PlateSpin Forge supports most Windows-based workloads.
Both file-level and block-level replication are supported, with certain restrictions. See Section 6.3, Data Transfer.
Table 1-1 Supported Windows Workloads
|
Operating System |
Remarks |
|---|---|
|
Servers |
|
|
|
|
Including domain controllers (DC) and Small Business Server (SBS) editions |
|
Windows 2003 requires SP1 or higher for block-based replication. |
|
Clusters |
|
|
Windows 2008 R2 Server-based Microsoft Failover Cluster |
|
|
Desktops |
|
|
WARNING:You must select the High Performance power plan on the Windows 8 source so that the workload failover and failback function correctly. To configure this power plan from the Windows Control Panel:
|
The following are examples of Forge behavior when protecting and failing back between UEFI and BIOS-based systems:
When transferring 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 – Windows 2003 does not support the UEFI boot mode).
When protecting a UEFI-based source on a BIOS-based target, Forge migrates 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.
PlateSpin Forge supports a number of Linux distributions.
Replication of protected Linux workloads occurs at the block level. PlateSpin Forge software includes pre-compiled versions of the blkwatch module/driver. These are only for non-debug kernels of the following Linux distributions (both 32 and 64 bit):
Table 1-2 Linux Distributions that have a corresponding, pre-compiled blkwatch module/driver
|
Operating System |
Remarks |
|---|---|
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
RedHat Enterprise Linux 6 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 |
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported kernel versions. |
|
See Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge for a list of supported SLES kernel versions. |
|
Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL) |
|
Supported Linux file systems: EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, REISERFS, and NSS (OES 2 workloads).
NOTE:Encrypted volumes of workloads on the source are decrypted in the failover VM.
For a list of Linux distributions for which Forge software has pre-compiled versions of the blkwatch module please, see Section A.0, Linux Distributions Supported by Forge.
If a pre-compiled blkwatch driver doesn’t exist for your distribution, you might able to create a custom blkwatch driver by following the steps found in KB Article 7005873.
PlateSpin Forge ships with VMware ESXi 5.5 GA2 Update 1 as the protection VM container.