High-Availability Windows® Web Hosting

You're a web hosting company, or other organization, that needs high-availability Windows web hosting, and you need it yesterday. In previous versions of Internet Information Services (IIS), administrators had to contend with time-consuming, advanced configurations, replication of content and COM components, and server configuration synchronization.

Specific problems with previous IIS versions included the following:

  • Metabase was machine-specific; paths were hard-coded.
  • Metabase ACLs had to be fixed because of machine-specific SIDs.
  • There were no built-in synchronization or replication tools.

Enkompass has simplified the setup procedure and, in conjunction with Windows Server® 2008, provides the solution to these problems. By using shared storage and the IIS Shared Configuration, web farms can provide both single and multiple website hosting. The hassles of configuration and advanced setups have been removed and, when deploying a multi-server Enkompass solution with shared storage, accomplishing high availability becomes easy.

Top features of Enkompass
failover hosting

1. Zero file replication requirements

Centrally located files and configuration files allow Enkompass to re-route IPs and configurations, and utilize files through the SAN device.

2. Zero merging of advanced configuration files

Configuration files needed to operate IIS are also centrally located, meaning that if a failure does occur, websites can be brought back online in a matter of seconds.

3. Ability to take servers offline anytime

Software updates and hardware upgrades can happen without the need for website downtime. Enkompass allows administrators to manually shift websites to another server, perform the updates, and then move them back, with little to no downtime.

4. Simple setup and management

In the past, advanced Windows hosting clusters have required a team of experts to configure, maintain, and tweak to perfection. Enkompass considers high availability a "default" feature, and as such, enabling it is easy and simple.