Secure Systems Minimized Downtime

Hackers, disgruntled employees and information thieves can cause unexpected system and database outages on other systems. But ClearPath mainframes have very effective safeguards that make such problems near impossible. Data mirroring. Integrated recovery software. Multi-host file sharing software. And Extended Processing Complex hardware.

A system or its data can also be unavailable due to planned downtime – a necessary outage for system and database maintenance and upgrades. We also provide solutions that greatly minimize the need for this kind of downtime.

It Keeps Running, and Running and Running…

ClearPath mainframes just keep on running, even beyond events that take other systems down. Here are some of the reasons why:

Multi-Host File Sharing (MHFS)

MHFS software lets you upgrade or repair an OS 2200 host – without interrupting other hosts in a cluster of as many as four hosts. They just keep on running while you’re doing them. Plus, you don’t even have to change your applications in any way to take advantage of this enhanced availability! You can design your application to run on a single ClearPath system, yet it can also run in this multi-host environment. Even better, MHFS improves both performance and data availability.

What is MHFS? It’s the ability for multiple OS 2200 host systems to simultaneously access (through channel connections) data residing in the same mass storage devices. This access lets multiple hosts simultaneously operate on a single, common set of data. And, it’s the foundation for other, advanced features that not only keep the data available, but also let application processing continue should another host in the cluster become unavailable (including scheduled downtime for upgrades). In contrast with many other operating systems, OS 2200 provides this enhanced availability without your having to modify your application software to become cluster-aware.

Partitioned Applications

This OS 2200 software builds upon MHFS by letting two hosts provide backup for one another. Each host is both a production host for some applications and a backup host for applications running on the other. Should a production host fail, Partitioned Applications automatically moves its work to the backup host. Built-in software mechanisms can detect host and component failures and initiate the appropriate recovery actions.

Extended Transaction Capacity (XTC)

This high availability solution enables several hosts in an MHFS environment to simultaneously execute transactions against the same shared database. Data files reside on the shared device group so that multiple hosts can access them.

Extended Processing Complex (XPC and XPC-L)

This advanced hardware/software solution supports high-speed, multi-system data sharing to a degree that’s not possible on today’s commodity platforms. A data locking mechanism preserves database integrity and maximizes system and data availability. And, the system can process many more transactions per second than a single-host system can.

Both the original XPC and the new XPC-L provide a failsafe solution for vital applications that require continuing, uninterrupted processing – even should a host become unavailable.

Transaction Processing Application Groups

OS 2200 supports diverse applications and data sets on one system. This capability allows one UDS database environment to keep running normally in production. At the same time, a scheduled action or emergency repair can be taking place in another database environment on the same system.

Relational Database Server (RDMS)

This database management system for ClearPath OS 2200 allows you to add, remove and change table definitions, while other tables in the database are being used. Furthermore, unlike other database servers, RDMS never requires the database administrator to fix fragmentation or make row-chain repairs. That’s because RDMS automatically keeps its data structures balanced for optimal performance. Thus, the database administrator never needs to schedule downtime to perform table or index rebuilds.