IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX

• Is PowerHA policy driven or do I need to provide scripting to manage a complex application?
• What is PowerHA for GLVM and how does it relate to HAGEO and GeoRM?
• How does PowerHA compare to other availability solutions like Veritas VCS and Steeleye?

Question: Is PowerHA policy driven or do I need to provide scripting to manage a complex application?

Answer: When first introduced over a decade ago, HACMP used unsynchronized, standalone scripts and utilities to manage resources. In the mid-1990's, PowerHA introduced an entirely new version that uses fully synchronized and policy-driven algorithms built into the Cluster Manager daemon. The Cluster Manager coordinates and directs all resource recovery and management decisions-including evaluating and exercising resource dependencies-based on simple policy selections made by the user. Because all policy decisions are made by the Cluster Manager, NO scripting is required to properly manage complex, multi-tier applications. PowerHA continues to focus on ease of use. PowerHA includes a number of configuration assistants (wizards) to simplify the setup of typical two-node clusters, a web-based management interface, cluster test tools and automatic configuration discovery. For more information and to see just how easy it is to use PowerHA, view the online documentation for PowerHA.

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Question: What is PowerHA for GLVM and how does it relate to HAGEO and GeoRM?

Answer: PowerHA for Geographic Logical Volume Manager (PowerHA for GLVM) is software-based technology for mirroring (replicating) mission-critical data between remote sites using standard TCP/IP networks. Data replication at a remote site is the key component to any disaster recovery solution.

HAGEO is based on the Geographic Remote Mirroring (GeoRM) technology and also performs IP based data replication. Although both perform similar mirroring and disaster recovery functions, PowerHA for GLVM is tightly integrated with AIX’s Logical Volume Manager, making it easier to use than HAGEO and GeoRM.

PowerHA IP-based mirroring known as HAGEO has been replaced by PowerHA GLVM. GLVM offers all of the features of the former HAGEO technology while being much easier to configure, more reliable, and better integrated with PowerHA as well as the native AIXLVM. Customers currently using HAGEO are recommended to develop a strategy for moving from HAGEO to GLVM.

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Question: How does PowerHA compare to other availability solutions like Veritas VCS and Steeleye?

Answer: All high availability products provide the same basic functions for monitoring and recovery of mission critical applications. The strength of PowerHA for AIX lies in its tight integration with AIX and Power Systems hardware. General purpose solutions which run on many different hardware platforms and operating systems can only offer the least common denominator set of features. No other product can provide the features, performance and reliability of PowerHA on System p servers and AIX.

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