RE: Journals across machines -- MIDRANGE-L

You can do RCVJRNE (receive journal entry) on one system, send it to the
other system, and apply it to the other system in a nearly real-time basis;
that's the easy part.  It's getting everything back to the production system
that's nasty; when you're on the backup (now primary) box, you have to
change directions and SNDJRNE on iBox #2 back to iBox #1.  The benefit of
doing it real-time is you limit your exposure to lost transactions (if you
CHGJRN every 4 hours and the system crashes at 3:59, you're out 4 hours'
work).

The 3rd-party products handle all of this (and I have no vested interest in
any appropriate product); the last thing you want to worry about in a
disaster is tinkering with your code.  You'll probably be busy filling
sandbags or fighting off the rebels...but I can't get too political here,
lest the moderator...well, you know.

Remember that journal recovery is a database-intensive operation.  There's
no application logic and the database processing is by RRN; disk performance
and logical file structure is a contributing factor in recovery time.  It's
not like restoring a file from tape...even fast tape!

In my applications, I journal all master and transactions files but don't
journal any work files or access paths.  I define a work file as one that
can be recreated simply by rerunning the job.  I used to have a couple of
data areas but eliminated them for several reasons (not journalable being
one, but I think that's changed); don't forget about them, or
configurations, or user profiles...the list goes on!

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of Chuck Morehead
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2001 10:16 AM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: Journals across machines

The hypothetical scenario:
I have two AS/400's with identical databases.  I.e. A save is done on AS/400
1 and restored to AS/400 2.
As soon as the save is done on AS/400 1, journalling of the database is
started.
At regular intervals the journal receivers are saved on AS/400 1, restored
on AS/400 2, and applied on AS/400 2.

1.  This is possible, isn't it?  That is, to apply journals on a different
machine in this manner?
2.  Has anyone implemented something like this as part of a disaster
recovery plan?  If so, how well did it work?

TIA!

Chuck Morehead
Nokuse Consulting - Providing high value Information Technology Services.
Native Bear Software - Providing affordable Industry Specific Software.
http://www.nokuse.com


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