SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition on AWS

Partner Solution Deployment Guide

QS

September 2022
Heath Carroll, SIOS Technology Corp.
Dave May, AWS Integration & Automation team

Refer to the GitHub repository to view source files, report bugs, submit feature ideas, and post feedback about this Partner Solution. To comment on the documentation, refer to Feedback.

This Partner Solution was created by SIOS Technology Corp. in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Partner Solutions are automated reference deployments that help people deploy popular technologies on AWS according to AWS best practices. If you’re unfamiliar with AWS Partner Solutions, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Overview

This guide covers the information you need to deploy the SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition Partner Solution in the AWS Cloud.

Costs and licenses

This Partner Solution uses Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) from the AWS Marketplace. It supports two licensing options:

  • Pay as you go (PAYG) — Use this consumption-based option to pay an hourly fee determined by usage. Current prices are listed on the AWS Marketplace page and billed to your AWS account. This option doesn’t require a license for SIOS DataKeeper.

  • Bring your own license (BYOL) — Use this option if you have a current license for SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition (which requires a run-time license for each server). You can deploy the Partner Solution without first signing up for a license, but you must have a license to start and run SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition. You can contact SIOS to request a run-time license or a 14-day free trial license.

There is no cost to use this Partner Solution, but you will be billed for any AWS services or resources that this Partner Solution deploys. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide.

Architecture

Deploying this Partner Solution with default parameters builds the following DataKeeper environment in the AWS Cloud.

Architecture
Figure 1. Partner Solution architecture for DataKeeper on AWS

As shown in Figure 1, the Partner Solution sets up the following:

  • A highly available architecture that spans two (optionally three) Availability Zones.*

  • A virtual private cloud (VPC) configured with public and private subnets, according to AWS best practices, to provide you with your own virtual network on AWS.*

  • In the public subnets:

    • Managed network address translation (NAT) gateways to allow outbound internet access for resources in the private subnets.*

    • Remote Desktop Gateway (RD Gateway) instances in an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Auto Scaling group for remote administration.*

  • In the private subnets, a Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) cluster containing two (optionally three) Microsoft SQL Server nodes with SIOS DataKeeper replication software. Each node resides in a separate Availability Zone and contains an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume for replicated data storage. For information on supported operating system versions, refer to the DataKeeper Cluster Edition (DKCE) support matrix.

  • An Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system provides quorum witness functionality to the WSFC cluster.*

  • AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory (Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition) to provision Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) and to manage tasks such as monitoring domain controllers and configuring backups and snapshots. You can add AD DS domain controllers as EC2 instances to the architecture and manage these yourself.

  • AWS Secrets Manager to store credentials.

  • An AWS Systems Manager automation document to automate the deployment.

* The template that deploys the Partner Solution into an existing VPC skips the components marked by asterisks and prompts you for your existing VPC configuration.

Deployment options

This Partner Solution provides the following deployment options:

  • Deploy DataKeeper into a new VPC. This option builds a new AWS environment that consists of the VPC, subnets, NAT gateways, security groups, bastion hosts, and other infrastructure components. It then deploys DataKeeper into this new VPC.

  • Deploy DataKeeper into an existing VPC. This option provisions DataKeeper in your existing AWS infrastructure.

This Partner Solution provides separate templates for these options. It also lets you configure Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) blocks, instance types, and DataKeeper settings.

Predeployment steps

Subscribe to the DataKeeper AMI

This Partner Solution requires a subscription to the AMI for DataKeeper in AWS Marketplace.

  1. Sign in to your AWS account.

  2. Open the page for the AMI in AWS Marketplace, and then choose Continue to Subscribe.

    1. Pay as you go (PAYG)

    2. Bring your own license (BYOL)

  3. Review the terms and conditions for software usage, and then choose Accept Terms.
    A confirmation page loads, and an email confirmation is sent to the account owner. For detailed subscription instructions, refer to the AWS Marketplace documentation.

  4. When the subscription process is complete, exit out of AWS Marketplace without further action. Do not provision the software from AWS Marketplace—the Partner Solution deploys the AMI for you.

Determine your EC2 instance size

Replication performance relies on several factors. While CPU usage is minimal, RAM utilization depends on network performance, peak active workload, volume read-write latency, and the number of concurrent mirrors under load. With these considerations in mind, SIOS recommends using EC2 instance sizes that have at least medium network performance. These instances enable Amazon EBS optimization by default and provide at least one instance for storage volume.

So if you’re concerned about performance, SIOS recommends that you choose r3.xlarge instances or larger for the parameters WSFCNode1InstanceType, WSFCNode2InstanceType, and (if used) WSFCNode3InstanceType when you deploy this Partner Solution.

Deployment steps

  1. Sign in to your AWS account, and launch this Partner Solution, as described under Deployment options. The AWS CloudFormation console opens with a prepopulated template.

  2. Choose the correct AWS Region, and then choose Next.

  3. On the Create stack page, keep the default setting for the template URL, and then choose Next.

  4. On the Specify stack details page, change the stack name if needed. Review the parameters for the template. Provide values for the parameters that require input. For all other parameters, review the default settings and customize them as necessary. When you finish reviewing and customizing the parameters, choose Next.

    Unless you’re customizing the Partner Solution templates or are instructed otherwise in this guide’s Predeployment section, don’t change the default settings for the following parameters: QSS3BucketName, QSS3BucketRegion, and QSS3KeyPrefix. Changing the values of these parameters will modify code references that point to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) bucket name and key prefix. For more information, refer to the AWS Partner Solutions Contributor’s Guide.

  5. On the Configure stack options page, you can specify tags (key-value pairs) for resources in your stack and set advanced options. When you finish, choose Next.

  6. On the Review page, review and confirm the template settings. Under Capabilities, select all of the check boxes to acknowledge that the template creates AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) resources that might require the ability to automatically expand macros.

  7. Choose Create stack. The stack takes about 45 minutes to deploy.

  8. Monitor the stack’s status, and when the status is CREATE_COMPLETE, the SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition deployment is ready.

  9. To view the created resources, choose the Outputs tab.

Postdeployment steps

Test the deployment

The easiest way to determine whether SIOS DataKeeper Cluster Edition has been correctly deployed and configured is to launch Failover Cluster Manager on one of the replication nodes and switch over resources.

  1. Connect to the Remote Desktop Gateway instance.

  2. From that node, connect to the replication node using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

  3. Launch Failover Cluster Manager.

  4. In the left pane, choose Roles, and verify that the MSSQLSERVER role is online.

  5. In the Roles pane, open the context (right-click) menu for MSSQLSERVER, and then choose Move, Select Node, and the other replication node as the destination node. The role should come online within two minutes.

  6. Move the role back to the primary replication node. If the role comes online without any issues on either node, the deployment was successful.

(Optional) Configure additional nodes

If you add nodes to the cluster after you’ve deployed this Partner Solution, configure each node manually. For details, refer to SIOS Relocation of Intent Log.

Resources

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting common Partner Solution issues, refer to the AWS Partner Solution General Information Guide and Troubleshooting CloudFormation.

For troubleshooting common SIOS deployment issues, refer to the following:

You can also email SIOS presales support during an evaluation period.

Customer responsibility

After you deploy a Partner Solution, confirm that your resources and services are updated and configured—including any required patches—to meet your security and other needs. For more information, refer to the Shared Responsibility Model.

Feedback

To submit feature ideas and report bugs, use the Issues section of the GitHub repository for this Partner Solution. To submit code, refer to the Partner Solution Contributor’s Guide. To submit feedback on this deployment guide, use the following GitHub links:

Notices

This document is provided for informational purposes only. It represents current AWS product offerings and practices as of the date of issue of this document, which are subject to change without notice. Customers are responsible for making their own independent assessment of the information in this document and any use of AWS products or services, each of which is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, whether expressed or implied. This document does not create any warranties, representations, contractual commitments, conditions, or assurances from AWS, its affiliates, suppliers, or licensors. The responsibilities and liabilities of AWS to its customers are controlled by AWS agreements, and this document is not part of, nor does it modify, any agreement between AWS and its customers.

The software included with this paper is licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0 (the "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the License. A copy of the License is located at https://aws.amazon.com/apache2.0/ or in the accompanying "license" file. This code is distributed on an "as is" basis, without warranties or conditions of any kind, either expressed or implied. Refer to the License for specific language governing permissions and limitations.