Business Continuity Automation for ClearPath MCP Servers

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Business Continuity Automation for ClearPath MCP
Servers
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Agenda

• The need for business continuity automation
• Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator product
  overview
• Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator in action
• Business continuity plan development
• Business continuity plan execution
• Where to find more information

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The Need for Business Continuity Automation
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Customs Computer Glitch Strands Thousands

• For several hours on Saturday August 11, 2007,
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at
  LAX were unable to access databases used to
  process arriving international passengers
• Over 17,000 arriving passengers affected
• Passengers waited for as long as 9 hours to be
  cleared for entry into the U.S.
• Departing flights also delayed - misconnections
  rippled around the world
• Outage occurred on one of the busiest days for
  international arrivals
• Considered one of the worst IT disasters of all
  time!

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Business Continuity Concerns

• How to satisfy government regulatory or auditor
  mandates
• IT managers can be held accountable if the plan
  fails
• Negative publicity for the enterprise
• Political fallout
• Need to automate as much as possible, but
  maintain control over decision making
• What if key people are unavailable? Execution of
  a BC plan is not for the untrained.
• Systems are so reliable that trained personnel
  risk having lost their skills when an incident
  occurs
• Separate interfaces for various products
• Time is money, recovery to a remote site is time
  consuming

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Do you need to automate your business continuity
processes?

• Do you have these types of applications
• Customer/partner-facing
• Functions affecting revenue and/or brand image
• Supply chain
• Do you want help meeting your
• Recovery time objectives (RTO) the time it
  takes get running after a failure
• Recovery point objectives (RPO) the amount of
  data lost measured in time
• Do you want to increase your BC maturity?
• Are you facing regulatory or audit pressures to
  improve your BC capabilities?

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Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator

• Product Overview

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Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator

• Ensures continuous availability of applications
  and data
• Accelerates and automates
• Relocating a workload and associated data from a
  primary server to an alternate server
• Restarting a workload on an alternate server.
• Reduces
• Downtime
• Required skill level
• Risk of human error
• Makes the process repeatable and predictable
• Can help reduce the number of dedicated BC
  servers by repurposing servers
• Example Development/test to BC
• No distance limitations
• Introduced on MCP 12.0 as an optional software
  product

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Build a Complete Business Continuity Solution

• Works with a data replication product (one is
  required)
• EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF)
• EMC MirrorView
• SafeGuard Duplex
• Host-based mirrored disk (MCP OS feature)
• Can be used with
• SMA OpCon/xps
• Remote Database Backup
• Mirrored disk enhancement products
• SAN Mirror Disk Manager
• SAN StoreSafe Manager
• SAN Spare Disk Manager

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Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator
Data Replication Product
Available on all ClearPath MCP servers that
support MCP 12.0
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Automation Avoids Manual Steps

• Uses automation to
• Transfer resources
• Storage subsystem
• Software license keys
• Halt/Load parameters
• USERDATA file contents
• Network addresses
• HOSTNAME
• Activate image enabler
• Halt/Load alternate server
• Restart jobs even if servers have different
  e-mode levels

• Avoid manual steps - multiple utilities
• Halt both systems (Server Control)
• Make the disk drives available to the alternate
  server (EMC Navisphere or Control Center)
• Make partition configuration changes (LOADER)
• Change Halt/Load units and load a partition
  (Server Control)
• Deal with the DEAD 431 system stops
• Copy the SYSTEM/KEYSFILE (Native File Transfer,
  tape or CD-ROM)
• Activate Image Enablers (system console)

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How fast is it?

• Unisys Business Continuity Accelerator can
  relocate a workload and get it running on an
  alternate server in as little as 15 minutes.
• The actual time for your workload will be
  different!
• Factors affecting recovery time include
• Server capacity and configuration
• Number, capacity, and type of storage devices
• Number and size of databases
• Application characteristics
• Network characteristics

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Business Continuity Accelerator Uses

• Relocate a workload to an alternate server in a
  remote data center as a result of a disaster
• Move a workload to an alternate server while the
  primary server is unavailable due to maintenance
  or upgrade activities
• Migrate a workload to a new system software
  release while providing a secure fallback
  position.
• Permanently move a workload onto a newly
  purchased server
• Relocate a server environment to another physical
  server as needed for purposes such as testing,
  modeling, or backup

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Business Continuity Accelerator in Action
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Key Features

• Automatic detection of host lost
• Notification of events
• E-mail
• Instant messaging to mobile phones (dependent on
  provider)
• Offers administrators a choice to
• Accept or reject the automatic transfer of the
  workload to an alternate server.
• Optionally provide for an automatic transfer
  after a defined amount of time has transpired
  with no administrative acceptance or rejection
• Single button operation
• Relocation when host is lost
• Restoration when host becomes available
• Eliminates use of multiple product interfaces
• Enables use of unskilled personnel

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Key Features

• Manages constellations of ClearPath MCP servers
• Groups of servers or partitions capable of
  transferring or assuming workloads among
  themselves
• Customized BC plans for each partition of a
  multi-partition server
• New System Assistant functions (arrays, locks,
  processes)
• A forward migration path for users of the
  Continuous Service Platform (CSP)

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Major Components
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Workload Relocation
Network

• Uses remote data replication to duplicate
  application data
• New host relinquishes its identity and becomes
  the original host
• Original host must remain inactive
• Standby halt/load (boot) unit can contain a
  different MCP level and other related information

Host 1
Host 2
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Step 1 Normal Operation
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Step 2 Host A Lost
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Step 3 Relocation Complete

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Step 4 Host Restoration

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What You Dont See

• User phone calls that service was down
• Server Control commands to halt, load,
  reconfigure or run loader
• EMC Control Center or Navisphere commands to move
  storage
• Operators running between workstations to perform
  steps (in wrong order)
• Scramble to find trained person to perform a
  required step
• Meetings to develop plans to restore normal
  operation

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Business Continuity Plan Development
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Business Continuity Plan Development

• SYSTEM/BCMGR system utility
• Guides the development of a BC plan
• Generates tailored scripts based on
• Your requirements
• System and storage configuration
• Regenerates scripts when requirements change
• Server configuration changes
• More storage added
• etc.

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Startup
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Setup
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Generation and Installation
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Business Continuity Plan Execution
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Business Continuity Plan Execution

• Quiet periodic verification that remote site can
  recover
• Detects loss of key components and attempts to
  recover
• Notifies operator of need for action before
  needed
• Detects loss of hosts and prompts action
• Performs the steps to relocate a workload in the
  correct order
• Communicates with each supported data replication
  product

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Monitoring

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Host Loss/Relocation

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Host Relocation - Continued

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Host Relocation - Continued
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Relocated Host
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Restoring the Host
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Back to Normal Operation
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Unisys Business Continuity AcceleratorSummary

• Ensures continuous availability of applications
  and data
• Accelerates and automates
• Relocating a workload and associated data from a
  primary server to an alternate server
• Restarting a workload on an alternate server.
• Works with a data replication product (required)
• EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF)
• EMC MirrorView
• SafeGuard Duplex
• Host-based mirrored disk (MCP OS feature)
• An optional software product
• Introduced on MCP 12.0

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Where to Find More Information
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Internet Resources

• eCommunity.Unisys.com
• Repository for whitepapers, presentations,
  software release announcements, migration guides,
  catalogs, downloads, etc.
• Registration required
• ClearPath MCP Release 12.x
• ClearPath MCP Business Continuity
• SOA for ClearPath
• ClearPath ePortal
• ClearPath Secure Java
• MCP Secure Systems
• Workload Management for ClearPath MCP
• Support.Unisys.com
• Technical Documentation Libraries Internet Site
• No registration required to access documentation
• ClearPath MCP Release 12.0

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Recent Technical Whitepapers

• Business Continuity Automation in the ClearPath
  MCP Environment
• ClearPath MCP Java Application Architecture
  Environment Considerations  
• Java EE and ClearPath MCP
• Java Application Access to ClearPath MCP Data
• MCP Library Maintenance Tape Encryption
• Middleware Strategy and Products for ClearPath
  MCP systems
• Service-Oriented Architecture ClearPath Systems
  in SOA
• Service-Oriented Architecture Delivering for
  Business 
• Workload Management for ClearPath MCP
• All are available at eCommunity.Unisys.com 

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Webinars
Webinars will be archived at eCommunity.Unisys.com
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UNITE 2008 Annual Technology Conference

• Adapting to a Changing World
• Caribe Royale, Orlando, Florida
• October 19-22, 2008

• Learn about new products
• Participate in workshops
• Meet our technical experts

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