TANDsoft Unveils Compare and Repair Capabilities for Active/Active Environments

TANDsoft continues to innovate its offerings and to see traction in solution adoption, with several recent new customer acquisitions. One of the key new product capabilities is the added support for comparison and repair in active/active environments. In this article, we’ll highlight this new feature, and we’ll provide a current look at our other offerings. 

New Version of FS Compare and Repair Offers Active/Active Support

For those unfamiliar with the solution, FS Compare and Repair offers fast, advanced capabilities for ensuring data consistency between databases and helping teams meet compliance mandates. FS Compare and Repair can validate and repair HPE NonStop Enscribe files, OSS files, and SQL/MP and SQL/MX tables. In addition, the solution supports all online replicators that teams may be using.

To date, customers have typically used FS Compare and Repair in environments in which a production database is being compared against a disaster recovery (DR) database. With the solution, teams can ensure production and DR systems are always 100% in synch. If discrepancies between the production database and the DR system arise, they can quickly be flagged and addressed.

The Need for Active/Active Support

As they look to meet today’s demands for 24×7 service, it is getting increasingly common for teams to run NonStop systems in an active/active configuration. By employing systems in an active/active configuration, teams can ensure continuous availability. Through these approaches, organizations can be better positioned to avoid downtime, and the massive costs, compliance issues, and negative publicity it can present. 

In an active/active environment, multiple distributed processing nodes operate in support of a common application and use distributed copies of the application database. If a failure should occur anywhere in the application network, transactions just need to be rerouted to a surviving node.

In active/active environments, failover can happen instantaneously. As a result, users never know there was a potential issue, and teams can realize continuous availability. 

Challenges Posed by Active/Active Environments

Doing file comparison and repair in these active/active environments isn’t as straightforward as it is in a traditional production/DR scenario. In these traditional scenarios, any time there’s a discrepancy, it is understood that the production system is correct and the DR system needs to be updated. In other words, updates only go in one direction. 

As outlined above, in active/active environments, multiple systems are actively handling workloads. Therefore, discrepancies aren’t that simple to resolve. Updates may need to go in both directions.

For example, if active system A has a record that active system B lacks, it could mean different things. It may be that the record should be removed from system A. Alternatively, it could mean that the record should be added to system B. This complexity is a key reason why, to date, NonStop customers haven’t been able to leverage a commercial compare and repair solution for active/active environments. 

The Solution

Now, with release 4.3, FS Compare and Repair offers support for these active/active environments. Administrators can set policies as to which database gets updated, and ensure those policies are consistently applied any time a discrepancy is discovered. 

More Solutions from TANDsoft

In addition to FS Compare and Repair, TANDsoft offers these solutions:

• FileSync. To meet their continuity objectives, leading organizations rely on FileSync, our pioneering replication and synchronization solution. FileSync employs a market-leading, block-level approach that offers breakthrough speed and scalability. FileSync automatically monitors, replicates, and synchronizes files in a range of application environments. The solution can synchronize source files, program files, and configuration files. With these capabilities, teams can do effective system migrations, disaster recovery, and upgrades.
• FS Backup and Restore. Most OLTP payment environments suffer considerable delay and network overhead from backups that drag on for hours. With this solution, teams can reduce those times to minutes. FS Backup and Restore detects file data block modifications and saves them to disk or archives them to the HPE backup utility. Plus, the solution can quickly retrieve saved modifications from disk and apply them to recreate the original file contents. 
• E-2-S 4.0. With E-2-S 4.0, your organization can move from Enscribe to SQL/MP and SQL/MX, and do so with maximum flexibility and efficiency, and minimal cost and effort. E-2-S 4.0 enables easy conversion of Enscribe calls to SQL/MP and SQL/MX—without any modifications to Enscribe apps.
• OPTA2000. OPTA2000 provides date, time, and time zone simulation for all NonStop applications and databases.

Conclusion

To learn more about our solutions, be sure to visit tandsoft.com. In addition, you can see demos of our solutions at upcoming NonStop events. The TANDsoft team participated in the 2022 NonStop Technical Boot Camp, which took place in November. TANDsoft will also be presenting at the upcoming SUNTUG Sunshine Summit, which is taking place March 3 and 4, 2023, in Tampa, Florida.

TANDsoft wishes you a Healthy and Happy Holiday Season and New Year.