Improper IBM i High Availability Solution With Expensive Nonfunctional Monitor Remediation Service– A Costly Approach That Could Never Work

A cost-effective approach to IBM i High Availability is to use an IBM i hosting provider for your target. Provided the solution works.?

In this blog I explain how one of my customers had an HA target at a prominent hosting provider that ran slow …. 4-5 hours too slow… and would NEVER be able to recover.

This is a good read to understand what to avoid.

Disclaimer:?IBM i is an operating system. iSeries and AS400 are servers. I use these terms interchangeably to make it easy for folks to find this kind of information on the web.

About a month ago, one of my clients called me to see if we could help them with their High Availability (HA) Disaster Recovery (DR) solution.

As many readers may already know, an HA solution mirrors changes from the production server to the target server so in the event of unexpected production system downtime, the enterprise can failover its users to the target system in minutes … not hours… for business continuity.

My client had selected a prominent IBM i hosting provider in 2013 for their HA target.

Replication From Production To Target Takes 4-5 Hours, Not 5 Minutes

They called me because their replication from production to target could take 4-5 hours, not 5 minutes or less. This client also explained that their IBM i hosting provider billed them for HA monitoring and remediation.

This did not sound right to me. ?

Wait, No Weekly Monitor Reports?

I asked my client if he got weekly monitor reports that highlighted the “all good, early warning, and fix now – serious.” He did not know that such a report was available to him. As far as he could determine they were not receiving an HA monitor and remediation service despite paying for it.

So I asked my client if it would be OK if one of my senior IBM i HA experts dialed into his system to see what was going on. My client approved our investigation.

Conflicting Files With Conflicting Replication

My HA expert explained that the setup was “messy” with a few conflicting files with conflicting replication, software was a back-level release and software patches had not been kept current.

With further approval, my client asked our HA expert to make any fixes he could to run properly.

After about 5 hours of hands on expertise, our IBM i specialist had the HA system replicating in minutes … way down from 4-5 hours.

Full Recovery Not Possible With Current System

He also reported to my client those files that got replicated as well as those that were not replicated. Based on that information, my client concluded that they could never have recovered as long as they had this system.

As you may expect, my client asked for an HA proposal from us.

Choices With A Different Approach

I explained that there were some choices to make as well as differences in our HA approach.

1)?????You can get a perpetual HA license with annual support or an annual subscription. If you plan to have HA for more than 2.5 years, the perpetual license is WAY less expensive.

2)?????Our HA Monitor and Remediation services include:

a)???????Weekly status reports that show:

1) What is OK,

2) Early warnings, and

3) Needs attention now.

b)?????Software upgrades and software patches applied as they become available and in alignment with the IBM i users version level,

c)??????One annual failover test;

1)?????A virtual test – whereby production replication to the target is stopped so the target can be assessed for failover readiness without impacting production, or

2)?????A true production to target failover and back so the enterprise has full confidence in its HA failover solution.

After explaining to my client the different software options and how we did monitor and remediation, he exclaimed that no one at his hosting company explained to him what I had.

HA Software Subscription Or Perpetual License – Costly Difference

I suggested that he ask his hosting provider what HA license he had and who was it licensed to.

The hosting provider did not know whether the HA software was a subscription or a perpetual license, but he assured my client the HA software was licensed to my client’s company.

NOT TRUE! The HA software company made it very clear to me that HA software was licensed to the software provider.

The software company also was very clear that the HA software was a subscription instead of a perpetual license.

So what?

Had the software been a perpetual license, my client would have paid FAR less than with the subscription license.

Worse yet, because it had NOT been licensed to my client the user, the new software pricing was “net new” pricing. In other words, my client got NO benefit from the HA software company pricing despite paying for their software for 10 years.

Conclusion

When selecting IBM i HA DR hosting, research their HA offerings as well as their skills for implementation, monitor and remediation.

Interview the HA technical team. Find out how long they have implemented the solution. Ideally, you are looking for decades of expertise … not a few years.

Have the HA team explain how they monitor and remediate. Do you get weekly status reports? How do they keep your HA software current with version upgrades and software patches?

Before you leap forward with the wrong vision, know precisely what to expect.

After all, you want to get connected with the right HA provider for you.

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Call me at 714-593-0387 or email me at?[email protected]. Let us know how we can help!

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