Zero-Downtime Upgrades

Solutions > High Availability > Zero-Downtime Upgrades

Perform Upgrades with No Downtime

HVR allows zero-downtime upgrades to be performed on a production system.

Zero-downtime upgrade is done the same way as zero-downtime maintenance, namely by switching end-users from the production system to a replica which HVR maintains for Business Continuity ("BC"). After the upgrade is complete HVR will synchronize between the production and BC systems and then end-users can revert back to the production system.

Upgrades can be;

• new hardware
• a new Operating System
• a new DBMS version
• a new release of the application

Customers with HVR installed for High Availability are able to avoid all downtime that would otherwise need to be planned for an upgrade. But a customer without HVR installed can also rent HVR for the time needed to perform a zero-downtime upgrade.

Mitigate Upgrade Risk

Upgrades are often seen as "planned downtime" but in practice each upgrade carries a significant risk of unplanned downtime, if the new system does not perform as required. A zero-downtime upgrade performed using HVR also removes this risk of unplanned downtime because system testing doesn't have to be rushed and after the upgrade HVR will keep the "BC" system in sync so it can be used as a safety-net in case of emergencies.