Reduce Downtime, Lessen Startup Problems While Migrating To A New IBM System i (iSeries)

To reduce the amount of downtime incurred during the migration process, and lessen exposure to unexpected startup problems, Adventist Health licensed Upgrade/Migrate While Active, offered by award-winning System i software vendor, Vision Solutions.

This robust synchronization and replication engine allowed Adventist Health's new System i 570 to run in parallel with the existing production server. With the two servers sitting side-by-side Vision's technicians accessed the 730 remotely over a secure VPN connection and installed iTera HA. The installation was completed with iTera HA for i5/OS installing itself automatically on the 570. "All of this was work performed during the day while users were still on the system," says Alcocer. Once they were synchronized, testing of the new 570 followed with no downtime on the production machine.

Without downtime on the production system, 800 gigabytes of data were synchronized to the 570 over the course of three evenings. "The libraries were huge and the AS/400 was already limping. Otherwise, I could have copied everything in five to six hours. There were no time-crunch issues though, and I did it without affecting users."

With both computers synchronized and testing completed, Alcocer logged active users off the old system and onto the new one. "We did this at midnight when the system starts a new admitting day," he says. Remarkably, Adventist Health's MS4 clinical applications were available to every staff member at all five hospitals in one-seventh of the time originally estimated.

According to Alcocer, "There were other alternatives, but Vision's product was the best. We cut our downtime to a fraction of what it would have otherwise been, and eliminated some staff scheduling problems. We would have had to cover a 20-hour migration with two shifts of technicians, which would have been difficult. Being able to run the two servers in parallel also eliminated unwelcome surprises at cutover time."

Following the successful use of Upgrade/Migrate While Active, Adventist Health now uses iTera HA for i5/OS high availability to protect its business. "This insulates us from a number of failures. We recently conducted a switch test that went very well and raised everyone's comfort level."