Two Complementary Solutions for High Availability on IBM i

Why Would I Want Both?

PowerHA is a great solution for reducing high availability costs and improving on your ability to role swap. Yet, many organizations also benefit from the added flexibility of a logical replication solution like Robot HA. Here are two examples:

Scenario A

Some organizations prefer to duplicate IBM i data to a target business intelligence (BI) partition and have their business analyst work with the data there, so they don’t slow down production. When you use PowerHA, the target system’s independent auxiliary storage pool (IASP) is not available, so organizations need a tool like Robot HA running on the source system in the PowerHA cluster to replicate IBM i data in real time.

Scenario B

PowerHA requires an IASP for replication. It’s usually not difficult to have your business application and its data reside in the IASP, but other applications and operational tools (think security and monitoring) can have a hard time being separated from the IBM i operating system. So, if you want live-copy replication for these products, Robot HA can run in the SYSBAS where these applications reside and create real-time copies of the rules and data associated with this technology.

You will also be using the Admin Domain software that comes with PowerHA to duplicate configuration objects and user profiles. Robot HA can pick up the rest of the library objects left in SYSBAS, those that aren’t replicated by Admin Domain.

How Does the Integration Work?

The integration between PowerHA, Admin Domain, and Robot HA is simple. Fortra works on both products and our developers listen to your needs and have the expertise to help you implement in this area. We have updated our ability to be role swapped with a role swap of PowerHA. Our team has done a great job of documenting the integration process and providing guidance. We also allow for IASP names to be a source for replication, so that you can replicate your business application data out of one IASP and into another IASP on another partition.

Robot HA is installed in SYSBAS and replicates any library or IFS data from SYSBAS to SYSBAS and it can replicate BI data from your IASP to another partition in your network for up-to-the-moment BI access. In general, we don’t usually see organizations having any problems with IFS data and IASPs because most IFS directories can be put into an IASP and be referenced by a symbolic link, but if there is a reason for not putting your IFS into an IASP, Robot HA can replicate IFS data from one SYSBAS to another, too.

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What Do I Get with Robot HA?

Migrate Data On-Prem or to the Cloud

Looking to modernize or consolidate your servers, reorganize your storage, or incorporate cloud technology into your data center? You’ll need a tool to safely and swiftly migrate your irreplaceable IBM i data from your current system to the new target. Local and remote journaling software is the easiest way to accomplish a side-by-side or distance migration while continuing your day-to-day operations and keeping the new environment in sync with your old server.

There’s no risk with Robot HA. You can create an initial copy of your original data, send it to the new target, and run in this side-by-side mode until you feel comfortable making the switch. Robot HA keeps your two systems in sync the whole time, and you can revert back to your original production server at any time without data loss.

Be Ready for Role Swaps

A role swap is an automated process that quickly prepares the backup or target system to take on the role of production and then automatically switches users. The audit routines in Robot HA continuously examine the target database and objects and compare them with production. This ensures that the target system is a true and ready-to-use copy of production. By continuously auditing the backup or target system, it remains instantly ready when you need it.

In addition, Fortra is the expert in IBM i automation. We’re uniquely qualified to help you build an automated process for the final switchover when it’s time to run from your new server that eliminates human error and delivers near-zero downtime, even if you’re swapping into the cloud.

Keep Costs Down, Realize Greater ROI

Robot HA is frugal with your resources, so there’s no need to order excessive disk storage or memory. Data transport is achieved over exceptionally long distances without the need for excessive communications bandwidth, extra hardware, or compromises to recovery time objective (RTO) or recovery point objective (RPO). Robot HA uses APIs to determine new objects instead of relying on the IBM security journal (QAUDJRN) like other HA tools, which means it is less taxing on your production environment.

In short, Robot HA is designed to provide maximum levels of availability, recoverability, and flexibility. The design ensures the most efficient use of hardware and communications infrastructure and the lowest burden on your team, providing the best ROI in the industry for high availability and disaster recovery.

Install with Ease

Robot HA is quick to install and easy to use. Auto-configuration tools examine your environment and set up an optimal configuration for mirroring with minimal manual work. Data is synchronized, users are trained, and a role swap test is performed to make sure people and processes are ready. A typical A to B environment—that is, a single production system or partition replicated to a single target system or partition—takes between three and five days, and the experts at Fortra are available to help.