Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

DataMirror yesterday began shipping a major new version of Transformation Server, its software for replicating data between major database management systems. The two most important enhancements that the Toronto, Ontario, software company delivered with Transformation Server 5.1 are a Java-based interface, giving administrators a dashboard-like view of the current state of data replication occurring across the network, and a redesigned communications layer that brings a single API and a simpler method for accessing data on all supported platforms.

The new activity-monitoring tool that DataMirror is shipping with Transformation Server 5.1 will be the source of the biggest productivity boost for users in this release. In prior releases, administrators had to search through history log files to determine if something was going wrong between a Transformation Server source database and its target database. Even if the problem didn't directly relate to Transformation Server, such as a network outage, administrators had no quick way of detecting abnormalities, except to dig through the logs.

In response to user requests, DataMirror is including a new utility called the Enterprise Administrator Monitor in Transformation Server 5.1. The new monitor will provide administrators with a quick look at the state of replication on the network--similar to the "dashboard" interfaces that are gaining popularity. The monitor uses a network diagram view to show what's going on between the nodes and the "subscription" (a term DataMirror uses to describe the point-to-point connection between a source database and its target).

For each subscription, the Enterprise Administrator Monitor indicates the type of replication occurring, such as whether it's a bulk load, a refresh, or a mirroring operation. Subscriptions that are moving along as planned are highlighted with a big green arrow; whereas a red light is used to indicate there's a problem. The monitor also includes a "velocity meter" that indicates the performance of replication subscriptions and the latency, or how quickly it will take to catch up to database changes that are being queued if an interruption does occur.

"Other than being able to visualize multiple targets and complex networks, the monitor provides an enhanced ability to do troubleshooting quickly," says Katherine Treash, a product marketing manager with DataMirror. "It gives you that visual notification when something goes wrong, before going straight into the logs."

The Enterprise Administrator Monitor is a component of the main management console for Transformation Server, which is called the Enterprise Administrator. While the monitor does provide some drill-down capability with this release, users still must switch to the Enterprise Administrator if they want to view the history logs, which they will probably need to do to address anything but the simplest problems. DataMirror officials say they are working to develop the capability to drill straight down into the logs from the monitor with a future release of the product.

DataMirror also completely rewrote the underlying communications layer in Transformation Server 5.1, but this won't have as big of an impact on users, or on the usability of the product, as much as it will affect DataMirror's development efforts (although it has brought some performance increases and the elimination of some limitations on the sizes of objects). The new communications layer allows DataMirror to standardize on a single API, for reading and writing to the databases, via the Transformation Server "agent" software components that install on the various supported relational database management systems and operating systems. By standardizing on the single API, it will be less work for DataMirror developers to maintain and enhance all the different supported platforms, and will speed the roll-out of some important new features that DataMirror is currently working on.

The next step for DataMirror is to develop self-healing capabilities in its data replication software, which would allow Transformation Server to restart automatically in the event of a problem, say DataMirror officials. The company is also working to support the next generation of business intelligence functions, such as complex joins. Transformation Server is often used as an extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool for building data marts and data warehouses, although it has applicability anywhere there's a need for database-level integration, such as connecting a front-end e-commerce Web site with a back-end transaction management system.

Many of the features that DataMirror is working to develop in the next generation Transformation Server will be shared with its high availability software for the iSeries, the High Availability Suite, officials say.

Transformation Server 5.1 is available now for DB2/400, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server database systems. Support for Sybase database systems and DB2 on mainframe, Unix, and Windows operating systems will be delivered later. DataMirror currently has a deal on Transformation Server as part of its "Go Live for $55K" offering that includes software licenses, one year of maintenance, five days of services, and training for two users. That deal was scheduled to end April 30 but is expected to be renewed. For more information, go to www.datamirror.com.