{"id":2233,"date":"2026-03-26T10:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitnext.pixdev.hu\/?p=2233"},"modified":"2026-09-11T07:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T05:19:26","slug":"vmware-based-failover-cluster-for-commercial-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/vmware-alapu-failover-cluster-kiepitese-kereskedelmi-infrastrukturahoz\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a VMware failover cluster for retail infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"bn-article-body\">\n<p class=\"bn-article-lead\">A VMware environment built on two Dell servers and shared storage supports a retail business's core systems. We explain how the design helps handle failures, separate services and provide backups.<\/p>\n<details class=\"bn-article-toc\">\n<summary>Contents<\/summary>\n<nav aria-label=\"Contents\">\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"#resz-1-a-feladat-az-uzletmenet-ne-egyetlen-szerveren-muljon\">The task: reducing dependence on a single server<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#resz-2-hogyan-mukodik-a-megoldas\">How does the solution work?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#resz-3-kulon-rendszer-minden-fontos-feladatra\">A separate system for each important task<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#resz-4-mentes-es-hozzaferesvedelem\">Backup and access protection<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#resz-5-mit-nyert-ezzel-a-vallalkozas\">What did the business gain?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/nav>\n<\/details>\n<h2 id=\"resz-1-a-feladat-az-uzletmenet-ne-egyetlen-szerveren-muljon\">The task: reducing dependence on a single server<\/h2>\n<p>The retail business used several important services: Windows systems, shared files, printing, an SQL database and an online shop. It needed infrastructure that would allow these services to be restored even if a physical server failed.<\/p>\n<p>BitNext built a VMware environment consisting of two Dell servers and shared storage. The services were placed on separate virtual machines, allowing them to be managed and maintained independently.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"resz-2-hogyan-mukodik-a-megoldas\">How does the solution work?<\/h2>\n<p>The two physical servers form a cooperating group known as a cluster. Both can access the virtual machines on the shared storage.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Two servers provide the computing capacity.<\/strong> Workloads can be distributed between them, and another machine is available to restart the virtual machines from a failed server.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Shared storage holds the virtual disks.<\/strong> Both servers connect to the same storage environment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The system is managed centrally.<\/strong> VMware vCenter provides an overview of the servers and virtual machines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If hardware fails, VMware HA can automatically restart the affected virtual machines on the other server. This reduces manual recovery work; because restarting takes time, it does not mean uninterrupted operation for every service.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"resz-3-kulon-rendszer-minden-fontos-feladatra\">A separate system for each important task<\/h2>\n<div class=\"bn-article-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th scope=\"col\">Service<\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\">Role in the business<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Windows servers<\/td>\n<td>Managing users, permissions and essential network services.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>File server<\/td>\n<td>Storing shared documents and controlling storage usage.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Print server<\/td>\n<td>Managing company printers centrally.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>SQL database<\/td>\n<td>Serving business application data, with database-level redundancy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Online shop<\/td>\n<td>A separate Linux environment for online sales.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Separating the services makes operations easier to understand: updates or troubleshooting for an individual system can be carried out independently.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"resz-4-mentes-es-hozzaferesvedelem\">Backup and access protection<\/h2>\n<p>High availability and backup serve different purposes. Failover between servers helps address hardware failures; separately stored backups may be needed after data corruption or accidental deletion, for example.<\/p>\n<p>The design includes backups to an external backup server and network separation. Administration, customer traffic and database connections operate in separate network segments, controlled by firewall rules.<\/p>\n<p>Snapshots help record a previous state, but they do not replace separately stored backups on their own.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"resz-5-mit-nyert-ezzel-a-vallalkozas\">What did the business gain?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Less dependence on a single physical machine:<\/strong> if a server fails, another is available to restart the affected systems.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clearer operations:<\/strong> services run on separate virtual machines and can be managed centrally.<\/li>\n<li><strong>More predictable expansion and maintenance:<\/strong> capacity changes and updates to individual services can be coordinated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Multiple layers of protection:<\/strong> server redundancy is complemented by backups and controlled network access.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<details class=\"bn-article-details\">\n<summary>Technical details<\/summary>\n<div class=\"bn-article-table\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th scope=\"col\">Component<\/th>\n<th scope=\"col\">Configuration<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Physical servers<\/td>\n<td>2 \u00d7 Dell PowerEdge R750; each server has 2 \u00d7 Intel Xeon processors and 128 GB of memory.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Shared storage<\/td>\n<td>Dell EMC Unity XT 380, 10 TB SSD, RAID10; iSCSI connections to both servers.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Virtualisation<\/td>\n<td>VMware vSphere 8.0, ESXi and vCenter Server; HA and DRS features.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Windows environment<\/td>\n<td>Active Directory, DNS and DHCP; file services with DFS replication and quotas, central printing with Group Policy.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Database and online shop<\/td>\n<td>SQL Server 2022 AlwaysOn; a separate Linux LAMP environment, reverse proxy and CDN.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Backup and networking<\/td>\n<td>Acronis backups to an external backup server; separate networks for administration, customer traffic and the database.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/details>\n<div class=\"bn-article-cta\">\n<p>Want a more reliable server environment for your business? Tell us which systems you use, and we will help plan the right infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"elementor-button\" href=\"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/contact\/#kapcsolatiform\">REQUEST A QUOTE<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A VMware environment built on two Dell servers and shared storage supports a retail business's core systems. We explain how the design helps handle failures, separate services and provide backups.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esettanulmany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2233"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2564,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2233\/revisions\/2564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitnext.hu\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}