Protect your OSS Data with Active/Active Data Replication

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NonStop customer uses HPE Shadowbase solutions to provide disaster recovery for large, complex OSS Files.

Situation

A large and growing U.S. gas and convenience chain has over 3,500 stores, and is rapidly expanding. It uses Verifone (formerly AJB) point-of-sale and loyalty rewards applications on HPE NonStop systems using SQL/MX.

Most of the application runs in the OSS space, and it uses OSS Regular files for TX logs. The chain has future plans for continuous application availability.

Figure 1 — Original Architecture

Problem

No business continuity solution
SQL/MX tables and the OSS transaction log present backup challenges (e.g., data types and volume)

Solution

Phase 1: Disaster Recovery (Step 1)
- Use HPE Shadowbase Business Continuity (active/passive) for disaster recovery (DR)
- Use HPE Shadowbase Essentials (SOLVUTIL) to create a backup copy of the OSS Log
- Use HPE Shadowbase Compare to validate the BC data
Phase 2: Active / Active (Partitioned) (Steps 2-5)
- Applications and/or data are partitioned (Transactions are routed to a specific node based on data content)

Chain’s New DR Architecture

Outcomes

Phase 1
- Meets the minimum business continuity requirement checkbox with Disaster Recovery that can be verified
- HPE Shadowbase software fully satisfies the chain’s needs across two file system types
  - SQL/MX requires special processing to properly replicate (e.g., IDENTITY and SEQUENCE columns)
  - OSS transaction log (flat files) produce massive data volumes
- Strategically positioned chain with a flexible replication engine for new architectures such as Continuous Availability
- Allows for verification/validation of the business continuity data (both the SQL/MX data and the OSS Regular TX flat files) without taking an outage
Phase 2
- Users load balanced across nodes (pre-assigned a primary node)
- Avoids data collisions
- Fewer users are affected at failover
- Less data loss at failover

HPE Shadowbase Products of Interest

Phase 1
- HPE NonStop Shadowbase Basic Replication Software (BE441AC/QSA49V6)
- HPE NonStop Shadowbase Compare Software (BE445AC/QSA53V6)
- HPE NonStop Shadowbase Essentials Software (BE446AC/QSA54V6)
Phase 2 (additional required products)
- HPE NonStop Shadowbase Advanced Replication Software (BE442AC/QSA50V6)