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Integrated Cluster solution on AIX: Move from TSA to PowerHA

See this idea on ideas.ibm.com

DB2 has moved from TSA (Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms) to Pacemaker as integrated clustering solution on Linux. We use TSA in production, and we think this is a wise move, as TSA is not robust and manageable enough for a dependable solution.

AIX, however, seems very dependable to us. To make it possible to build the best possible DB2 environment (from a robustness perspective), AIX on Power seems a logical choice and should be supported by a solid integrated clustering solution.

Therefore we strongly support the idea to move away from TSA in AIX towards PowerHA, as PowerHA has a very strong track record providing a tried and tested highly available environment. From our experience it also surpasses Pacemaker easily and should be the first choice for building the most resilient DB2 setups.

In the end TSA as integrated clustering solution could be deprecated completely and the respectively best implementation per OS could be used to build a strong base for DB2, especially Purescale.

Needed By Quarter
  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jan 29, 2025

    Hi Siji Daniel,

    Thank you for the additional clarification.
    So we will strategically move to DB2 Purescale on AIX and (have to) use TSA for that. We also will try to make sure that we work together closely with the TSA support team to make sure we get the robustness we expect for our mission critical installation.

    Of course, if there is any progress in the future regarding the consideration of PowerHA for Purescale we would be fully supportive and help in any way we can to further improve the reliability of DB2 Purescale on AIX.

    Regards,

    Matthias Hofer

  • Admin
    Siji Daniel
    Reply
    |
    Jan 28, 2025

    Hello Matthias.
    Thank you for your valuable feedback - we hear you. There is always room to improve the user experience. From the Db2 perspective, we continue to surface user feedback like this in our collaboration with TSA and AIX development to drive improvements. You can also let AIX and TSA teams know in any support cases and Ideas raised for those products.

    Pacemaker adoption on Linux is aligned with IBM investment in open source technology and listening to our customers' needs. To reiterate, TSA remains our strategic choice of integrated cluster manager on AIX. We remain fully committed to supporting our Db2 customers on AIX for foreseeable future.

    Regarding PowerHA, thank you for the opportunity to clarify. pureScale is built and tested in a tight technology stack using TSA and has Db2 wrapper scripts and tools to enable cluster management. However, customers using PowerHA as the cluster manager can apply it to HADR or DPF environments only at this time, and manage their set up independent of Db2.


  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Jan 28, 2025

    Hi Siji Daniel,

    Thank you very much for your feedback.

    Regarding the "As technology evolves" I can only state that I must hope, that IBM's TSA will evolve, as we saw no qualitative improvements in the last ten years. Do you have any insight if TSA will be improved/worked over in the next years?
    Alone the decision to move to Pacemaker on Linux seems to show some lost trust in the DB2 Purescale team towards TSA, and PowerHA is evolving relatively quickly.

    Anyway, can you point me to some clarification as to what can be done with a "non-integrated cluster manager" solution (like PowerHA) compared to the "integrated" one (TSA on AIX)? Can we implement Purescale without TSA, replacing it ourselves with the "non-integrated cluster" solution?

    Thanks again, and Greetings!

    Matthias Hofer

  • Admin
    Siji Daniel
    Reply
    |
    Jan 27, 2025

    Hello. Thank you for submitting this Idea. We have reviewed this internally.

    We acknowledge your experiences with and value your feedback on AIX and TSA. At this time, TSA remains our strategic choice of integrated cluster manager on AIX. The decision is based on selecting the technology stack that best meets Db2 requirements for both pureScale and HA functions. Unfortunately, there are no plans in the near-term to integrate PowerHA as cluster manager. As such, this idea is not under consideration at this time. As technology evolves, we will reassess feasibility in future.

    However, PowerHA is an option on AIX for use as a non-integrated cluster manager today.

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Nov 19, 2024

    PowerHA! PowerHA! PowerHA!

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Nov 19, 2024

    PowerHA would be great!

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Nov 19, 2024

    PowerHA <3

  • Guest
    Reply
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    Nov 19, 2024

    Hi Guest!

    How does Pacemaker compare with PowerHA or TSA in your experience?

    Thanks!

  • Guest
    Reply
    |
    Nov 19, 2024

    Pacemaker! Pacemaker! Pacemaker!