Database Reorgs With Minimal Downtime

ByMary Langen

Database Reorgs with Minimal Downtime for SAP on IBM i Clients

A subscription edition of MDRapid, Midrange Dynamics database management, is available to all IBM i businesses that have large files and need to restrict downtime to a matter of minutes while database updates are taking place.

“We were approached by IBM Lab Services team members who were familiar with MDRapid’s capabilities to help SAP on IBM i clients significantly reduce downtime,” says Michael Morgan, chief architect of the Midrange Dynamics solutions. “We were excited to add capability to MDRapid to make it available to a broader audience.”

With MDRapid, users can convert, reorganize large Db2 files, or create partition tables while their applications remain active and available to business users.

SAP tables can approach size limitations, so SAP on IBM i clients need to increase their capacity using table partitioning or reduce the size of large tables through archiving, followed by table reorganization. However, partitioning and reorganization require IBM Db2 for i to make significant changes to tables, and applications cannot access the tables while the changes are being made.

MDRapid operates in the background to migrate data to new file formats while applications are in use. Any changes made to the current version of the files are journaled and synchronized with a new version held in a staged library. MDRapid users can monitor progress, suspend, and restart the process, and troubleshoot when needed. Thanks to a low performance footprint, production users are not impacted.

MDRapid keeps the new version of the file up to date until it is time to stop the application and replace the original table with the newly partitioned or reorganized version. Swapping the tables takes minutes rather than hours for a dramatic reduction in downtime.

Since MDRapid is now available by subscription as a standalone tool, SAP on IBM i customers, or any organization, can take advantage of its rich functionality. Moving to modern, efficient database architecture is easier to achieve!