RE: High Availability PC Based Home Automation

[craig <craigc.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> So, people who are running PC-Based Home Automation Systems - -
what
> lengths
> to you go to to ensure it's always available, and how do you implement
> it?

Ensure you use reliable 'branded' hardware with established drivers &
plugins.

Use redundancy in the hardware, (eg raid, psu, etc) & UPS.

Only install the bare minimum software and drivers required, after testing
on a duplicate test system.

Monitor the software and environment.

> A potential client wants/needs a Very High Availability
home-automation
> solution (with Windows based software at the heart of it)- to the
> extent
> that he's considering purchasing 2 of every controller required (CM11,
> RAV232+, Dupline MasterGenerator, Cbus PAC etc etc) - - and connecting
> them
> to separate servers in an active-active or active-passive arrangement.
>
> Dedicated load balancing hardware will/may be placed "in
between".
>
> A Windows Cluster is one possibilty.
>
> 2 distinct servers set up with SQL replication is another.

I think you will struggle with this unless all the software, plugins,
network protocols, etc have been designed to be cluster aware. Enterprise
software used in corporates has been designed from the ground up to be used
in a cluster, to allow for scalability. Im not sure 'Home' windows software
has been through the same design principles.

BTW - If the client wants a highly available system, I try to would steer
them away from a CM11 :)





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