Shield Revs HA Software for IBM i
September 25, 2024 Alex Woodie
Companies protecting their IBM i servers with Shield Advanced Solutions’ HA4i will enjoy several new capabilities when they upgrade to the latest release, including faster save while active processing, improved object compression, and new Nagios monitoring functions, among other enhancements.
Shield Advanced Solutions has been developing and selling an IBM i high availability solution since 2007, when it rolled out Receiver Apply Program/400 (RAP/400), which it dubbed “DR for the masses.” In 2010, the Toronto-area company overhauled that product and debuted its replacement, HA4i at version 6.1. Over the ensuing years, Shield steadily added new features to the product, culminating with multi-node replication in 2018.
With the recent launch of HA4i version 7.4, the company has unleashed a major upgrade for the product, which is used by more than 100 IBM i shops. With a number of new features and capabilities, this is the biggest release of HA4i in years.
For starters, the product’s Save While Active (SWA) functionality has been re-coded to provide “a quicker and more effective SWA decision,” says Shield President Chris Hird. Not all objects are locked, or sometimes they have “soft locks,” Hird says, and therefore don’t require SWA. Additionally, the SWA resynch process is “significantly faster” with this release.
This release also delivers better object compression than previous releases. The compression routine is not only faster, but it compresses objects at a higher ratio. Since the compressed objects are smaller, they are replicated from the primary to the secondary server at a faster rate, which improves the overall experience, Shield says.
Shield has also added several new monitors for Nagios, the open source software that Shield uses to help customers monitor their HA4i implementation. With this release, Shield is adding new monitors to tell customers about their role swap status.
HA4i’s audit and reporting functionality has been bolstered with the addition of new reports and improved audit processes. These will “make it easier to carry out and review audit results,” Hird says.
Lastly, this release supports IFS journal filtering on the target. This is now required as IBM does not provide the needed level of filtering, or inheriting rules, on the IFS, Hird says. “SAP customer specifically requested this,” he adds.
“Over the years we have developed enhanced functionality based on customer requests, this new version is a reflection of that,” Hird says. “We have been providing solutions for the IBM i (and predecessors AS/400, etc.) marketplace for nearly 30 years. Our specialized solutions are simple to use and maintain. Known for top class customer support, as we listen and always go the extra mile.”
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