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Copy Services for IBM i is an offering from IBM STG Lab Services that facilitates the integration of IBM System Storage Copy Services and IBM i allowing customers to reduce planned and unplanned downtime.
Customers that deploy the Copy Services for IBM i may achieve the following benefits:
- An all IBM solution utilizing IBM i (i5/OS) Independent Auxiliary Storage Pools (IASPs), Clustering, IBM System Storage Advanced Copy Services and IBM System Storage
- Data on backup system that is "switch ready" because there is no latency resulting from a journal capture/apply process thereby reducing planned and unplanned downtimes
- Hardware-based copy and replication services
- Command line interfaces to control the environment which aids in automation
- Simplified setup via wizards to setup the IBM System Storage Copy Services environment for not only IBM i but also other IBM System Storage Copy Services Environments (Windows, AIX, Unix, and Linux).
- Simple, automated point-in-time copy of data within a site for enhanced save operations
- Simple, automated failover of data between sites for High Availability (HA) and/or Disaster Recovery (DR)
- Replication of Data ‘offloaded’ to IBM System Storage (Enterprise Storage Server 800, DS6000, DS8000). System i resources (processor or memory) minimized and not needed for data replication
The Copy Services for IBM i is an offering provided by the STG Lab Services organization and is packaged as part of a consulting services engagement. The offering consists of the IBM i Copy Services toolkit license and maintenance as well as planning, design, and implementation services.
The toolkit leverages IBM i clustering and Independent Auxiliary Storage Pools (IASP) to effectively exploit the use of Copy Services, namely FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, and Global Mirror in a System i environment. It provides automated management of the Copy Services functions by coordinating the point-in-time FlashCopy and the Metro Mirror or Global Mirror switch processes with the corresponding activities that need to occur on the System i server environment. This is accomplished through interfaces with IBM i clustering, IBM i dynamic logical partitioning, and external storage DSCLI.
The toolkit consists of three primary components:
- An application referred to as the Copy Services Environment which provides options to add, change, copy, delete, display, or work with the external storage definition. The external storage definition includes information such as storage device ID, volume numbers, Copy Services type, etc. By defining a Copy Services environment, the required DSCLI commands to create and manage that environment are generated automatically.
- Simple IBMi CL commands to manage the cluster resource group, control the dynamic movement of partition resources, and coordinate the external storage point-in-time copy and replication services using the DSCLI commands produced by the Copy Services Environment application.
- Services by Lab Services to help plan and install the toolkit in your environment.
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- Customers that have IASP-enabled applications on IBM i attached to IBM System Storage and have interest in utilizing System Storage Advanced Copy Services to reduce their backup window or to develop an HA or DR solution to satisfy their Business Continuity requirements
- Customers who have implemented SAN based replication for their other systems and now wish to implement for IBM i.
- Customers that may be using software-based, logical replication and are looking for potential cost savings in deploying a hardware-based HA or DR solution
Release History:
- Version 5 Release 1 of the System i Copy Services Toolkit Release March 2006 - Support for IBM Advanced Copy Services FlashCopy and Metro Mirror with i5/OS Version 5 Release 3, and i5/OS Version 5 Release 4
- Version 5 Release 2 of the System i Copy Services Toolkit Release February 2007 – Addition of Support for IBM Advanced Copy Services Global Mirror with i5/OS Version 5 Release 3, and i5/OS Version 5 Release 4
- Version 6 Release 0 of the System i Copy Services Toolkit Release August 2007 - Removes the requirement for the toolkit to communicate with the HMC on a Power 5 System i running i5/OS Version 5 Release 4. Eliminates the ongoing encryption key management between the HMC and i5/OS that was required in prior releases of the operating system and the toolkit.
Refer to the IBM Systems and Technology Group (STG) Lab Services Web site for more information.
Refer to the IBM i Technology Center Web site for education options on IBM i IASPs, Clustering and External Storage.
IBM i Copy Services Toolkit brochure. (PDF, 189KB)
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