High availability benefits

Data Archive high availability solutions increase availability and eliminate or minimize data loss and both planned and unplanned downtime.

• Reliability

  With high availability, data has multiple paths from the source to the end user. If one component fails, data can traverse an alternate path. Therefore, you can eliminate single points of failure, protect against potential data loss, ensure access to current data, and decrease downtime.

  System upgrades, such as new server hardware, can be implemented during normal hours. The server can be configured, then introduced into the collective. A collective is a set of Data Archive servers that act as the logical Data Archive server for your system. From there it can be fully tested and qualified before making it available to users. Since collective Data Archive servers do not have to share machine or operating specifications it is possible to introduce new hardware such as 64 bit machines.

  Unplanned outages can be dealt with during normal working hours. Recovering a system during the weekend is extremely disruptive and resources required for an efficient fix may not be available. Outages during normal working hours can be addressed on a schedule as well, allowing current activities to be completed rather than disrupting and wasting current work in progress.

• Redundancy and failover

  High availability enables the PI System to transfer all of the workload from a failed server to another server. A Data Archive collective consists of a primary server and one or more secondary servers connected by a network. If the primary server in a collective fails, a secondary server can quickly take over its role. In the event of a primary server failure, you can promote a secondary server to become the primary server. This approach eliminates the single point of failure and significantly lowers the risk of service disruption.

• Performance and scalability

  You can share retrieval and computing loads between servers, and therefore increase the scale of your PI System. For example, you can expand your PI System as your business grows, such as during seasonal business peak periods and for end-of-month or end-of-year processing.

• Maintainability

  Data Archive server maintenance is easier because you can bring down a collective member with no impact to the other collective members. PI can be more easily patched or upgraded without having to schedule downtime. With high availability, you can perform scheduled maintenance with minimal impact on your user applications. You can troubleshoot a secondary server offline, giving you time to analyze and diagnose problems without adversely affecting users.

• Workload balancing

  You can automatically direct client requests to the server with the most workload capacity. Client applications can start on any server. Applications are not required to be aware of any particular server. You can distribute connections and workloads among servers, reducing demands on individual servers.

• Security

  You can configure all components in a highly available PI System to be secure. Network traffic is secure between primary and secondary servers, and traffic is secure between client applications and all servers.