Redundancy & High Availability

Hardware solutions can vary significantly in complexity (and thus in price) depending on the desired level of redundancy. An optional software application for backup and redundancy solution is AirBack. In the case of any network failure playout can be done locally.

Airback

Airback provides a radio station with the ability to secure its broadcasting operations in case of failure of its main system. The essential function of AirBack is to automatically duplicate the database including soundfiles from the main server to a backup system (another server, or a workstation), all the material (schedules, titles and audio) needed to continue broadcasting for a given period of time, in case the main system fails. AirBack is an alternate or complementary solution to other redundancy solutions such as mirrored servers.

Continuous broadcasting

AirBack provides the ability to continue broadcasting out of a single stand-alone workstation. The security it offers is superior to that offered by server mirroring, as it is still possible to broadcast in case of a total network failure.

Automatic transfers

AirBack transfers schedules, titles and audio automatically and does not require any human intervention.

Intuitive configuration

The administrator can configure the transfer through a user-friendly interface. He or she does not require any database knowledge.

No confusion in case of emergency

In case of emergency, the user will be able to handle the system without any confusion. For example, warning messages appear with an action suggestion.

High Avaliabilty

For large installations the server architecture of OmniPlayer can be fully redundant with the SQL database platform based on the principle of High Availability. While two database servers run a copy of the database, only the primary database runs a read-write copy. The other database server, the mirror server, runs a read-only copy of the database. The arbiter server does not run any database copies. Instead, the arbiter server determines which of the database servers act as the primary database. If the primary database server becomes unavailable for whatever reason, the arbiter directs the mirror database server to assume the role of the primary.

The mirroring system can help reduce downtime of databases. When maintenance takes place on servers or if issues arise with a server, the mirror database server can take over as the primary without requiring any interaction from administrators and with minimal downtime. Any connections from OmniPlayer clients will automatically reconnect to the mirror server without user intervention.