There are a number of emerging hardware and software technologies that impact the usage and designs of highly available systems. OpenSAF-based service availability middleware is very complementary to virtualization, multi-core and many other advanced hardware and software technologies. This session will explain the broader technology landscape and will educate on how high availability (HA) and service availability (SA) fit in.

1. OpenSAF and alternate solutions: How does
OpenSAF complement other technologies such as
virtualization?
Corey Minyard
Carrier Grade Edition
Architect
MontaVista Software,
LLC

2. Magic HA Dust
 Everyone's goal: Free
HA. Just write your
application, use
standard off-the-shelf
hardware and libraries,
and sprinkle magic HA
dust on it.
 Nobody has found any
magic HA dust.
 Nobody ever will.

3. Some Past Attempts
 Lockstep CPUs
 Processors are no longer 100% deterministic
 Active-Active (State Machine) Replications
 Need a method to bring replicas into sync
 Processes must be 100% deterministic – hard with
threads
 Process Memory Synchronization
 High bandwidth
 Lack of RT determinism
 But mostly... Data sync is only one small part of the
problem

4. Virtualization
 Virtualization for HA is
like Process Memory
Synchronization.
Nothing new.
 Shoveling all the bits
from one machine to
another is expensive.
 It is a useful tool, but
like the others, only one
part of the solution.

5. Besides Data Replication...
 H/W management
 System monitoring and predictive
failure analysis
 Security
 IPC
 Locking
 Logging
 System configuration
 Availability management
 Software management
 Upgrade (live!)
 Post mortem
...etc

6. Why the Focus on Data Replication?
 Self-contained,
interesting,
tractable
 Seems to solve
most of the
problem
 An easy distraction
from all the other
SA issues

7. OpenSAF
 Provides many of
the tools required
for Service
Availability
 Portable, modular,
holistic solutions
 Provides levels of
integration for
applications

8. OpenSAF and Virtualization
Not an either-or, but an if-and: If virtualization is appropriate,
then OpenSAF and virtualization may be used together for
a more complete solution.
Proxies can be used to integrate a virtual machine into the
OpenSAF availability framework. Other parts of OpenSAF
may be used inside the virtual machine as appropriate.

9. OpenSAF and Virtualization
OpenSAF
Virtual Machine
Proxy Application
Component
AMF
For instance, a Proxy Component, which is SAF
aware, can represent the virtual machine and the
application running in it as a component.
More complex systems may require more complex
configurations using contained components and such.
See the AMF spec for details.

10. Questions?