Home > Welcome to the IMS and DB2 - "Storage Aware" World

Welcome to the IMS and DB2 - "Storage Aware" World

On June 10th, Mainstar announced General Availability for the new Storage Plug-In module for We use the term “storage-aware” all the time – but what does it really mean, and how does it fit in with our product line? Here is a short primer on what we are talking about, and how it relates to our IMS and DB2 products:

What is “storage-aware"?

Storage-aware tools integrate storage processor fast-replication facilities with IMS and DB2 backup, recovery, and cloning operations to provide high availability solutions. Storage-aware tools provide instantaneous backups, reduce recovery time, simplify disaster recovery procedures, and provide fast cloning while using less CPU, I/O, and storage resources.

Why are ‘storage-aware’ tools important?

Storage-aware tools are important because they:

• Reduce backup, recovery, and cloning administration costs
• Offload CPU and I/O resource utilization to the storage processor
• Perform backups and create clone copies instantly
• Reduce recovery time through fast restore and parallel recovery
• Simplify disaster recovery operations and procedures
• DBMS and storage-based fast-replication integration
• Leverage storage processors and fast-replication investments
• Expose fast-replication capabilities to the DBAs safely and transparently using “storage-aware” database utilities
• Provide a sophisticated infrastructure and metadata to manage the DBMS and storage processor coordination

What is Database Backup and Recovery for IMS and Database Backup and Recovery for DB2?

• Database Backup and Recovery for IMS and Database Backup and Recovery for DB2 are storage-aware backup and recovery solutions that integrate storage processor fast-replication facilities with IMS and DB2 backup and recovery operations to allow instantaneous backups, reduce recovery time and simplify disaster recovery procedures while using less CPU, I/O, and storage resources.
• Database Backup and Recovery for IMS and Database Backup and Recovery for DB2 has integrated Intelligent Recovery and Disaster Recovery Managers that analyze recovery assets and establish optimal recovery procedures to minimize recovery time and recovery point objectives. Recovery jobs are tailored specifically to available backup and hardware resources.

What is Clone and Rename for IMS and Volume Clone and Rename?

• Clone and Rename for IMS (ICR) and its selectable feature Rapid Database Refresh for IMS (RDR) and Volume Clone and Rename (VCR) and its selectable feature Fast Table Space Refresh for DB2 (FTR) are storage-aware IMS and DB2 system cloning and data refresh solutions that use storage processor fast-replication facilities to clone IMS and DB2 systems and refresh IMS databases and DB2 table spaces fast and effectively. ICR, RDR, VCR and FTR simplify, automate, and speed up IMS and DB2 system cloning, IMS database and DB2 table space refresh operations. They use less CPU, I/O, and storage resources than traditional methods while maintaining high availability of production data. VCR can also clone non-DB2 data.