PolyServe replacement options

  • While it seems HP still has not made the official announcement, some of us have had conversations with HP representatives confirming that PolyServe for SQL Server is now on the End Of Life path. SQL Server 2008 R2 will not be supported. I would appreciate tips from anybody about what they are considering for a replacement. A couple of people on the HP forum mentioned Sanbolic Melio FS.

  • My enterprise is faced with implementing DR for Polyserve, then having to rip out and replace Polyserve at HQ and DR, so we are looking for a solution that will allow database engine and analysis services to function within a cluster that can do DR as well, and hopefully have the equivalent of the Polyserve Aliasing service.

  • Charlotte Bentley (4/21/2011)


    While it seems HP still has not made the official announcement, some of us have had conversations with HP representatives confirming that PolyServe for SQL Server is now on the End Of Life path. SQL Server 2008 R2 will not be supported. I would appreciate tips from anybody about what they are considering for a replacement. A couple of people on the HP forum mentioned Sanbolic Melio FS.

    Charlotte do you have information more. I know you said its not made official yet but i like to know some sources for this information,

    Why. As the company iam working for we have polyserve envoriment 11 instances (SQL2005) 4 hosts and are working on a plan to get SQL 2008 on it and preferable R2 instance. I need to check again with our polyserve admins but afaik the SQL 2008 is supported anyhow but it will kinda be a pain if the stopped supporting R2

    any info is welcome

  • We had a conference call with the HP storage systems sales rep for our area and a technical specialist. They said additional licenses could be purchased through June 30, 2011, and the technical support would be continued for 3 years. I'm not sure when the clock started on the 3 years, I'm sure it isn't 3 years after June 30. In any case, I figure the experienced personnel will be moving on to other opportunities before the 3 years is up. They sent me a template of the form letter they thought had been sent to customers. Unfortunately, I have no idea where I filed it. I don't think we ever received an official, personalized copy.

  • I've been told by two different HP Polyserve support techs (but not from official announcement, we were give a Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement which I've not yet signed) that there is not and won't be any development to support SQL Server 2008 R2, so SQL Server 2008 is the last supported SQL Server version for Polyserve apparently. Kind of kills any interest in moving forwared with the product.

    Sooo, anyone and everyone please share research, experiences, thoughts, and wishes for a Polyserve for SQL Server replacement platform, especially one that can address the needs of Continuous Data Protection and Disaster Recovery. I'm needing something that can do the same as the Polyserve Instance Aliasing hopefully.

    Thanks!

  • HP mucked me about for so long, going back to october last year, that I had no choice but implement 2 new polyserve cluster in the US and Australia.

    US

    The install of Polyserve 4.1 on a DELL R710 running Windows 2008 R2 forces the server into a reboot cycle when the server is rebooted as requested immediately after the install. Each cycle gets to the windows green bar then reboot. Storage is fibre EMC using qlogic hba

    AUS

    The install of Polyserve 4.1 on a DELL R710 running Windows 2008 R2

    has worked ok, however everytime i try to use the Multi-Node Installer to install SQL 2008 it fails almost immediately with 17000 Generic Error. Storage is Equalogic iSCSI.

    Any help on the above issues would be greatly appreciated plus any views on related products such as Sanbolic Melio and any others if they are out there.

    Regards,

    Chris

  • Like most polyserve users I am dismayed at just how badly HP has handled what has been for us a fantastic product. They should be ashamed.

    My management is so angry that we are considering pulling all HP products from our enterprise. To be fair this has been a long time coming but how can we invest in HP technologies when they EOL something so suddenly that is so key to our environment?

    Sanbolic's Melio seems the best alternative but it's SQL management is nowhere near as nice as Polyserve's.

    What are others trying?

  • Has anybody tried to run Quest Software's Performance Analysis on instances on PS?

  • Our 3 years is up and we are needing to renew our HP contract, received the bill and everything, curious what we should do? It is a one year contract. I assume they still will have someone around in that year for support calls and maybe next year we can start looking at our choices?

  • I called HP support recently for help getting Quest's Performance Analysis to work in the PS "clustered" environment and got very good help. It required escalation to "development" which was done voluntarily.

  • We are actively looking at replacements now - what stinks is that we have to muddle ahead with implementing Polyserve for SQL at our DR facility as-is, wasting resources.

  • I've gotten it running - the help PDF for the current release "PA_SQL_Server_Agent_Installer_User_Guide.pdf" has config info for Polyserve. I've used the Instance Alias for the sql server name rather than the "VirtualSQLServerName\InstanceName:portnumber" format and it has worked flawlessly. What stinks however is that each monitoring instance of the PA Agent service has to be installed as a separate service and on its own portnumber. So one PA Agent service instance+port for each SQL Server instance. Try keeping that straight with 48 instances, ugh!

    I do run the repository off-cluster however on a separate standalone VM running SQL 2008 R2.

  • I should have added the kicker I learned from HP support. There need to be two batch files to start and stop the QuestLauncher (QAM Launcher) service when the instance starts or stops. The Quest manual mentions it, but I had to use "C:\WINDOWS\system32et.exe start QuestLauncher3566" instead of just "net start QuestLauncher3566" like the manual says. Maybe that is due to the 64-bit Windows server environment.

    (I'm struggling with the text editor here. I just can't make my correction stick. Back slash 'n' must be a special code. The path should have "system32 [back slash] net.exe")

    And yes, every instance has to have its own port number in spite of documents one can find on the HP web site that say multiple instances can use the same port. Maybe the fact that PS is sort of a cluster makes the difference.

  • I had heard from an HP employee(actually some sales guy) that the Polyserve is being retired....anybody know for sure? their website doesn't say much..

    Paresh Motiwala Manager of Data Team, Big Data Enthusiast, ex DBA

  • HP still has not made an announcement either way, I've been waiting since last year. I think June 2011(?) was the last time they were going to sell "new" licenses with 3 year support for them. I just renewed my licenses for one more year in hopes that by this time next year I know HP's direction. I have a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing and HP in general. We have a lot of instances tied up in this product and its going to be a nightmare to go another way (if I knew what way that would be?).

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 45 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply