By collaborating with Microsoft on operating system availability - and with more than 25 years of ensuring uptime - no other vendor is better prepared than Stratus Technologies to help you maximize the availability of your Windows-based systems. Here's how:

• Stratus ftServer Series failsafe system software adds to the high reliability of Microsoft^® Windows^® server operating systems while remaining fully application binary interface (ABI)-compatible with these standard environments.
• Stratus ftServer Series systems pass the same rigorous Windows Hardware Compatibility Tests (HCT) as other servers - your Windows applications will run compatibly on our systems.
• Windows-based applications automatically take advantage of the W Series family's Continuous Processing^® features, including our lockstep technology and ActiveServiceTM architecture.
• Stratus failsafe software works in concert with our fault-tolerant, replicated hardware components to preempt  problems caused by transient hardware errors. Unlike typical servers or clusters, ftServer Series hardware and software handles such errors transparently, shielding the operating system, middleware, and application software. In-memory data is constantly protected and maintained.

Failsafe ftServer Series software features:

Active Upgrade Technology

This first-of-its-kind technology enables customers to perform online upgrades and critical operating system hot fixes without having to take the server or application offline for extended periods.

Learn more about Active Upgrade Technology.

Open-driver technology

Hardened device drivers considerably strengthen availability protection and data integrity in your Windows environment. This value-added software manages replicated PCI I/O interfaces and ensures uninterrupted system operation if an I/O interface should fail.  Hardening also prevents faults in driver hardware and software from compromising data integrity.

With ftServer Series System Software for Microsoft Windows Server 2003, embedded open-driver technology allows third-party device drivers that pass Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) tests to take advantage of these hardening features without requiring Stratus-specific code or calls written into the driver software.

Quick dump

Your ftServer Series system is rapidly restarted in the event of an operating system outage, without sacrificing the information needed to analyze the cause. The server keeps one replicated CPU/memory unit offline while restoring the rest of the system to normal production. A full memory dump of the offline CPU/memory unit takes place only after the system and applications are back in operation.

Rapid Disk Resynchronization (RDR)

RDR delivers higher availability through RAID 1+0 for mission-critical applications. Without interruption to the system, the RDR utility continuously sweeps the disks for bad blocks, fixes them, and updates from the mirrored disk. It also remirrors disks faster: if a disk or customer-replaceable unit (CRU) is removed for a brief time, only the changed blocks are remirrored. Full resynchronization of replacement data disks is much faster when using RDR.

Integration with ActiveService™ architecture

Stratus' ActiveService architecture is distinguished by its advanced, continuously available remote service features.  They enable on-demand access to expert support engineers through the Stratus service infrastructure. Customers' support professionals also have access to many capabilities, putting more powerful and robust tools at their disposal for monitoring and troubleshooting mission-critical systems.

ActiveService Access features, built into W Series systems, form a strong foundation for the proactive, technology-enabled service that contributes to the family's outstanding uptime performance. These features fall into three main categories: monitoring, diagnostics, and alerts; system availability and recovery; and remote access adapters.

ftGateway^™ feature

Several ftServer Series systems can share a common dial-up connection to the Stratus ActiveService network. This reduces the need for phone lines and makes it easier and less costly to manage service connections for multiple W Series systems located at a single site. The ActiveService Manager Configuration Wizard is a Web-based utility that generates a configuration file to be applied to each server linked to a given ftGateway connection and simplifies configuration of an ftGateway setup.

Software Availability Manager (SAM)

SAM allows for early corrective action by monitoring the performance of key ftServer Series system components and the status of user applications. It consists of a Windows Service that runs at system startup and a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. You have the flexibility of configuring SAM to send e-mail or execute a program based on the status of applications, specified performance thresholds, or messages sent to the Event Log.

ftServer Management Console (ftSMC)

This user interface lets you configure, control, and generate detailed status information for local and remote ftServer Series systems. The ftSMC is a snap-in to the standard MMC.

Operating system software

Operating system and storage management

In addition to the capabilities provided by the ftServer Series System Software, the Microsoft Windows ServerTM 2003 operating system enhances the availability and functionality of your Stratus ftServer Series servers. The Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system affords you increased availability, performance, and security. Robust storage management is provided by the Logical Disk Manager (LDM), included with the operating system.