Z Mainframe Availability and Resiliency Service (ZMARS)
What is zMARS?
Z Mainframe Availability and Resiliency Service (ZMARS) is a service designed to enhance your Db2 server’s resilience, continuous application service availability, recovery speed, and system performance.
A resilient IT environment is crucial for maintaining uninterrupted operations. It is well-prepared for unexpected outages and can quickly recover from any downtime. To ensure that normal operations continue seamlessly, without any interruptions, your business needs to plan for unexpected outages and provide instant fast recovery and restart options.
Database downtime can have serious negative impacts on your business. The consequences can range from fines, GDPR violations, and regulatory compliance issues to reputational damage and negative PR.
ZMARS begins with a thorough technical examination aimed at uncovering potential vulnerabilities and areas for improvement within your Db2 server environment.
The ZMARS service consists of multiple modules, giving you the flexibility to choose which ones to include or prioritise based on your specific needs. Each ZMARS study will be customised for you, based on the modules you select. Below is the complete list of available modules.
Key Phases
Z Mainframe Availability and Resiliency Service (ZMARS) covers four key phases
Phase One: Data Collection and Analysis
We will request information to help us understand your environment and prepare for Phase Two. This data will include an overview and schematic of your environment, along with data relevant to the modules you have selected.
Phase Two: In-depth Interviews
The Triton Study team will use the provided information to schedule and conduct interviews to understand your business’s needs for availability and resilience. The interviews will include targeted questions tailored to your specific module, environment, requirements, and the information collected from the data analysis in Phase One.
Phase Three: Creation and Delivery of Study Reports
After conducting the interviews, we will create and share two study reports with prioritised findings and recommendations. You will receive a draft for your review and feedback, followed by two more versions presented to your executive and technical teams.
Phase Four: Optional Follow-on Implementation
Following the study report, if you require assistance in the project management and implementation of the Study recommendations (in part or in full), then Triton will be happy to provide that assistance based on an agreed schedule.
Database Backup and Recovery
Is your backup and recovery strategy tailored for optimised, safe local recovery in scenarios ranging from single object recovery to mass recovery after logical data corruption?
Database Housekeeping
How effective is your housekeeping strategy – REORG, REBIND, statistics collection – at ensuring stable, predictable performance and efficient use of machine resources?
Db2 for z/OS Single Points of Failure
This key module focusses on identifying single points of failure, and your strategy to restore/continue services as quickly and transparently as possible in the event of failure.
Software Maintenance
Do your software maintenance practices minimise the risks to service availability caused by software defects while still providing the functionality required by your business?
Disaster Recovery
Do you have a tried and tested plan to perform disaster restart/recovery in the event your primary production site is no longer operational?
ZPARMS
Do your ZPARMS conform to recommended best practice, are they in line with your availability and resilience policies, and are key ZPARMS specified consistently across the data sharing group?
Workload Manager
Are you configured defensively to maximise service availability in the event of contention for machine resources, realising your service level objectives, and ensuring your business critical workloads are protected from unplanned spikes in resource usage?
CICS Attach
Have you configured your CICS-Db2 attachment defensively, with regards to workload distribution, application affinities, thread management, CPU optimisation, and handling of in-doubt transactions?
IMS Attach
Have you configured your IMS-Db2 attachment defensively, with regards to workload distribution, application affinities, IMS message region configuration, and CPU optimisation?
Db2 for z/OS Automation
Does your automation solution capture relevant Db2 exception messages and trigger automated action, to support your day-to-day operations and add an extra layer of robustness to your strategy for resilience and availability?
Db2 for z/OS Application Design and Quality Assurance
Have you set up robust SQL DML and DDL standards which are policed and enforced, to prevent poor database design and badly behaved applications from being promoted to production where they can compromise service availability?
Distributed Application Connectivity to Db2 for z/OS
Have you configured your distributed environment optimally, focussing on client configuration, workload balancing, resilience, and efficient resource utilisation?
Db2 System and Application Performance Monitoring
Do your real-time monitoring and historical performance reporting practices help you proactively identify and prevent service disruptions caused by performance and workload deviations from the normal?
Why Triton
At Triton, we not only help you understand the risks but also assist you in preparing for events such as database downtime which can lead to fines, compliance breaches, reputational damage, and negative PR.
The ZMARS study will be led by John Campbell, IBM Alumni, retired IBM Distinguished Engineer and previous leader of the Db2 for z/OS SWAT team. John has worked with Db2 for z/OS for over 40 years and has extensive experience in systems, databases, and application design.
Triton’s ZMARS consultants are specialists with extensive technical expertise, dedicated to collaborating with C-level teams. Each of our ZMARS consultants brings over 30 years of experience with Db2.
Committed to delivering measurable business results, Triton identifies risks and implements preventive measures.
Specialising in independent, unbiased advice, Triton’s experienced Db2 consultants help organisations optimise their database systems for improved performance, reliability, and efficiency.