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IBM PowerHA SystemMirror

Score9.9 out of 10

12 Reviews and Ratings

What is IBM PowerHA SystemMirror?

IBM offers PowerHA SystemMirror, for high availability clustering.

Categories & Use Cases

IBM PowerHA SystemMirror- Vikas

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As we are running with critical applications and databases including oracle, db2, and others. To make them highly available we are using Power HA System Mirror which is helping to run the environment with minimal downtime window in case of worst scenarios as well as in case of maintenance which is helping a lot in my business.

Pros

  • Resource group movement.
  • Application monitoring.
  • Problem determination.

Cons

  • GUI Feature can be added in every version of Power HA.
  • Default installation of smart assist file set can be made.
  • Default Parameters of application monitoring can be added.

Most Important Features

  • Application monitoring.
  • Resource movement.
  • Problem determination tool.

Return on Investment

  • Reliable High Available Environment.
  • SAN Based Monitoring in terms of devices.
  • Network level check in terms of HA services.

Alternatives Considered

IBM AIX

Other Software Used

IBM AIX, IBM PowerVM, IBM Power System Virtual Server

PowerHA SystemMirror

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In our project, we are using IBM PowerHA SystemMirror to make our DB2 database highly available. We can't afford any downtime during production hours.

Pros

  • High performance during peak business hours
  • No downtime during critical business operations
  • Easy updates

Cons

  • It would be great if we could configure it on Linux servers
  • CPU core dependency
  • Online resource change, like Volume Group

Most Important Features

  • Database monitoring configuration in cluster
  • Cluster FS size can be easily extended
  • Auto-cluster snapshot, which takes regular backup of cluster configuration

Return on Investment

  • There will is no single point of failure in PowerHA SystemMirror
  • High performance in PowerHA SystemMirror
  • TL upgrades are easy without any impact

Alternatives Considered

IBM PowerVM

Other Software Used

IBM Power System Virtual Server, IBM Power servers, IBM PowerVM

Use PowerHA to keep your critical applications running

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

PowerHA is used across the organization for our most critical apps. It is used to reduce downtime on our critical apps in the event of a system failure.

Pros

  • Reduces downtime
  • can automatically failover the apps and start them up
  • Lots of customization options

Cons

  • Sometimes has problems with starting or stopping the applications

Most Important Features

  • automatic failover
  • ability to DLPAR CPU and memory resources
  • customization

Return on Investment

  • It does require two separate servers which is an extra expense
  • If there is a failure the downtime for the apps is limited

IBM PowerHA Use it or Not!!!

Pros

  • Asynchronous geographic mirroring extends the host-based replication to our DR environment.
  • FlashCopy provide us with a point in time snapshot of our Production environment from which we can run our daily backups without downtime.
  • Since PowerHA runs at the kernel level it allows the system to send a message from the primary system to the backup or secondary system when the node has crashed.

Cons

  • IBM Sybase replication has been an issue for those who don't [use] MIMIX on their systems to keep the Sybase up to date.
  • The graphical interface really needs an update.
  • Technical support isn't as responsive as it should be.

Return on Investment

  • The inability to maintain our Sybase up to date with IBM PowerHA SystemMirror

Alternatives Considered

MIMIX Availability

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Log & Event Manager, CA APM