RE: BRMS flash copy

I'm trying to decide if any of these really help in our situation.
GDIHQ is production.
GDIHQ2 is CBU.
We're using Quick-EDD to replicate between these.
We back up GDIHQ quarterly with a full system save. After doing a role switch to GDIHQ2.
We do nightly backups on GDIHQ2 with BRMS.
IBM just added the capability to BRMS to create a recovery report for GDIHQ based on this exact scenario.

I have zero quisce operations and zero disruption of the production machine for the nightly saves.
Back when we only had a single system the boss would not let me quiesce to start the checkpoint for a save while active. I had to do a ragged save while active. Of course, save while active on IFS is a sick joke.

When we do an OS upgrade we upgrade GDIHQ2 first. Let's say Wednesday or Thursday. Then we switch over to GDIHQ2 on Saturday and upgrade GDIHQ to the new release. This way we have zero worries about saving to a previous release being an issue. Been through several upgrades, ptfs, etc with no issues following this. Sunday we switch back. They're in different cities so they have different IP addresses, etc. There is a slight drop in 5250, etc when we do the switches. We have an automated process which changes the DNS entries in our Windows servers.

GDIHQ2 is not a 'test'. It is CBU. We have other machines and lpars for testing of the new releases, etc.

What we have may only sound simple to me because I'm familiar with it.
While PowerHA and/or other SAN based solutions sound simple to you because of your familiarity with those processes.

Rob Berendt