IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX

IBM’s premier UNIX high-availability solution

PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 represents the next generation of solutions for high availability. This offering integrates core clustering technology into the kernel and the OS, enabling our customers to be more productive while enjoying a more robust and easier-to-manage clustering environment.

The IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX Standard Edition is based upon Cluster Aware AIX. It features a Director-based management interface, a new set of Smart Assists (including one for SAP) and a number of other enhancements that will make the solution more robust and self managing. IBM intends to enhance PowerHA SystemMirror Enterprise Edition to exploit AIX cluster-aware technologies for multisite deployments. The PowerHA SystemMirror 6.1.7 Enterprise Edition has been enhanced to include support for more storage devices including the IBM Storwize V7000, and XIV.

PowerHA SystemMirror monitors numerous soft and hard errors within the cluster from various event sources, including problems that are severe enough to immobilize the system (such as a process failure or exhaustion of system resources). With PowerHA 7.1, monitoring and event management have been moved into the kernel of the operating system (OS), which provides a robust foundation not prone to job scheduling issues or other events related to OS operations. Cluster awareness enables operating-system-based functions to operate harmoniously with PowerHA. PowerHA SystemMirror is integrated with cluster-aware AIX and exploits the operating system features by extending them across the cluster, enabling efficient centralized management.

PowerHA 7.1 comes with a no-charge Director-based management interface plug-in. This graphical interface makes cluster management simpler and more productive by providing a secure, centralized point of operations. An administrator can readily deploy clusters and resource groups using the associated wizard. It provides live updates by graphically displaying the status of resource groups, nodes, sites, and clusters. With a single view you can see the health of the entire enterprise at a glance. With PowerHA 7.1.1, the PowerHA director plug-in has been further enhanced to support deployment and management of the Federated Security capability as well as the SAP hot standby environments.

PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1 provides support for the Smart Assists for easier, out-of-the-box HA setup and application management for many well-known middleware products. The smart assists are high-availability agents for application deployment and management. Smart Assists are used to define high-availability policies and also to discover software that is deployed within the cluster. Discovery-based information aids in defining the high-availability policy and provides periodic health monitoring, enabling middleware and resource dependencies to be restarted via the specified policy. With PowerHA SystemMirror 7.1, the smart assist portfolio, in addition to supporting DB2®, WebSphere® and Oracle, has been enhanced to provide support for SAP, Enterprise Content Manager, TSM, Lotus® Domino® Server, IBM LDAP, IBM HTTP and printers.