1.2 Supported Configurations

1.2.1 Supported Windows Workloads

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

Server Class workloads

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

Including domain controllers (DC) and Small Business Server (SBS) editions
  • Windows Server 2003 latest SP (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2003 latest SP (32-bit)
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (64-bit)
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 (32-bit)

Including domain controllers (DC) and Small Business Server (SBS) editions

Windows Server 2000 SP4 (32-bit)

 

Workstation Class workloads

Windows 7

Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions only

Windows Vista

Windows XP

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.

1.2.2 Supported Linux Workloads

PlateSpin Forge supports a number of Linux distributions.

Replication is done at the block level, for which your PlateSpin software requires a blkwatch module compiled for a particular Linux distribution being protected.

Some of the supported Linux versions require that you compile the PlateSpin blkwatch module for your specific kernel. Those workloads are called out explicitly.

Table 1-2 Supported Linux Workloads

Operating System

Remarks

Linux Server class workloads

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.0-5.5, 6.0-6.2

 

RHEL 5.6-5.8, 6.3

You must compile the PlateSpin blkwatch module before inventorying these workloads.

See KB Article 7005873.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 9, 10, 11 (SP1, SP2, SP3)

NOTE:Kernel version 3.0.13-0.27-pae of SLES 11 SP2 is not supported. Please upgrade to kernel version 3.0.51-0.7.9-pae or later before inventorying the workload.

  • Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES) 11 SP1 and SP2

  • OES 2 (SP2, SP3)

Oracle Enterprise Linux (OEL)

  • Same level of support as that for workloads running RHEL.

  • Workloads using the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel are not supported.

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.

1.2.3 Supported VM Containers

PlateSpin Forge ships with a VMware ESX 4.1, the appliance host serving as the hypervisor component of the product.