Huawei strengthens collaboration with SUSE to build Mission Critical Server

Huawei and SUSE have announced expansion of their partnership, as the companies will collaborate to build a more reliable Mission Critical Server, setting a new standard for reliability. It will lead the way as a Mission Critical Server that supports memory module hot swap, helping customers slash unplanned maintenance time while keeping their production systems up and running.

The solution will run on Huawei's 16-/32-socket (one socket means one processor) KunLun Mission Critical Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. It strengthens both companies' lineup of enterprise mission-critical offerings and underscores their commitment to building highly reliable, high-performing mission-critical solutions for global enterprise customers.

As a pioneer in the open-source software industry, SUSE's enterprise Linux expertise delivers unrivalled RAS assurance for the x86 platform. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server running on KunLun builds on the SUSE enterprise-class Linux OS kernels and synergizes with the bottom-layer firmware provided by KunLun. This combination enables efficient coordination between the Linux kernel ACPI driver module, the memory hot swap module, and the kernel memory management subsystem. In addition, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server works seamlessly with the optimized KunLun BIOS process, together constituting a highly automated, reliable hot swap solution secured from kernels all the way through to user-mode tools. This will allow users of validated applications to physically add or remove core components such as memory modules online without shutting down the system, thereby keeping the mission-critical services up and running all the time.

Qiu Long, President of the Huawei IT Server Product Line, said, "Huawei is teaming up with SUSE to jointly launch the in-memory computing hot swap solution built on the Huawei 16-/32-socket KunLun Mission Critical Server and the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server RAS enhanced feature package. This solution will ensure continuous, stable running of enterprise business-critical applications and reduce unplanned downtime. Supporting memory online maintenance, it reduces unplanned system outage caused by memory faults to almost zero, thereby boosting the reliability of enterprise-critical applications."

The Huawei KunLun Mission Critical Server is specifically engineered for critical workloads such as enterprise database, decision support, and business processing. Supporting 8, 16, or 32 Intel processors with up to 32TB in-memory computing, the KunLun server is capable of effortlessly processing massive amounts of data even in large-scale in-memory database systems. KunLun adopts Huawei's innovative reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS 2.0) technologies to achieve a 3,000-per cent improvement in reliability.

Such technologies include kPar physical partitioning, memory module hot swap, and Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA). In addition, Huawei's partnership with other partners has produced various solutions addressing disaster recovery (DR), high availability (HA), and backup. These solutions ensure high reliability coupled with intelligent fault detection and recovery in KunLun servers, minimizing server downtime.

"SUSE values our joint innovation with Huawei," said Ralf Flaxa, SUSE President of Engineering. "Having support and coordination from the bottom-layer hardware structural design and BIOS software sides is integral to SUSE's innovations around the OS RAS features. The appliance based on the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server RAS enhanced feature package and the Huawei KunLun Mission Critical Server embodies the results of our joint innovation, and it will deliver unparalleled reliability to large enterprise customers."

Current solutions jointly developed by Huawei and SUSE have been recognized and trusted by customers globally. SUSE Linux Enterprise running on Huawei servers is in widespread use across various industries, including retail, manufacturing, energy, hi-tech, and finance.