Public Relations

Asgent Announces the Release of High Availability Software “RSF-1 for Mac”

- Providing improved high-availability for Mac OS in mission critical environments -

January 21, 2008
Asgent,Inc.

Asgent, Inc. (President & CEO: Takahiro Sugimoto, located in Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), a pioneer in security solutions, today announces the release of “RSF-1 for Mac”, high-availability software developed by High-Availability.com Ltd. (England: C.E.O. Ian Bingle), that enables Mac OS X Server to be used for in redundant configurations mission critical purposes.

■ Background

An increasing number of universities and educational institutes are deploying Mac OS X Server. One prominent example is the University of Tokyo Information Technology Center, which has deployed over 1000 Mac OS clients and 50 Mac OS-based Servers. Mac OS X Server is also increasingly being deployed for use in file servers etc. by creative companies involved in the movie, printing, photo and music industries. However, the IP failover functionality built into Mac OS X Server cannot be used to failover between PowerPC−Intel machines and the failover process also takes time because in the case of server failure the entire configuration is copied over to the backup machine. Therefore, up until now many companies have primarily used operating systems with HA capabilities (Solaris、Linux、Windows etc.) for servers, and Mac OS X Server has not played a role in mission critical environments, leading to demand for an easily deployed HA solution for Mac OS X Server.

It is with these customer needs in mind that Asgent announces the release of “RSF-1 for Mac”. “RSF-1” is high-availability software that minimizes system downtime by automatically switching a failed server over to a backup server. Either “one-to-one” or “one-to-many” configurations between the operational server and backup servers are possible, so an individual machine can be allocated as a backup for multiple other servers, resulting in lower costs for the enterprise. Newly available Mac OS support will enable customers in Mac-based work environments to deploy servers using Mac OS X Server, reducing the costs of deployment and operation. “RSF-1 for Mac” 30-day evaluation versions can be obtained from the Asgent homepage (http://www.asgent.co.jp/).

■ RSF-1 for Mac

Start of Shipping： February 1st, 2008

Sales Target： 100 sets (initial year)

Price: ¥490,000〜

[Main functions/features]

• Prevent internal system shutdown by providing failure redundancy for multiple application servers (web server, file server etc.)

• Minimize operational downtime, enabling maintenance to be performed during day-to-day operation

• Multistage cluster configurations can be created providing multiple backup machines for individual servers

• E-mail, sound files etc. can be sent to the administrator to notify of server failure

• Support for maximum 16 servers, 128 services

[System Requirements]

• Mac OS 10.4

• PowerPC G4 or above (Intel Multi Core Processor supported） ※Conforms with Mac OS X Server hardware requirements

• Ethernet (RJ-45 or FireWire)

• Remote configuration possible via Telnet or SSH