zIIP Assisted z/OS Global Mirror: Significant cost reduction

Going back through some of the more recent processor announcements reminded me there are some significant cost savings available to the hundreds of XRC (Global Mirror for zSeries) customers out there.

Global Mirror for zSeries is of course, an asynchronous disk mirroring technique that mirrors mainframe data across any distance. This process is controlled by the SDM (or System Data Mover) which is application code running in one or more z/OS LPARs – usually at the recovery site.

Depending upon the size of the configuration – the number of volumes to be mirrored and the number of XRC “readers” defined, this could place a significant load on the processor CPs, and could require multiple CPs just to support the SDMs.

Beginning with z/OS 1.8, IBM began enabling much of the SDM code to be eligible to run on the IBM System z9 and z10 Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs). The zIIP assisted z/OS Global Mirror functions can provide better price performance and improved utilization of resources at the mirrored site.

This improved TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) is accomplished in two ways: First, IBM charges less for the specialty processors – like zIIPs – than then standard general purpose CPs. Secondly, the processing power used on zIIP processors enabled on the physical z9 or z10 CEC is NOT included in the general MSU ("Millions of Service Units”) figure that vendors use to determine your software charges.

Thus, if you are not currently offloading the SDM processing onto the zIIP processors on your z9 or z10, then you could experience some significant cost savings by moving towards this configuration.

Business Continuity announcements from February 26, 2008

On the same day that IBM announced the new z10 processor, there were a couple of other product announcements of interest to the Business Continuity practitioner: GDPS v3.5 was announced along with enhancements to the DS8000. These announcements may have been overlooked by some because of the excitement generated by the processor announcement.

GDPS V3.5

GDPS V3.5 is planned for general availability on March 31, 2008. New functions include:

• Distributed Cluster Management (DCM) - Designed to provide coordinated disaster recovery across System z™ and non-System z servers by integrating with distributed cluster managers. Added integration with Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) via GDPS/PPRC and GDPS/XRC.
• GDPS/PPRC Multiplatform Resiliency for System z expanded to include Red Hat Enterprise Linux™ 4.
• Enhancements to the GDPS GUI.
• Added support for FlashCopy® Space Efficient.
• Improved performance and system management with support for z/OS® Global Mirror Multi-Reader.
• Increased availability with GDPS/MzGM support for z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync

DS8000 (2107)

The new DS8000 functions are currently available. They are delivered via Licensed Machine Code (LMC) update.

• Extended Distance FICON for System z environments - help avoid performance degradation at extended distances and reduce the need for channel extenders in DS8000 z/OS Global Mirror configurations.
• Support for Extended Address Volume (EAV) – Increases the maximum number of cylinders per volume from 65,520 to 262,668 (223 GB of addressable storage).
• Support z/OS Metro/Global Mirror Incremental Resync.

Trademark Legal Info

GDPS, System z, HyperSwap, Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex, DS8000, System Storage, FICON, System z9, HACMP and Tivoli Enterprise are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both.

FlashCopy, z/OS, Tivoli, AIX, NetView, Parallel Sysplex, and zSeries are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States or other countries or both.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries or both.

Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.