IBM Systems and TechnologyData Sheet

Proven availability for an on demand environment

IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Resiliency without downtime

Highlights● ●IBM hardware solution for high availability and disaster recovery

● ●Easy to use, automated high availability and disaster recovery operations

● ●Protect critical business applications from outages; planned or unplanned

Once your IBM PowerHA® SystemMirror solution is deployed, there’s very little for you to do regarding the management and status of the resilient data between the primary and secondary nodes in the cluster.

PowerHA SystemMirror for i is the IBM Power Systems™ offering for high availability and disaster recovery. It’s an IBM storage-based clustering solution deployed by clients large and small around the world.

A dynamic infrastructure in a modern IT organization provides solutions that address cost, manage risk, and improve service. One of the founda-tional elements for providing a dynamic infrastructure is business resil-iency. Your customers expect access to business-critical applications and data 24×7 and your operating budgets demand the efficient use of capital, equipment and labor. With PowerHA SystemMirror for i, you are able to deploy a solution that addresses both your storage requirements and high availability requirements with one integrated configuration that is both robust and easy to use.

PowerHA SystemMirror for i is the integrated IBM storage-based clustering solution for high availability and disaster recovery. Data and applications are deployed into storage pools (called independent auxiliary storage pools or IASPs). IASPs can be deployed using either internal or external storage. At any time the nodes in the cluster can switch roles

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and become either a primary or secondary node. PowerHA SystemMirror is designed for and intended to be used for on demand role swap operations. Some of our clients have their PowerHA cluster setup to role swap once a week automatically.

Data in an IASP is available to the systems in a cluster via LUN-level switching or it is mirrored real time via either host-based mirroring over IP or via storage server-based mirroring. The host-based mirroring solution for IBM i is called geographic mirroring. Geographic mirroring is available in either synchro-nous or asynchronous mode with IBM i 7.1. The IBM storage server-based mirroring solutions are Metro Mirror and Global Mirror. In either case, data is paged from mainstore to the disk in an IASP and then mirrored (or switched) between nodes in the cluster. The PowerHA SystemMirror solution is an extension of the IBM i storage management architecture.

Once your PowerHA SystemMirror solution is deployed, there’s very little for you to do regarding the management and status of the resilient data between the primary and secondary nodes in the cluster. The data mirroring between systems in a cluster is a mechanism that is inherently self managing; similar in concept to disk-level mirroring within a disk subsystem. The practical benefit is that your IASP data is always ready to be switched to another system in the cluster. Not only is this a big savings in manpower, it is also peace of mind.

Any shop with an HA or DR solution should conduct regular role swap operations. It needs to be an inherent part of your operations. If you’re struggling with a solution that takes time and manpower to conduct role swap operations, you need to take a careful look at PowerHA SystemMirror for i.

PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Standard EditionPowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i 7.1 is the next generation of PowerHA and is available in one of two packages; the PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Standard Edition, and the PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Enterprise Edition. This offering approach was developed to give more price/value gran-ularity as well as to enable clients to choose between a solution with a data center focus or a more advanced solution capability that includes the Standard Edition function plus extensions that enable multiple-site deployments.

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The IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Standard Edition helps you to protect your critical business applications from outages in the data center (single site solution), planned or unplanned. The Standard Edition provides reliable monitoring, failure detection and automated recovery of business application environments to backup resources, exploiting IBM’s suite of disk storage solutions which provide the data resiliency founda-tion. IBM developers continuously invent, deploy, integrate and test to refine the usability and robustness of PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i.

PowerHA SystemMirror provides the capability to monitor numerous soft and hard errors from various event sources such as HMC, system operations, application failure or utility power loss enabling either automated or operator initiated actions. With IBM i 7.1 PowerHA SystemMirror Standard Edition also supports LUN level switching for the DS8000 and IPV6.

PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Enterprise EditionThe PowerHA SystemMirror for IBM i Enterprise Edition includes all of the capabilities of the Standard Edition and more. The Enterprise Edition package enables you to extend your data center solution across two sites. PowerHA SystemMirror Enterprise Edition includes support for DS8000, SVC and V7000 with either Metro Mirror or Global Mirror and with 7.1 of PowerHA SystemMirror, the Enterprise Edition also includes support for geomirroring asynchronous mode. Geomirroring synchronous mode support is included with the PowerHA SystemMirror Standard Edition.

Geographic mirroring is the IBM i host based mirroring over IP network solution that enables small/medium clients to set up a geographically dispersed two node PowerHA SystemMirror cluster using either internal or external disk. The geographic mirroring solution can lower your total cost of ownership in comparison to software replication options in both cost of

acquisition and operational management costs. The introduc-tion of geomirror async mode support with PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 enables clients to extend the PowerHA SystemMirror cluster between sites with virtually unlimited distance.

The Enterprise Edition is essential for clients who must protect themselves from site-wide failures or large-scale disasters by mirroring business-critical data across two sites while enabling automated failover to the remote location. This applies to businesses of any size with multiple sites, regional operations or wherever decentralization of data is desired. The Enterprise Edition offers multiple technologies for achieving long distance data mirroring, failover and resynchronization.

●● ● The Enterprise Edition with the included geographic mirroring option provides asynchronous data mirroring and failover to remote sites. Users deployed with the Standard Edition can readily expand capabilities with the Enterprise Edition to deploy a highly resilient geographically dispersed environment.

●● ● The Enterprise Edition supports Metro Mirror and Global Mirror with the DS8000®, the SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and the Storwize® V7000 IBM Storage Servers, enabling automatic failover or planned switchover for semi-annual compliance testing. By automating the management of Metro Mirror or Global Mirror, recovery time is mini-mized after an outage, regardless of whether the clustered environment is local or geographically dispersed. The Enterprise Edition, in combination with Metro Mirror or Global Mirror, manages a clustered environment to allow mirroring of critical data to be maintained at all times. And let’s not forget about FlashCopy® which whether used with either the Standard Edition or the Enterprise Edition enables you to create a point in time copy with almost no disruption to your production environment; that save window issue is gone. You can now backup to tape at your convenience.

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For clients wishing to support more complex configurations such as a campus two node cluster with Metro Mirror in combination with a remote third node connected via Global Mirror; IBM offers the Advanced Copy Services for PowerHA option. This is a lab services offering that enables a customized configuration to support your DS8000 PowerHA SystemMirror solution environment. The Advanced Copy Services for PowerHA automates virtually all of your HA/DR operations including Flash Copy.

Gaining the IBM advantagePowerHA high availability solutions from IBM provide clients the confidence that comes from integrated design and testing. IBM PowerHA solutions are designed as an integrated exten-sion of the operating system environment. This reduces the risk of failures resulting from combining disparate components from multiple vendors and can be a critical factor for business environments. IBM PowerHA high availability solutions pro-vide the advantage of IBM Power Systems, the IBM AIX® and IBM i operating systems, IBM System Storage® offerings and the PowerHA SystemMirror offering.

IBM servers with PowerHA clusters are backed by comprehen-sive offerings and resources that provide value at every stage of IT implementation. These include High Availability Cluster

Implementation Services, an offering that provides basic and customized assistance for installation of PowerHA clusters. This service is customizable with the following elements:

●● ● High Availability Cluster Proof of Concept Review●● ● The Advanced Copy Services for PowerHA offering

from IBM Lab Services●● ● Planning and design of an Availability Cluster●● ● Installation and configuration of an Availability Cluster●● ● Application integration assistance●● ● Development and execution of a Cluster Test Plan●● ● Enhanced monitoring and reporting setup●● ● Operations planning and operations documentation

development●● ● Migration/upgrades services●● ● The Power Systems Availability Factory

With the IBM i CBU for PowerHA, when you acquire the IBM i CBU and PowerHA together, IBM includes three days of services to help you get well on your way to PowerHA.

Based on an assessment of the complete system environment, IBM availability experts can design a client solution to meet the target availability level for on-demand business needs.

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Feature Benefits

Shared (active/passive) storage clustering IBM PowerHA enables high availability and disaster recovery solutions based on disk storage pools

●● ● Storage pools (IASPs) are switched or mirrored real time between systems in a cluster. With no out-of-sync conditions and no lag time on the backup system, you’re ready to role swap on demand.

High Availability IASPs are switched and/or mirrored between primary and secondary nodes in the cluster

●● ● Simple on-demand role swap and failover operations. Designed for and used by clients worldwide to deploy trouble free HA operations.

Disaster Recovery All data in a storage pool can be mirrored over unlimited distance using Global Mirror and the DS8000, SVC or the Storwize V7000 with PowerHA for i

●● ● Simple on demand role swap or failover operations over unlimited distance. Extend your PowerHA data center experience over an unlimited distance.

Geographic Mirroring IBM i host-based mirroring between data in IASPs

●● ● Inexpensive easy-to-use, on-demand role swap operation, no day-to-day maintenance.

Metro Mirror ●● ● Storage based Mirroring means that even if the system in your cluster is down, the Synchronous DS8000, SVC or V7000 hosted mirroring for mirroring between storage servers keeps on going, thus no exposure to a second-your PowerHA cluster ary outage and no resync operations after the down system is brought back into the

HA cluster.

Global Mirror Asynchronous DS8000, SVC or V7000 hosted Mirroring for your PowerHA disaster recovery cluster

●● ● Extend your PowerHA data center solution to unlimited distances with the same basic characteristics of hands-off operations and on-demand role swap operations.

Flash copy ●● ● Create “instantaneous” copies of your IASP to use for offline backups to tape PowerHA i also allows you to simply and quickly conduct without disrupting your production environment.flash copy operations on your DS8000, SVC or V7000 from your user interface

Data SheetProven availability for an on demand environmentIBM Systems and Technology

For more informationTo learn more about PowerHA for IBM i for Power® servers, please contact your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website: ibm.com/systems/power/software/availability

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