Enable continuous availability during an outage for business-critical workloads running on z/OS®
Overview
The Multi-site Workload Lifeline, also known as "Lifeline," is a software for monitoring and routing workloads. Its purpose is to balance critical workload transactions by distributing connections for TCP/IP workloads and messages for IBM® MQ cluster workloads across two sites, thereby ensuring near-continuous availability.
This product is available both as an independent offering and as part of the GDPS® Continuous Availability solution.
Features
Lifeline uses two tiers of load balancing for workloads targeting TCP/IP applications. Lifeline directs first-tier load balancers to route workload connections to second-tier load balancers in the selected site, which then route the connections to applications in the site. Lifeline relies on IBM MQ clusters for workloads by using messaging. Lifeline directs the cluster to route workload messages to IBM MQ queue managers in the selected site, which then make the messages available to applications.
For workloads that use two tiers of load balancers, Lifeline provides first-tier load balancers with site connection routing recommendations based on the availability and health of the workload applications, the z/OS systems and (if applicable) Linux® on IBM Z® systems across both sites. For workloads that use IBM MQ clusters, Lifeline provides the cluster with site message routing recommendations based on the availability and health of the IBM MQ queue managers and the z/OS systems across both sites.
A Lifeline Agent is started on each z/OS system and Linux on Z Management Guest where the workloads are present across both sites. The Agent is responsible for monitoring the workload applications that reside on its system and reporting this information back to a Lifeline Advisor. The Agent on z/OS is also responsible for communicating with an IBM MQ queue manager to monitor and influence IBM MQ message routing within an IBM MQ cluster.
A Lifeline Advisor is started on a z/OS system and can be started as the primary or secondary Advisor. A primary Advisor communicates with all Lifeline Agents to determine workload availability. The Advisor provides IBM MQ message distribution rules to the Agents for the IBM MQ clusters and routing recommendations to load balancers for TCP connections for these workloads. A secondary Advisor monitors the availability of the primary Advisor and will take over primary Advisor responsibility in the event of a primary Advisor failure.
Lifeline uses two tiers of load balancing for workloads targeting TCP/IP applications. Lifeline directs first-tier load balancers to route workload connections to second-tier load balancers in the selected site, which then route the connections to applications in the site. Lifeline relies on IBM MQ clusters for workloads by using messaging. Lifeline directs the cluster to route workload messages to IBM MQ queue managers in the selected site, which then make the messages available to applications.
For workloads that use two tiers of load balancers, Lifeline provides first-tier load balancers with site connection routing recommendations based on the availability and health of the workload applications, the z/OS systems and (if applicable) Linux® on IBM Z® systems across both sites. For workloads that use IBM MQ clusters, Lifeline provides the cluster with site message routing recommendations based on the availability and health of the IBM MQ queue managers and the z/OS systems across both sites.
A Lifeline Agent is started on each z/OS system and Linux on Z Management Guest where the workloads are present across both sites. The Agent is responsible for monitoring the workload applications that reside on its system and reporting this information back to a Lifeline Advisor. The Agent on z/OS is also responsible for communicating with an IBM MQ queue manager to monitor and influence IBM MQ message routing within an IBM MQ cluster.
A Lifeline Advisor is started on a z/OS system and can be started as the primary or secondary Advisor. A primary Advisor communicates with all Lifeline Agents to determine workload availability. The Advisor provides IBM MQ message distribution rules to the Agents for the IBM MQ clusters and routing recommendations to load balancers for TCP connections for these workloads. A secondary Advisor monitors the availability of the primary Advisor and will take over primary Advisor responsibility in the event of a primary Advisor failure.
Workload configurations
When an outage occurs, IBM Multi-site Workload Lifeline helps reduce critical workload recovery time versus traditional disaster recovery from hours to minutes. The recovery time for unplanned outages is reduced by detecting workload failures and rerouting to another site. The impact of planned outages is mitigated by switching workloads to another site with minimal disruption.
Lifeline supports these workload types:
TCP/IP based workloads
Linux on z Systems® workloads
SNA workloads
IBM MQ cluster workloads
Db2® sysplex routed workloads
Resources
Learn to convert an existing MQ environment with shared channels to a cluster and how to configure Lifeline to support a workload that uses an MQ cluster.
Read use cases that describe the integration of Lifeline with F5’s BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager.
Explore IBM Multi-site Workload Lifeline Version 2.5.0 document
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