Logical Replication: Still the Mainstay for IBM i HA
July 19, 2017 Alex Woodie
For many years, logical replication solutions were the only choice in the high availability product category for IBM i and its predecessor platforms. IBM’s introduction of PowerHA changed that, providing a dramatically different approach to achieving high availability. However, the vast majority of HA deployments in the IBM i market still use logical replication solutions. Which one is best suited for your needs? Hopefully this story will help you find the answer.
Logical replication solutions work by replicating changes made to database files and other IBM i objects in real time. The eight third-party products in this category – including HelpSystems‘ RobotHA, iSam Blue‘s iSB-HA, Maxava‘s Maxava HA, Rocket Software‘s Rocket iCluster, Shield Advanced Solutions HA4i, Trader’s Quick-EDD, and Vision Solutions‘ MIMIX Availability and ITERA Availability — essentially mirror the updates made to a production IBM i server to one or more secondary servers. In the event of an outage, the customer can initiate a role swap within their HA product, which turns the secondary system into the production system, enabling the customer to continue operations. That’s what they do, in a nutshell.
How do they work? Well, all logical replication solutions today use IBM‘s built-in database journaling function to detect changes made to database files. Before the advent of remote journaling, HA products employed a propriety “journal scrape” method to get the data out of the journals before sending it across the wire to the secondary server, where a journal apply process would be used to update the secondary database.
Today, the vast majority of new HA products use IBM’s remote journaling technology, which eliminates the need for the proprietary journal scrape and replication methodologies. When a database CRUD operation is made on the primary server and its database journal, the change is automatically reflected in the remote journal.
However, not all vendors use remote journaling. Trader’s avoids remote journaling because it says it makes it harder to determine the proper sequence to apply journal updates on the target machine. Vision Solutions, which is in the process of being acquired by (and changing its name to) Syncsort, still sells a version of its popular MIMIX software that doesn’t use remote journaling.
Market Share
In terms of market presence, Vision Solutions dominates the HA market globally with a 25.9 percent share (according to HelpSystems 2017 IBM i Marketplace Study), thanks to its acquisitions of iTera and Lakeview Technology years ago. Trader’s, which reports solid growth in the United States through its business partner, BCS Group, is the two slot with an 8.0 percent share, followed by IBM’s PowerHA with 7.1 percent.
In fourth place with a 3.9 percent share is Maxava, which is one of the leaders in the growing HA cloud market. Rocket Software maintains a 2.4 percent share of the market with its iCluster product, which was originally developed by DataMirror. HelpSystems, which got into the business through its acquisition of the RSF-HA product from Bug Busters late last year, owns 1.1 percent of the market. Not listed on the HelpSystems report are iSam Blue, which also sells a modified version of that Bug Busters product, and Shield, which continues to develop and sell its budget-minded HA4i.
Differentiation
The IBM i HA software business is a notoriously competitive one. It has spawned much drama and many lawsuits over the years as a result of vendors denigrating each other in marketing materials and in front of customers. For this reason, trying to differentiate and sort out the features and functions that matter most among the HA products is a complex task – not to mention a potentially hazardous one for editors who would like to maintain healthy working relationships with the vendors that they cover.
Because most HA products today use the same underlying replication method (except for Trader’s and sometimes Vision), the HA vendors largely look to other places to differentiate their offerings. Some of the areas where they’ve focused include:
- Development of GUIs and mobile interfaces, although 5250 green screens are still common
- Faster replication performance and lower latency, which are always issues
- More thorough coverage of IBM i objects in replication (not as big of an issue today)
- Automatic detection of new database files or objects to add to replication
- Better detection and remediation of out-of-sync conditions
- Faster and more thorough auditing functionality
- Better monitoring of the health of IBM i servers
- More cloud-friendly licensing schemes
- Ways to make it easier to perform “switch-ready” tests
HA Role Call
T Jungle reached out to each of the logical replication software vendors plying the IBM i HA waters and asked them to complete a questionnaire about their offerings and their company. Each vendor was responsible for the accuracy of the information provided.
It’s our hope that this information will help IBM i professionals who are actively searching for a logical replication-based HA solution. Here are their responses, in alphabetical order by vendor name:
HelpSystems
Year founded: 1982. RSF-HA first released in 2006
Name(s) of HA products: Robot HA
Total employee count: More than 500
Total number of company locations: More than 20
Number of company locations providing tech support: More than 20
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 12
Total number of HA customer implementations: 125
On-premise implementations: 95 percent
Cloud implementations: 5 percent and growing
Names of reference HA customers: Meridian IT
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: United States, United Kingdom, Germany
Number of HA resellers/business partners: 70
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: Prefer to not disclose
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: “We are growing our partnerships with cloud MSPs”
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: Prefer to not disclose
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): Starting less than $10k
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): Starting at $4,500 for Getting Started services. Additional services and training available as needed.
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?
“HelpSystems provides the fastest, easiest, most affordable way for SMBs and enterprises to achieve high availability. Robot HA integrates with other products in the Robot suite for easier IBM i systems management. Our technical support team is excellent. Our professional services team, led by IBM HA expert Debbie Saugen, provides professional services including role swap assistance. We have an exceptionally strong relationship with IBM and we offer DRaaS.”
iSamBlue
Year founded: 2008
Name(s) of HA products: iSB-HA
Total employee count: We use consultants so we don’t have to have a payroll
Total number of company locations: 2
Number of company locations providing tech support: 2
Number of senior HA technical support employees: We use consultants, but we have a minimum of one on 24x7x365
Total number of HA customer implementations: 40 licenses
On-premise implementations: We do not track
Cloud implementations: We do not track
Names of reference HA customers: Not provided
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: North America
Number of HA resellers/business partners: Our focus is on direct sales
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: Not provided
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: Not provided
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: Not provided
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): $10,000
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): $5,000
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?
“iSam Blue, our customers, and partners have combined our talents, knowledge, and experiences to create one of the most advanced, yet easy to use HA products for the IBM i. Using single-step processes, we push the complexity that makes up HA, under the covers and present a user interface that is easy to understand, learn, and use. iSam Blue believes support is the life blood of HA. The key to support isn’t how many support people or locations you have. Outstanding support starts with products designed to be easy to use, understand, and [that] have a standard user interface. It includes having customers, with our help, do the installation as part of their training and developers that keep the same look and feel when adding features. The best support is “The support you’ll never need.” Our customers love knowing we are here, but they love not having to call support even more. iSam Blue understands that we must maximize our strengths and outperform the competition to survive and grow. Early on, we adopted ideas from the old iTera to “do whatever the customer needs.” Our size allows us the flexibility to listen to our customers and make improvements they suggest. We even make enhancements for single customers. If you measure your software on an ISV customer base, number of locations, or number of employees, then go with a big ISV. If you are looking for software that is innovative, ease to use, reliable, with an elevated level of autonomics and switch readiness, give iSam Blue a call today.”
Maxava
Year founded: 2000
Name(s) of HA products: Maxava Datastream, SMB, and Enterprise Plus
Total employee count: 30
Total number of company locations: 5 physical offices – Philadelphia, London, Tokyo, Auckland, Wellington plus additional staff in Atlanta, California, Scotland, and Netherlands
Number of company locations providing tech support: 5 offices
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 10
Names of reference HA customers: hundreds of reference customers plus dozens of successful case studies online including Carhartt, Chilewich Sultan, Westpac Banking, CIMB, Maybank, Kim Lim Hai, and McGraw Hill Education
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: All regions
Number of HA resellers/business partners: 100
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: Sungard, Superion, MeridianIT, AS Networks, Dimension Data, and Computer Merchants
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: more than 50
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: Sungard, Superion, and MeridianIT
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): starting at $20k
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): basic starting at $10k
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?
“Ready Day 1: Speedy implementation: runs on your current O/S; no new hardware or storage required. High Performance: limited production impact; multi-threaded IFS replication & audit; strictly uses IBM-approved transmission to eliminate latency; minimal bandwidth required. Maintain Order: command Intercept; in-sequence replication; no application locking. Data Accuracy: before & after matching; automated integrity checks; complete audit trails. Heavy Automation: constantly patrol for issues; automatic self-healing; reduced operator complexity. Total readiness: early problem detection; simulation and testing facilities; 24/7/365 standby support staff. Leading innovation: temporal table support; command scripting; CcapturePointRestore; Mi8 monitoring for IBM Power Systems. Future-Proof Solutions: “No Surprise” license models; shift between premise, cloud, and hybrid environments; migrate to new systems without downtime.”
Rocket Software
Year founded: 1990
Name(s) of HA products: Rocket iCluster
Total employee count: 1400+
Total number of company locations: 30+
Number of company locations providing tech support: 4
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 10
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: Global (Rocket support is global)
Total number of HA customer implementations: not provided
On-premise implementations: not provided
Cloud implementations: not provided
Names of reference HA customers: not provided
Number of HA resellers/business partners: not provided
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: not provided
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: not provided
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: not provided
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): not provided
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): not provided
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?
“We ensure uninterrupted access. The mission-critical business data and business applications run on your IBM i systems. Providing continuous access to these assets is essential for the business. Automating your high availability and disaster recovery management processes is one way to ensure uninterrupted access. Rocket iCluster is a high-availability and disaster recovery solution for business applications operating on IBM Power or IBM PureFlex systems running IBM i. iCluster enables continuous access through monitoring, notification and self-correcting replication issues. With iCluster, you can be proactive instead of reactive, saving precious time—and improving satisfaction for your users, customers and management. With the sophisticated features and ease of use of Rocket iCluster, you can help ensure that the business won’t ‘go offline.’ And you always know your recovery point and recovery time for high availability.
Rocket iCluster is easy to manage, administer and switch. It offers a cost-effective fee structure, licensed by physical server instead of number of logical systems or partitions (LPARs) or by number of users or CPU processors—with no extra charge within the same processor group, regardless of geographical location, and no transfer fees while under active maintenance. iCluster has all functionality you need in one product, with no modules.”
Shield
Year founded: 1997
Name(s) of HA products: HA4i and JT4i
Total employee count: 5
Total number of company locations: 1
Number of company locations providing tech support: 1
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 1
Total number of HA customer implementations: 100
On-premise implementations: NA
Cloud implementations: 16
Names of reference HA customers: On request only
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: Europe and North America
Number of HA resellers/business partners: 5
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: NA
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: 4
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: NA
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): $8,000 to $60,000
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): Customer / BP install
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?
Our products are built using the latest technology released from IBM, completely redesigned and re-written in the last three years with ILE/Service programs. They are easy to use, configure, and manage with built-in system monitors and email notifications. We offer low cost of ownership without sacrificing quality and functionality.
Trader’s
Year founded: 1992
Total employee count: 42 in Europe and 280 worldwide
Total number of company locations: 5 in Europe and 50 worldwide
Number of company locations providing tech support: 4 in Europe and 15 worldwide
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 12 in France and 80 worldwide
Total number of HA customer implementations: 1,800 customers with about 7,000 implementations
On-premise implementations: 90%
Cloud implementations: 10%
Names of reference HA customers: Orange, Decathlon, Carrefour, Zodiac, Almerys, ABN AMRO, Air Liquide, Allianz, AON, Audemars-Piguet, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, BNP Paribas, Geodis, Cargill, Clarins, DGL, Dunlopillo, Ecco, Fuji, Hitachi, ING Bank, Iscar, Isuzu, Kuhn, Lease Plan, Longchamps, Maersk, Nippon Experss, Peugot MTC, Richemond, Ricoh, Sodebo, St. Dupont, St Allergenes, Suzuki, Toyota, V33, Vinci, Yamaha.
Regions/countries where you support HA customers: Global with main territories including Europe, North America, Asia and Japan
Number of HA resellers/business partners: 102
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: IBM – ATOS – BCS Group – Bitis (Japan) – QSL Northern Europe (Germany, UK, Benelux, and Nordics) – QSL Italia (Italy, Spain and Latin America)
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: 22
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: IBM – ATOS – CAP GEMINI – HCL – Abacus Solutions –Global IT – Logicalis – Software Information Systems – TurningPoint Systems
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): Based on IBM tier (Pxx Group) – starting at $9,000
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): Depends on complexity – starting at $3,500
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i?”Unique replication process applying updates on target with the proper sequence [as] it happened on source; auto repair with no penalty and outstanding performance; auto repair while active (allows to check-sync during production hours); jobs status replicated and managed to restarted during a failover; autonomics for triggers, constraints, and MQ Series; support for every enhancement in IBM i V7.3. Global non-stop production process allowing every type of replication and check-sync while users still work (system and application migration, maintenance HW and SW).
Vision Solutions
Year founded: 1992
Name(s) of HA products: MIMIX AVAILABILITY, MIMIX DR, MIMIX MOVE; iTERA AVAILABILITY; OMS/ODS
Total employee count: 250
Total number of company locations: Americas: 5; EMEA: 3; AP: 2
Number of company locations providing tech support: 4
Number of senior HA technical support employees: 39
Total number of HA customer implementations: thousands
On-premise implementations: thousands
Cloud implementations: hundreds (managed)
Names of reference HA customers: Alfa Bank, Barona Resort and Casino, Boyd Gaming, DKSH, Fujitsu America, Heritage Bank, Krispy Kreme, National Distribution Alliance, OCBC Bank, ProHealth Care, Puregold Price Club, Southwestern Motor Transport, Staples, Takata, and Wimbledon
Names of regions/countries where you support HA customers: 70+ countries in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions
Number of HA resellers/business partners: hundreds
Prominent names of HA resellers/BPs: Agilysys, Fiserv, HMS, Jack Henry, IBM, Sirius, Avnet, GBM, and IBM
Number of MSP cloud partners for HA: Dozens of partners now have cloud and managed service offerings.
Prominent names of MSP partners for HA: Connectria, Corus360, Focal Point Solutions Group, IBM, Key Information Systems, MindSHIFT, ServIT, and Sirius
Price range for HA software license (1 source and 1 target): $5,000
Price range for HA implementation (service portion): $250/hour; packages available
What features or capabilities uniquely differentiate your logical replication HA offering(s) for IBM i? “Vision Solutions is the leading provider of business resilience solutions for IBM Power Systems. Backed by award-winning customer service, Vision has pioneered the use of logical replication software to address the high availability and disaster recovery needs of organizations of all sizes. Complete Protection: Protects all applications without modification; supports replication of SYSBAS and IASP objects; supports internal, external and mixed storage environments; enables replication between operating system levels; easily expands to multi-node topologies; audits and repairs live target objects to ensure successful switching; safeguards through scheduled and priority audits, and target-side monitoring; expands to support multiple HA/DR and data distribution servers with MIMIX Global; provides proven performance with minimal bandwidth usage; includes unparalleled apply performance for virtually zero apply lag.
It scales up to the largest enterprise environment; allows HA/DR testing without business impact with virtual switch; provides multiple initial sync options to preserve bandwidth; replicates less than one-half the volume of competing solutions; and gracefully recovers from network issues without requiring a resync.
It offers the Bbest recovery time objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO); optimal RTO with hot backup servers for immediate switch; extreme RTO in seconds with MIMIX Active-Active; industry leading RPO with real-time remote journal-based replication.
It’s easy to use features include: browser-based, intuitive graphical interface to FastPath installation and configuration wizards; at-a-glance status monitoring and lights out monitoring with email and SNMP notification; additional easy monitoring through the Vision Solutions Portal; automates procedures with customizable, single-button switch operations; and identifies at-risk libraries, folders and directories via simple protection reports.”
One of the differences is how quickly they adapt new technology. For example:
– Were they ready for new releases of IBM i on announcement day indicating an active participation in IBM’s Early Ship program?
– Were they ready for a new release, if not right away, in a somewhat timely fashion?
– Did they support all the new features of the new release, or did they take two years to support RCAC, which came out in 7.2?
– Did they even try to support temporal tables in 7.3, or did they wait until it was costing them new customers, and in some cases (like ours), cost them an existing customer?
We looked at Power HA. The initial cost wasn’t so bad but to do what we wanted would have required us using a SAN and jumping into that market turned out to be cost prohibitive for us.