliance to provide it with infinite scalability.

Learn how your storage can be scaled simply and run smoothly with Ceph.
Watch now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/discovering-ceph-easily-scalable-and-highly-reliable-storage-platform?utm_source=mangolassi&utm_medium=mangolassi&utm_campaign=tap_room_ceph_17_08

VMware Labs often posts useful tools that can help VMware administrators manage their vSphere virtualization infrastructure much easier. These instruments were developed by VMware Engineers, Community, and Open Source. As for 2017, the most handy utilities presented on VMware Labs are vSphere HTML5 Web Client, ESXi Embedded Host Client, VisualEsxtop, VMware OS Optimization Tool and Horizon Toolbox.

Read the full article by Dmytro Malynka, a Solutions Architect at StarWind, to take a closer look at these awesome tools.
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/top-utilities-for-your-vsphere-infrastructure

As new applications appear every day, requiring more and more compute power, it is vital to timely upgrade the hardware to match those performance needs. That’s where StarWind HyperConverged Appliance comes into play. It’s a turnkey solution for building a high-performing virtualization infrastructure. It comes fully customized to meet your needs and covered with StarWind ProActive Support, making it a perfect choice for upgrading your IT infrastructure.

Learn more about StarWind HyperConverged Appliance: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/replace-piles-of-outdated-hardware-with-high-performing-starwind-hyperconverged-appliance

The revolutionary concepts of Software-Defined Storage and hyperconverged infrastructure seemed as the best way for bending the storage cost curve once and for all. These approaches managed to break the spell of vendor lock-in and separate value-add from commodity so that the commodity components could be purchased at a much lower cost. However, there is still one issue left unresolved – how to manage the heterogeneous storage infrastructure effectively?

Read the full article by Jon Toigo, a 30-year veteran of IT, and the Managing Partner of Toigo Partners International. https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/the-pleasant-fiction-of-software-defined-storage

VMworld 2017 is coming!

Take part in our online raffle on August 29 and get your chance to win an awesome Samsung Gear 360 with StarWind!
Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/vmworld-2017-starwind-raffle

Ceph is an open-source software storage platform delivering the ability to simply manage vast amounts of data. It is based on the Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store (RADOS) technology providing applications with the object, block, and file system interfaces in a single unified storage cluster, making Ceph flexible and highly reliable. Ceph’s Controlled Replicated Under Scalable Hashing algorithm (CRUSH) dynamically replicates and rebalances data within the cluster, delivering ultimate performance and infinite scalability.

Join our live Tap Room meeting to learn how Ceph provides simple storage scalability, high performance, and unprecedented resiliency!

Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/discovering-ceph-easily-scalable-and-highly-reliable-storage-platform

Ceph is an open-source software storage platform delivering the ability to simply manage vast amounts of data. It is based on the Reliable Autonomic Distributed Object Store (RADOS) technology providing applications with the object, block, and file system interfaces in a single unified storage cluster, making Ceph easily scalable and highly reliable.

Join our live Tap Room meeting to learn how Ceph provides simple storage scalability and ultimate resiliency!

Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/discovering-ceph-easily-scalable-and-highly-reliable-storage-platform

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 is a free, GUI-less version of Microsoft Windows Server, designed specifically for virtual machines. Since all Windows servers require SMB 1/2/3 to work, we can create SMB file share on Hyper-V 2016 as well. This part will guide you through the process of creating an SMB share on an absolutely free Microsoft Hyper-V 2016.

Read the full article by Ivan Ischenko, a technical support engineer at StarWind, to learn how to create a free SMB 3.0 file server on Microsoft Hyper-V 2016: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/free-smb3-file-server-on-hyper-v-2016

The previous part covered the basics of installing and configuring Microsoft Windows Server Core. Now, it is time to deploy the Hyper-V role on the server. The process is extremely simple, so all you need to do is just to type in few PowerShell commands and further use Hyper-V Manager to configure your virtual environment.

Read the full article by Alex Khorolets, a technical support engineer at StarWind, to learn how to deploy the Hyper-V role: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/blog/windows-server-core-configuration-hyper-v-role-installation

This series of posts is intended to show you the full process of configuring Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Core version – from its installation and the deployment of Hyper-V role to the Failover Cluster setup. In this part, you will find a step-by-step guide on installing and configuring Windows Server Core.

Read the full article by Alex Khorolets, a technical support engineer at StarWind, to learn how to properly install Windows Server 2016 Core.

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator (SCO) is a powerful workflow management solution allowing to automate the creation, monitoring, and deployment of resources in the IT environment, as well as to manage different operating systems. Orchestrator uses a drag and drop graphical interface, providing a simplified and visual way of building complex automation.

Read the full article by Nicolas Prigent, a System Engineer, to learn how to upgrade SCO 2012 R2 to 2016.

Traditional support systems typically require different steps and a lot of time to resolve an issue. To make this process as simple as possible and completely remove time and efforts involved from the customer’s side, StarWind has introduced ProActive Support. It resolves issues before they can make any harm and allows customers to focus on innovation instead of monitoring their IT environment.

Learn how to save your time on babysitting your IT infrastructure with StarWind ProActive Support: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-proactive-support-prevent-issues-instead-of-dealing-with-the-consequences

To save valuable time and efforts users typically spend on monitoring their IT environment, StarWind has introduced ProActive Support. It ensures constantly high services availability and data security, as StarWind support team monitors any potential issues in the environment and resolves them before they become a major threat to the production environment.

Join our webinar to learn about all the benefits of StarWind ProActive Support!

Register now: https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-proactive-support-prevent-issues-instead-of-dealing-with-the-consequences

VMware vCenter Server provides flexible options for setting performance metrics, allowing to change statistics collection levels, intervals and retention period. Additionally, it delivers the ability to set an approximate size of the virtual infrastructure in the host servers and VMs and thus, estimate the vCenter database size.

Read the full article by Alex Samoylenko, a virtualization technology professional, to learn more about setting performance metrics in VMware vCenter Server.