Marathon Computer FTvirtual Server User Manual

To address the need for continuous availability of mission-critical applica-
tions, Marathon Technologies has designed its FTvirtual Server software to 
work with blade server configurations as well as traditional servers. 

Marathon software harnesses the redundancy provided by two BladeCenter 
servers to create a true, fault- tolerant environment for Windows applica-
tions.This is accomplished by loading the Marathon software on any two 
blade servers and interconnecting them via the BladeCenter’s integrated 
chassis  switching matrix. The Marathon software synchronizes the two 
servers and creates a virtual application environment that runs on both 
servers simultaneously. If either server in the connected pair fails, the appli-
cation environment continues to function uninterrupted, using the process-
ing power of the other. Unlike typical clustering technologies which require 
seconds or even minutes to “fail-over” application processing and may 
incure data loss, there is no failover with Marathon software, so there is no 
downtime.

The result is a truely fault-tolerant Windows environment for BladeCenter 
configurations. Enterprises get all the cost savings and operational efficien-
cies of the BladeCenter while protecting their business-critical Windows 
applications and data, even in the event of a blade failure.

Blade servers are helping companies save money and increase efficiency 
and flexibility in their data centers. However, without adequate fault protec-
tion, these benefits are soon lost in the event of downtime. Marathon’s 
FTvirtual Server software delivers a simple, affordable way to protect impor-
tant applications and data running on IBM eServer BladeCenter configura-
tions.