PlateSpin Forge supports most major versions of the Microsoft Windows, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems. It also supports selected versions of Novell Open Enterprise Server, Oracle Enterprise Linux, and CentOS operating systems.
This section describes all of the platform configurations supported by PlateSpin Forge, as well as the software, hardware, and virtualization environments that are required for workload protection and recovery. Some configurations, as noted, require special handling for workload setup and recovery. Ensure that you review the referenced information elsewhere in the online documentation or Knowledgebase Articles before you attempt to set up the workload.
NOTE:Although configurations not mentioned here are not supported, many of the improvements we make to PlateSpin Forge will be in direct response to suggestions from our customers. You can help us ensure our product meets all your needs. If you are interested in a platform configuration not listed, please contact Technical Support. We value your input and look forward to hearing from you.
PlateSpin Forge supports workloads for the Microsoft Windows operating system versions listed in Table 1-1.
Both file-level and block-level replications are supported, with certain restrictions. See Section 1.2, Supported Data Transfer Methods.
NOTE:Protection is not supported for desktop (workstation) workloads.
Table 1-1 Supported Windows Workloads
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Operating System |
Notes |
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Servers |
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Windows Server 2016 |
Protection of Windows Server 2016 servers requires VMware 6.0 or later. |
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Includes domain controllers (DC) and Small Business Server (SBS) editions. For information about conversion of Active Directory domain controllers, see Knowledgebase Article 7920501. |
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Includes domain controllers (DC) and Small Business Server (SBS) editions. For information about conversion of Active Directory domain controllers, see Knowledgebase Article 7920501. |
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Windows 2003 requires SP1 or higher for Block-based replication. |
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Clusters |
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Protection of Windows Server 2016 Cluster requires VMware 6.0 or later. Supported models: Node and Disk Majority Quorum and No Majority: Disk Only Quorum. Support includes block-based data transfer with a driver (Fibre Channel SANs only) or without a driver for incremental replications for clusters. File-based replication is not supported. WARNING:Do not attempt to use the block-based driver on clusters with shared iSCSI drives. It renders the cluster unusable. |
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Supported model: Single-Quorum Device Cluster. Support includes only driverless block-based data transfer for incremental replications for clusters. File-based replication is not supported. |
Ensure that you apply Windows updates on your source system before you run the first full replication.
If the Windows machine is a Domain Controller, ensure that you also disable antivirus software on the system during the replication.
PlateSpin Forge supports workloads for the Linux operating system distributions listed in Table 1-2.
Replication of protected Linux workloads occurs only at the block level. See Requirement for a blkwatch Driver.
Table 1-2 Supported Linux Workloads
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Operating System |
Versions |
Notes |
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Servers |
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See Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported Linux kernel versions and architectures for RHEL distributions. PlateSpin Forge does not support the XFS version 5 (v5) file system on RHEL 7.3, and on distributions based on RHEL 7.3. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7, Oracle Linux 6.7, and CentOS 6.7 workloads with LVM volumes, incremental replication is supported only for the latest available kernel (version 2.6.32-642.13.1.el6.x86_64) for the RHEL 6.7 distribution. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8, Oracle Linux 6.8, and CentOS 6.8 workloads with LVM volumes, incremental replication is supported only for the latest available kernel (version 2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.x86_64) for the 6.8 distribution. |
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See Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported Linux kernel versions and architectures for SLES distributions. Kernel version 3.0.13 of SLES 11 SP3 is not supported. Upgrade to kernel version 3.0.27 or later before you inventory the workload. |
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For OES 2015 SP1, Forge supports NSS32-bit pools up to 8 TB in size; NSS64-bit pools are not supported. See Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported Linux kernel versions and architectures for SLES distributions. The default kernel version 3.0.13 on OES 11 SP2 is not supported. Upgrade to kernel version 3.0.27 or later before you inventory the workload. |
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Oracle Linux (OL) (formerly Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL)) |
See Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported Linux kernel versions and architectures for RHEL distributions. Blkwatch drivers are available for the standard Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) and Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK) in OEL 6 U7 and later, as noted in the List of Distributions. Workloads using the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel are not supported for PlateSpin Forge 11.2 and earlier. Oracle Linux 6 U7 blkwatch drivers for kernel version 2.6.32-573 do not support incremental replication for workloads with LVM volumes. Update the kernel, then use RHEL 6 U7 drivers for kernel 2.6.32-642. Oracle Linux 6 U8 blkwatch drivers for kernel version 2.6.32-642 do not support incremental replication for workloads with LVM volumes. Update the kernel, then use RHEL 6 U8 drivers for kernel 2.6.32-696. |
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See Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported Linux kernel versions and architectures for RHEL distributions. |
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The block-based transfer of data for a Linux workload in PlateSpin Forge requires a blkwatch driver that is compiled for the particular Linux distribution being protected. PlateSpin Forge software includes pre-compiled versions of the blkwatch driver for many non-debug Linux distributions (32-bit and 64-bit). You can also create a custom driver. For more information, see Linux Distributions Supported by Forge.
A VM Container is a protection infrastructure that acts as the host of a protected workload’s regularly updated and bootable virtual replica. PlateSpin Forge 11.3 Appliance Version 4 ships with VMware ESXi 6.5 Update 1 as the virtualization host for the Forge Management VM and the protection VM container.
NOTE:PlateSpin Forge 11.2 Appliance Version 3 shipped with VMware ESXi 5.5 GA2 Update 2. Your system might use a VMware ESXi 5.5 host if you upgraded only the PlateSpin Forge Server software from version 11.2 to version 11.3.
The Windows Server 2016 support requires VMware 6.5 U1. You can rebuild supported PlateSpin Forge Appliance 3 systems to PlateSpin Forge 11.3 Appliance 4. A rebuild allows you to upgrade the PlateSpin Server to Forge 11.3 and the VMware host to VMware ESXi 6.5 U1. See the PlateSpin Forge 11.3 Rebuild Guide. Contact Customer Care to obtain the PlateSpin Forge 11.3 Upgrade/Rebuild Kit.
PlateSpin Forge supports the following x86-based computer architectures:
PlateSpin Forge supports protection and recovery of x64 and x86 architectures for physical and virtual workloads in your data center:
64-bit
32-bit
For supported VM containers using VMware 5.1 and higher with a minimum VM hardware Level 8, PlateSpin Forge enables you to specify the number of sockets and the number of cores per socket for the failover workload. It automatically calculates the total cores. This parameter applies on the initial setup of a workload with an initial replication setting of Full.
NOTE:The maximum number of cores the workload can use is subject to external factors such as the guest operating system, the VM hardware version, VMware licensing for the ESXi host, and ESXi host compute maximums for vSphere. See ESXi/ESX Configuration Maximums (VMware Knowledge Base 1003497).
Some distributions of a guest OS might not honor the cores and cores per socket configuration. For example, guest OSes using SLES 10 SP4 and OES 2 SP3 retain their original cores and sockets settings as installed, whereas other SLES, RHEL, and OES distributions honor the configuration.
For VM containers using VMware 4.1, PlateSpin Forge enables you to specify the required number of vCPUs (virtual CPUs) to assign to the failover workload. This parameter applies on the initial setup of a workload with an initial replication setting of Full. Each vCPU is presented to the guest OS on the VM container as a single core, single socket.
PlateSpin Forge supports the UEFI and BIOS firmware interfaces for Windows and Linux workloads.
NOTE:If you are protecting a UEFI-based workload and you want to continue using the same firmware boot mode throughout the protected workload lifecycle, you must target a vSphere 5.0 or newer container.
The following are examples of Forge behavior when protecting and failing back between UEFI and BIOS-based systems:
When you transfer a UEFI-based workload to a VMware vSphere 4.x container (which does not support UEFI), Forge transitions the workload’s UEFI firmware at failover time to BIOS firmware. Then, when failback is selected on a UEFI-based physical machine, Forge reverses the firmware transition from BIOS to UEFI.
If you attempt to failback a protected Windows 2003 workload to a UEFI-based physical machine, Forge analyzes the choice and notifies you that it is not valid. That is, the firmware transition from BIOS to UEFI is not supported because Windows 2003 does not support the UEFI boot mode.
When you protect a UEFI-based source on a BIOS-based target, Forge converts the UEFI system’s boot disks, which were GPT, to MBR disks. Failing back this BIOS workload to a UEFI-based physical machine converts the boot disks back to GPT.
On Windows workloads, PlateSpin Forge mirrors the Microsoft support of UEFI or BIOS-based Windows workloads. It transfers workloads from source to target while enforcing the supported firmware for the respective source and target operating systems. Both Block-based and File-based transfers are supported. It does the same for the failback to a physical machine. When any transition (failover and failback) between UEFI and BIOS systems are initiated, Forge analyzes the transition and alerts you about its validity.
PlateSpin Forge supports the following storage configurations for Windows and Linux workloads.
PlateSpin Forge supports several types of source storage disks, including basic disks, Windows dynamic disks, LVM2, hardware RAID, and SAN.
You can specify whether virtual disks on the protected VM replica are thin provisioned or thick provisioned.
NOTE:The following caveats apply for storage disks:
Windows Dynamic Disks: PlateSpin Forge does not support Windows dynamic disks at the target.
For dynamic disks, the storage does not follow the Same as Source mapping strategy. Both Simple Dynamic Volumes and Spanned Dynamic Volumes will reside on the target workload as Simple Basic Volume disks. The target disk is partitioned as GPT if the total combined size of the dynamic volume’s member disks exceeds MBR partition size limits. For more information, see Microsoft TechNet: Understanding the 2 TB limit in Windows Storage.
Software RAID: PlateSpin Forge supports hardware RAID; however, it does not support software RAID. This is applicable for both Windows and Linux workloads.
PlateSpin Forge supports MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table) partitioning schemes for Windows and Linux workloads. Workloads and storage for protection must be configured on disks partitioned with the MBR or GPT. Although GPT allows up to 128 partitions per single disk, PlateSpin Forge supports only 57 or fewer GPT partitions per disk.
PlateSpin Forge supports only the NTFS file system on any supported Windows system.
PlateSpin Forge supports EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, REISERFS, XFS, and NSS (Open Enterprise Server only) file systems, with block-based transfer only.
NOTE:
The XFS v5 file system is not supported for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 and distributions based on that version.
Encrypted volumes of workloads on the source are decrypted in the failover VM.
For Linux workloads, PlateSpin Forge provides the following additional storage support:
Forge supports virtio devices.
Non-volume storage, such as a swap partition that is associated with the source workload, is recreated in the failover workload.
The layout of volume groups and logical volumes is preserved so that you can re-create it during failback.
LVM raw disk volumes are supported in Same as Source configurations on Linux workloads.
(OES 11) Novell Linux Volume Management (NLVM) layout of source workloads are preserved and re-created in the appliance host. NSS pools are copied from the source to the recovery VM.
(OES 2) EVMS layouts of source workloads are preserved and re-created in the appliance host. NSS pools are copied from the source to the recovery VM.
In addition to English, PlateSpin Forge provides National Language Support (NLS) for installation and use on machines configured for the following international languages:
Chinese Simplified (zh-cn)
Chinese Traditional (zn-tw)
French (fr)
German (de)
Japanese (ja)
HINT:Other international versions have limited support. Updating system files could be affected in languages other than those listed above.
Localized online documentation is available in these languages, as well as in Spanish (es).
To use the Web Interface in one of these languages, see Configuring Language Settings for International Versions.
Most of your interaction with the product takes place through the browser-based Web Interface.
The supported browsers are:
Google Chrome, version 34.0 and later
Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 11.0 and later
Mozilla Firefox, version 29.0 and later
NOTE:JavaScript (Active Scripting) must be enabled in your browser.
To use the PlateSpin Forge Web Interface in one of the supported international languages, see Configuring Language Settings for International Versions.