Partners

Double Take, Inc.

To Partner Overview

Double-Take Software is a leading provider of affordable software for data recovery, including continuous data replication, application availability, and system state protection. Double-Take Software products and services enable customers to protect and recover business-critical data and applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Office SharePoint in both physical and virtual environments.

Double-Take and Microsoft Virtualization

Double-Take Software is working closely with Microsoft to deliver compelling solutions on the Hyper-V platform for the protection and recovery of customers’ mission-critical virtualized workloads. Visit Double-Take: Protect Your Data to find out how Double-Take Software protects Microsoft applications from downtime and failure.

Double-Take is building on two initiatives related to Microsoft Hyper-V. It is extending the capabilities of its existing GeoCluster™ product to support both Windows Server 2008 as well as Hyper-V. GeoCluster provides the ability to create failover clusters without the need for shared storage, making it easier to use Hyper-V Quick Migration without a SAN and between geographical locations. Double-Take Software is also delivering to market a new product which provides the ability to replicate and automatically failover virtual machines (VM) from one Hyper-V host to another for disaster recovery and business continuity even if they can’t take advantage of Failover Clustering.

  • Replicate VMs in real-time between Hyper-V hosts and failover VMs to other Hyper-V hosts in the event of a disaster.

  • Take advantage of Hyper-V features like Quick Migration without the expense and complexity of shared storage infrastructures.

  • Extend Hyper-V Quick Migration by making it easy to perform migrations between hosts in different geographical locations.

Customer Scenario

Hyper-V server virtualization enables multiple operating systems to run on a single physical machine as virtual machines (VMs). Fewer physical machines can lead to reduced costs through lower hardware, energy, and management overhead, plus the creation of a more dynamic IT infrastructure. With this capability, however, comes an increased need for managing planned and unplanned downtime.

Double-Take Site Recovery Solution

Double-Take Software and Microsoft engaged at the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC) to deliver a non-SAN based site recovery solution implemented with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V running on HP DL380 G5 servers. The solution leverages Stretch Clustering between primary and remote sites. A major advantage of the solution is that it does not require shared storage or have geographic restrictions, and can be deployed using components of the existing infrastructure. Based on Double-Take GeoCluster replication, cluster nodes can be located anywhere and are kept current asynchronously. This solution is based completely on software data replication and can be used with heterogeneous storage environments. Failover to the remote site(s) can be automatic or administrator initiated.

Replication and Failover for Hyper-V

Double-Take for Hyper-V is a new product that uses the patented Double-Take replication engine combined with new Hyper-V specific capabilities to allow customers to replicate and failover Hyper-V virtual machines in real time without the expense and complexity of clustering or shared storage.

Solution Briefs

  • Hyper-V™: Joint Solution Overview for Disaster Recovery
    Double-Take Software and Microsoft are offering a joint disaster recovery solution for virtualized environments based on GeoCluster from Double-Take Software to let customers implement Windows Server Failover Clustering without shared storage or geographic restrictions - eliminating the single point of failure and giving you the freedom to locate Hyper-V cluster nodes anywhere.

  • Double-Take® for Hyper-V™ Feature Guide
    Double-Take® for Hyper-V™ allows you to replicate and failover Hyper-V virtual machines in real-time over geographic distances without the expense and complexity of clustering and shared storage. This feature guide provides a detailed description of the features of Double-Take Software’s new real-time replication and failover offering for Hyper-V.

  • Double-Take for Hyper-V: Real-time replication and failover for Hyper-V VMs
    Consolidating workloads with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V saves IT organizations serious time and money. However, if a host server goes down in a disaster or outage it can take several workloads, plus profit and productivity, with it. Protecting virtualized workloads running on Hyper-V hosts in any circumstance is critical to protecting your IT investment. This datasheet describes the benefits of Double-Take Software’s new real-time replication and failover offering for Hyper-V.

White Papers

  • Multi-Site Hyper-V™ Clusters Using GeoCluster™
    Double-Take Software and Microsoft are offering a joint disaster recovery solution for virtualized environments based on GeoCluster from Double-Take. This joint solution will allow customers to implement Windows Server Failover Clustering without shared storage or geographic restrictions, eliminating a single point of failure (the SAN) and giving you the freedom to locate Hyper-V cluster nodes anywhere. Combined with the Quick Migration features of Hyper-V, administrators will more easily be able to move Virtual Machines (VMs) across hundreds or even thousands of miles. A software approach encouraged by Microsoft, GeoCluster provides the technology and flexibility you need to ensure maximum availability for Hyper-V VMs at a fraction of the cost.

  • Real-Time Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V™ - Double-Take for Hyper-V Whitepaper
    This whitepaper provides an overview of the business case and need for protecting workloads virtualized on Windows Serer 2008 Hyper-V. In addition, it provides in-depth use case scenarios for how Double-Take Software’s new real-time replication and failover offering for Hyper-V can be used to ensure the availability of workloads virtualized with Hyper-V.

  • Windows Server Multi-Site Clustering with Double-Take
    Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering and GeoCluster from Double-Take Software provide the ultimate geographically-distributed application recoverability solution for clustered applications.

Demos

  • GeoCluster for Hyper-V Demo
    This ~8min overview of the product provides a look at how to configure GeoCluster to work with clustered Hyper-V hosts and Hyper-V features like quick migration.

  • Double-Take for Hyper-V Demo
    This ~12 minute overview of the product provides a look at how to protect a Hyper-V VM using Double-Take for Hyper-V.

Reference Architectures

  • GeoCluster™ Feature Guide
    Learn how GeoCluster extends the capabilities of Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) to create a stretch cluster.

Press releases

Videos

Case Studies

  • HotSchedules Leverages Dell OpenManage, Microsoft Hyper-V and Double-Take for Hyper-V
    HotSchedules implemented Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V, SystemCenter Virtual Machine Manager and Operations Manager, and DoubleTake for Hyper-V to protect their critical applications such as SQL and their Web-based product environment.

  • SportsDirect, Inc.
    Failover Success with Clusters: SportsDirect, Inc. has been creating the sports content that people love since 1995 and with over 300 million page views a year, continuous product support and service development, SportsDirect leads the online sports information industry. SportsDirect ultimately chose GeoCluster because it provided both real-time replication with an excellent RPO, seamless integration with MSCS and the ability to execute hands-free failover from active nodes to the passive nodes in the event of an outage. Read the full case study today.

To Partner Overview
Double Take, Inc.
Double-Take DR Planning and Best Practices for 2010: Everything you NEED to know in 30 minutes

On December 17, 2009 take 30 minutes to attend a session centered on making sure you have the right disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place for 2010. Best practices and cost effectiveness are covered as well as technical deep dives and the use of Hyper-V to strengthen business continuity and testing DR scenarios.

Double-Take Software Launches Video Webinar Detailing Double-Take for Hyper-V Workload Availability and Protection

IT managers learn how Double-Take for Hyper-V provides real-time protection and availability for workloads running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, while also providing powerful cost savings.