Try the no-risk approach to testing out mainframe data replication on the Cloud with a tcVISION Proof of Concept

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development / Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Many Treehouse Software customers have discovered that they can save weeks, or months in their mainframe modernization initiatives by doing a tcVISION Proof of Concept (POC) for Mainframe-to-Cloud data replication. Depending on the complexity of the customer’s project, a tcVISION POC generally lasts as little as 10 business days after the product is installed and all connectivity is set up between the mainframe and Cloud environments. Treehouse Software provides documentation beforehand that outlines all of the requirements and agenda for the POC, and Treehouse technicians assist in downloading and installing tcVISION.

The customer provides a representative subset of z/OS or z/VSE mainframe data (e.g., Db2, Adabas, VSAM, IMS/DB, CA IDMS, CA DATACOM, etc.), use case, and goals for the POC, and the Treehouse team mentors the customer’s technical team via remote screen sharing sessions. The application is executed on customer facilities, in a non-production environment, and a limited-scope implementation of a tcVISION application is conducted to prove that the product meets the customer’s desired use case.

By the end of the POC, customers will have replicated mainframe data on their Cloud target, tested out product capabilities, and demonstrated a successful, repeatable data replication process, with documented results. After the tcVISION POC, the customer has all the connectivity and processes in place to begin setting up the production phase of their mainframe data modernization project. The minimal cost, in terms of human resources and time makes a tcVISION POC a valuable ROI in the customer’s mainframe modernization journey.

A key advantage for customers is once tcVISION is up and running, their legacy mainframe environment can continue as long as needed, while they replicate data – in real time and bi-directionally – on the new Cloud platform. Now the enterprise can quickly take advantage of the latest Cloud services, such as analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), etc., as well as move data to a variety of highly available and secure databases and data stores.

About tcVISION…

Many Cloud and Systems Integration partners are recommending tcVISION from Treehouse Software for Mainframe-to-Cloud modernization projects. tcVISION focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and Cloud targets. Through an innovative technology, changes occurring in any mainframe application data are tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of RDBMS and other targets.

Additionally, tcVISION utilizes a Windows-based GUI Control Board, which is ideal for non-mainframe programmers. While mainframe experts are required in the design/architecture phase during the POC and occasionally during implementation, the requirement for their involvement is limited. The tcVISION Control Board acts as a single point of administration, data modeling and mapping, script generation, and monitoring. Comprehensive monitoring and logging of all data movements ensure transparency across all data exchange processes.

Further reading…

Treehouse Software is an AWS Technology Partner and tcVISION is a Validated AWS Qualified Software. The AWS Partner Network published a blog about tcVISION, which describes how tcVISION allows legacy mainframe environments to continue, while replicating data on highly available and secure AWS targets.

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Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…

Simply fill out our tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will be contacting you to set up a time for your requested demonstration.

Treehouse Software, Inc. helps US Foods® with their Mainframe Modernization Initiative

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development / Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

 

Treehouse Software, Inc. is pleased to announce that we were chosen by US Foods for their mainframe data modernization initiatives using the tcVISION Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems data replication product.  

Treehouse Software is the worldwide distributor of tcVISION, the leading tool for using change data capture (CDC) for synchronizing mainframe data with real-time and bi-directional data replication. tcVISION’s intuitive data modeling and mapping, and ease of migrating data, made it the ideal choice for helping to modernize the large mainframe environment at US Foods.  

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“The entire Treehouse Software team is excited about working with US Foods to make their modernization initiatives a success!” – George Szakach, CEO and President at Treehouse Software

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About US Foods

With a promise to help its customers Make It, US Foods is one of America’s great food companies and a leading foodservice distributor, partnering with approximately 250,000 restaurants and foodservice operators to help their businesses succeed. With 70 broadline locations and more than 80 cash and carry stores, US Foods and its 28,000 associates provides its customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology and business solutions. US Foods is headquartered in Rosemont, Ill. Visit https://www.usfoods.com/  to learn more.

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

Simply fill out our tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will be contacting you to set up a time for your requested demonstration.

Treehouse Software – 40 Years and Still Moving Forward (Part 3)

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc. 

Introduction

Many readers know that Treehouse Software has been around since 1983, serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading software products and outstanding technical support. This blog series has discussed Treehouse Software’s origins and the growth of the software company from the early 1980s up to the present.

Change is in the Air, and in the Clouds…

Parts 1 and 2 of this series illustrated the solid beginnings of Treehouse Software in the 80’s and 90’s.  Several products were developed and introduced.  Marketing representatives were acquired in several countries around the globe.  Also, other companies with valuable products sought out Treehouse Software to sell and support their offerings.

In the late 90’s and the early 2000s, we began to experience certain customers’ needs to have Adabas data moved (migrated/copied/converted/distributed) to other database systems.  We developed the tRelational/DPS product set to analyze their Adabas data and structure, and move this data to other relational database systems (RDBMS) such as Oracle, Db2, etc.  This complicated product was our foray into the mainstream of our customers’ mainframe IT processing.  Millions of records of initial data needed to be materialized (ETL) efficiently, and a Change Data Capture (CDC) capability was imperative.  Mission accomplished.

In the early 2000s, some customers required real-time CDC.  This led to the development of DPSync, so named because it kept Adabas data in Sync with the target RDBMS; but this was limited to uni-directional replication.

Requests began coming in for bi-directional (e.g., moving data back to Adabas from Oracle).  Then it was Oracle-to-Db2.  And vice versa – and more variations.  We investigated companies purporting to do data migration from/to various database systems.  In 2007, we found a company with a product already developed and proven, that could in fact move data from/to practically all known database systems at that time.  We partnered with B.O.S. of Germany for Treehouse to do worldwide sales, marketing, support, demos, POCs, training, etc., for that impressive, growing product set, tcVISION.

tcVISION caught on quickly with some of our existing customers of Adabas, but the significant interest commenced when the Cloud took hold.  The Cloud was not just a remote data center, or a place to archive large amounts of data, but has capabilities and features that would attract our types of customers with mainframes and terabytes of data. Enterprise cutomers needed tools that allowed them the connectivity to take advantage of Cloud-based technologies, such as highly available and scalable databases; advanced analytics and security; machine learning and artificalial intelligence; data warehouses and stores; and the list goes on.  This shaped the future direction of Treehouse Software.  More on this in the next blog.

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About Treehouse Software

Since 1983, Treehouse Software has been serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading mainframe software products and outstanding technical support. Today, Treehouse Software is a global leader in providing data replication, and integration solutions for the most complex and demanding heterogeneous environments, as well as feature-rich, accelerated-ROI offerings for information delivery, and application modernization.

Contact Treehouse Software

Treehouse Software – 40 Years and Still Moving Forward (Part 2)

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc. 

Introduction

Many readers know that Treehouse Software has been around since 1983, serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading software products and outstanding technical support. This blog series will dig a little deeper into Treehouse Software’s origins and explore how founder and president, George Szakach blazed a trail from being a programmer and manager in the 1960s and 1970s, to creating and growing his own software company from the early 1980s up to the present.

Treehouse First Generations… 1980s – 90s

As mentioned in Part 1 of this series, George’s foundational mainframe experience from 1960 to 1975, combined with skills honed from 1975 to 1982 at Software AG, planted the seeds for the next step, building Treehouse Software. George explains:

“Treehouse Software was started during Christmas of 1982, with a consulting assignment I decided to take in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia doing ADABAS performance analysis and tuning.  In addition, I was asked to teach the customer how to use ADAMINT (which I get credit for developing from July 1975 through May 1979 – or blame, take your pick).  I thoroughly enjoyed my 10 weeks in the Kingdom, where I became a big fan of pistachio nuts. 

Treehouse Software was incorporated in mid-1984 in Sewickley, PA.  The plan then was to provide consulting and educational services to SAG sites, while developing software products related to the SAG enterprise.  The services might sell the products, and vice versa.  It worked and still works.  I started hiring help almost immediately as the demand for products and services was growing.

By the way, Sewickley is a small town near Pittsburgh where the oil, steel, coal barons of the 1800s and early 1900s had their summer homes up the hill from the river.  The 100-year-old horse-and-wagon trails and stone walls around the estates can still be seen.”

The Sewickley Bridge spans the Ohio River between Sewickley and Moon Township, PA.

Some interesting facts about Treehouse Software, Inc.

By the end of the 20^th century, Treehouse designed, developed, and released ten products, most notably:

• TRIM, ADABAS and Natural Performance Monitor
• Auditre, Auditing Tool for ADABAS
• N2O, Change Management System for Natural
• SECURITRE, Security System for ADABAS, Natural, and ADABAS Utilities
• tRelational/DPS, ADABAS-to-RDBMS Data Replication Package
• DPSync, Real-time ADABAS-to-RDBMS

Treehouse also marketed several additional products from companies around the world.  Most were related to ADABAS.

Other miscellaneous Treehouse happenings last century:

• Taught classes for over 4000 students, ADABAS and Natural related, and related to Treehouse products. 
• Partnered with 20 affiliates or marketing representatives in various countries, topping out at 14 around 1990.
• Produced 55 issues of the popular Treetips newsletter, with a hard-copy circulation of 13,000 per issue.
• Attended 11 Software AG conferences.
• Presented at 90 regional and local Software AG meetings in various countries.
• Visited affiliates, customers, and partners in at least 24 countries on all continents except Antarctica.
• Invited to Oracle Conference in 1995, in Philadelphia, where Emilie Szakach entertained the crowd with an on-stage dance with Chubby Checker.
• Bought four IBM mainframes for the company.
• Hired many top notch programmers and analysts, tech writers, support personnel.
• Along with most of the world, we awaited and prepared for the feared Y2K debacle, which didn’t happen. However, as the year 2000 approached, one of Treehouse’s most popular and most requested give-aways ever, was our Y2K desk clock…

Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes…

Along with many new products, innovations, and memorable, contributing staff moving through the doors of the Treehouse, we’ve also had several iterations of the company logo and colors, as seen in the following graphic. Do you have a favorite?

Coming soon… Part 3: Change is in the Air, and in the Clouds…    

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About Treehouse Software

Since 1983, Treehouse Software has been serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading mainframe software products and outstanding technical support. Today, Treehouse Software is a global leader in providing data replication, and integration solutions for the most complex and demanding heterogeneous environments, as well as feature-rich, accelerated-ROI offerings for information delivery, and application modernization.

Contact Treehouse Software

Government and Infrastructure Customers are Looking to Modernize Their Crucial Mainframe Data on Highly Available, Scalable, and Secure Cloud Databases

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development / Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Everyone has seen the recent headlines about how aging and outdated technology nearly crippled the airline industry. As a result, modernizing and securing information systems has taken center stage and top priority again. Even before the airline IT disaster, the COVID-19 crisis was a critical event that forced modernization to become a strategic imperative for government, supply chain, healthcare, utilities/energy, financial, and defense industries. All of these sectors have critical data residing on a variety of long-standing mainframe databases (often still updated by COBOL applications), including Db2, VSAM, IMS/DB, Adabas, IDMS, Datacom, and sequential files. Unlocking the value of this important data can be difficult, because the data is often utilized by numerous interlinked and dependent programs that have been in place for decades.

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“The Federal Aviation Administration’s 30-year-old hazard-notification system recently had its first crash ever to cause a nationwide grounding of flights. The incident is focusing a bright light on the outdated federal computer systems that, IT experts say, are increasingly vulnerable to failure and cyberattack.” – Source: Christian Science Monitor Daily

Read the entire article here: Bringing US up to code: How outdated software has become a safety issue

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As a result of this renewed push to modernize IT systems, Treehouse Software has been seeing a significant increase in requests from Cloud platform partners, government agencies, and other infrastructure customers to evaluate modernization solutions that replicate data, in real time, on highly available and secure Cloud-based databases, data warehouses, etc.. Fortunately, Treehouse has the deep mainframe expertise and software tools to help. 

Since 1983, Treehouse Software has been working with many of these enterprises with mainframes in the areas of data migration, security, control, auditing, performance enhancement, etc.. Treehouse has also expanded its capabilities to focus on new requirements for modernizing legacy mainframe databases on various Cloud and open systems platforms with the tcVISION mainframe data replication product.  tcVISION is the primary tool  in Treehouse Software’s “data-first” approach, whereby immediate data replication to the Cloud helps customers get on the fast track to meeting spikes in demand for vital information, especially in times of crisis.

Some examples of popular Cloud databases supported by tcVISION are Amazon RDS PostgreSQL, Google Cloud SQL for SQL Server, and Azure SQL-Database. A complete list of data sources and targets that are supported by tcVISION can be found here.

Replicating mainframe data on the Cloud can happen within days during a tcVISION Proof of Concept (POC)…

After setup and installation, a tcVISION POC is approximately 10 business days, with the customer providing a small subset of data and use case for the POC. A Treehouse Software technician will assist in downloading and installing tcVISION and conducting a limited-scope implementation of a tcVISION application. This application uses a small subset of customer data and executes on customer facilities, usually in a non-production environment. A document is provided beforehand for the customer to fill out their requirements, use cases, and agenda for the POC.

By the end of the 10-day POC, customers can replicate and test mainframe data on their Cloud target database.  It can happen that fast!

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Further Reading…

Treehouse Software and AWS published a blog about tcVISION’s Mainframe-to-AWS data replication capabilities:

https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/real-time-mainframe-data-replication-to-aws-with-tcvision-from-treehouse-software/

Treehouse Software and Confluent recently co-authored a blog on modernizing on Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Environments:

https://www.confluent.io/blog/modern-data-management-for-hybrid-and-multi-cloud-architectures/

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Contact Treehouse Software for a tcVISION Demo Today…

Simply fill out our tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will be contacting you to set up a time for your requested demonstration.

Treehouse Software – 40 Years and Still Moving Forward (Part 1)

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc. 

Introduction

Many readers know that Treehouse Software has been around since 1983, serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading software products and outstanding technical support. However, this blog series will dig a little deeper into Treehouse Software’s origins and explore how founder and president, George Szakach blazed a trail from being a systems programmer in the early 60s, to creating and growing his own software company from the early 80s up to the present.

The beginnings… 1960’s.  Moon Landing, Flower Power, the Righteous Brothers, and Punched Cards

George is a Vietnam-era veteran and started working with mainframes in 1960 while in the Army. 

After programming school in Fort Monmouth, NJ, George was assigned to Fort Huachuca, Arizona where he wrote army related applications on the IBM 709.

Before leaving the army in 1963, George had many job offers.  Three years of programming experience was unheard-of back then, so his skillset was very valuable.  He was even offered a job by the president of Informatics, working in Houston at the NASA Johnson Space Center to “put a man on the moon.”  He declined.

Throughout the rest of the 60s, George worked at Burroughs, Univac, and Leasco. During the 70s through 1982, George worked for Ocean Data Systems, Data General, Optical Recognition Systems, Software AG (his longest stint – 7 years), and Superior Oil.

Punched card…

IBM 709 Computer System…

George’s archeological finds from his time at Univac…

With all of this foundational mainframe experience combined with his skills honed at Software AG, the seeds were planted for George’s future: take those roots, move to the trees, and build a house… 

Coming soon… Part 2: Treehouse Software’s first generations.    

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About Treehouse Software

Since 1983, Treehouse Software has been serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading mainframe software products and outstanding technical support. Today, Treehouse Software is a global leader in providing data replication, and integration solutions for the most complex and demanding heterogeneous environments, as well as feature-rich, accelerated-ROI offerings for information delivery, and application modernization.

Contact Treehouse Software

AWS Services Provide Advanced Monitoring and Analytics of tcVISION’s Mainframe CDC Processing

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Many Treehouse Software mainframe modernization customers have requirements for continuous near-real-time replication of mainframe data in order to keep a copy of the data synchronized on the Cloud. These customers are using tcVISION from Treehouse Software for changed data capture (CDC) for this synchronization, which allows changes occurring in any mainframe application data to be tracked and captured, and then published to a variety of AWS targets, including Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Some of these customers are also now asking us to recommend the best Cloud-based tools and methods to monitor and gain insights to these complex data processes. Coincidentally, while working with a current tcVISION customer, our technicians are testing out two particularly good, fully managed AWS services that can work hand-in-hand to address this need:

Amazon Athena

Since tcVISION supports Amazon S3 as a target, customers modernizing their mainframe systems on AWS can use Amazon Athena for monitoring and analysis of CDC processing from an S3 bucket.

Amazon Athena is a serverless, interactive analytics service built on open-source frameworks, supporting open-table and file formats. Athena provides a simplified, flexible way to analyze data from an S3 Bucket, as well as many other data sources, including on-premises data sources or other Cloud systems. Athena is built on open-source Trino and Presto engines and Apache Spark frameworks, with no provisioning or configuration effort required.

Figure 1: Example of an Athena query showing bulk-load statistics per table

Amazon QuickSight

Once Athena is setup for monitoring an S3 Bucket, users can easily view their CDC processing and analytics with Amazon QuickSight. QuickSight utilizes advanced machine learning-powered insights and intuitive dashboards, so end users can make the best and quickest data-driven business decisions.

Figure 2: Example of Amazon QuickSight monitoring the throughput of our data to Snowflake

Figure 3: Example of Amazon QuickSight pie chart showing the resulting rows loaded for each Snowflake table:

Figure 4: Example of Amazon QuickSight chart showing statistics for our data bulk-load into Snowflake:

Figure 5: Example of Amazon QuickSight chart showing our load time into Snowflake per table:

View the Amazon QuickSite video here…

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Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

Just fill out the Treehouse Software tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

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Treehouse Software Salutes Franco Harris

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc. 

With the recent passing of Pittsburgh Steelers great running back and Pro Football Hall of Famer, Franco Harris, we would like to revisit April of 1993, when Treehouse Software held an international consultant’s symposium. The symposium brought together attendees and speakers from many consulting and technology companies, and schools from around the world. Since Treehouse Software is located in the greater Pittsburgh area, company president George Szakach was acquainted with Franco and invited him to deliver a fascinating and entertaining address, where he spoke about his career, several business ventures he was pursuing, as well as his budding interest in computer technology.

Franco Harris at Treehouse Software’s Consultant’s Symposium (April 1993)

A few years ago, George reminded Franco about his visit to Treehouse back in 1993. He remembered and they shared some laughs and memories. 

We would also like to mention Franco’s well-known sense of community and accessibility in Pittsburgh. Many staff members have met Franco over the years and have fond memories of his friendliness and willingness to spend time engaging in conversations. Those who come in to the Pittsburgh International airpot can see a sculpture depicting Franco’s famous “Immaculate Reception” from 1972.  Thousands of people, especially recently, have selfies taken with the sculpture. Franco will be missed by his many friends and the community.

Franco Harris sculpture at Pittsburgh International Airport.

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About Treehouse Software

Since 1982, Treehouse Software has been serving enterprises worldwide with industry-leading mainframe software products and outstanding technical support. Today, Treehouse Software is a global leader in providing data replication, and integration solutions for the most complex and demanding heterogeneous environments, as well as feature-rich, accelerated-ROI offerings for information delivery, and application modernization.

Contact Treehouse Software

Considerations for Planning Bi-Directional Mainframe Data Replication with tcVISION

by Joseph Brady, Director of Business Development and Cloud Alliance Leader at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Many medium-to-large size enterprises use mainframe systems that are housing vast amounts of mission-critical data encompassing historical, customer, logistics, etc. information.  Each mainframe site is unique and can have decades worth of customizations requiring innovative approaches to establishing data replication on Cloud and open systems platforms. Fortunately for these customers, Treehouse Software has been in the mainframe software market since 1982, bringing deep experience in mainframe, Cloud, and open systems technologies, as well as delivering the tcVISION mainframe data replication product. Today, Treehouse Software is helping many enterprise mainframe customers accelerate digital transformation and successfully leverage Hybrid Cloud initiatives on the IBM Z platform, storing sensitive data on a private Cloud or local data center and simultaneously leveraging leading technologies on a managed public Cloud.

Treehouse Software’s tcVISION solution focuses on changed data capture (CDC) when transferring information between mainframe data sources and Cloud and open systems-based databases and applications. Changes occurring in the mainframe application data are then tracked and captured, and published to a variety of targets. Additionally, tcVISION supports bi-directional data replication, where changes on either platform are reflected on the other platform (e.g., a change to a PostgreSQL table in the Cloud is reflected back on mainframe), allowing the customer to modernize their application on the Cloud or open systems without disrupting the existing critical work on the legacy system. tcVISION’s bi-directional replication writes directly to the mainframe database, thereby bypassing all mainframe business logic, so this architecture requires careful planning, as well as thorough and repeated testing.

Plan carefully…

The following section offers some real-world customer examples, as well as considerations and recommendations when planning bi-directional replication for any mainframe/RDBMS environments. Bi-directional replication by its nature is a very complicated undertaking, so it is necessary that customers are fully educated in all environments, software, and processes before attempting to write data back to a mainframe database. It is always recommended that customers use a minimally effective measure of bi-directional replication required to accomplish their goal — and no more. An overblown project with unnecessary bi-directional data replication invites undue complexity and delays.

Real-world customer examples…

Treehouse Software has many customers performing bi-directional data replication, and each scenario is vastly different from the others, even if some have the same sources and targets as each other.  For example, some customers utilize a Master/Master, collision-heavy proposition, while others use uni-directional one way, then “flip a switch” uni-directional the other way. Another example is a customer who has a “grand circle,” where data hits multiple applications before it finally makes its way back to an RDBMS staging database that tcVISION replicates to the mainframe.

Example of a Treehouse customer’s bi-directional data replication environment using tcVISION:

There are many planning and implementation stages that go into a successful mainframe replication environment, and performance testing is a vital part of a successful project.  For example, customers should do performance tests on how long it takes tcVISION to read a database log, transfer data, process data, etc.  During testing at one of our reference customer sites we found a significant difference in how long it took for their test and prod LPARs to transmit data to the Cloud, based on whether the mainframe TCP/IP stack used a 32-bit or 128-bit setting.

At another site, where we are helping a large government agency perform bi-directional replication on mainframe data, their original goal was for a significant percentage of mainframe objects to have bi-directional replication. It was determined that it would be impossible to extract business logic from the existing mainframe application for usage in the downstream application. Therefore, they have decided to use a middleware product to perform the “write-back” to the mainframe database.  Given the complexity of the mainframe application, this has proven the safest way for them to proceed.

Because of the variety of customer scenarios as described above, before any site can attempt bi-directional data replication, it is crucial that they have a well-tested uni-directional process with operational controls in place for a significant time period.  “Operational controls” means processes to restart scripts, evaluation of failed transactions, orchestration of mainframe/non-mainframe DBMS changes, etc.

Please contact Treehouse Software to discuss your Mainframe-to-Cloud and Open Systems modernization plans. We can help put in place a roadmap to modernization success.

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Contact Treehouse Software Today for a tcVISION Demo…

No matter where you want your mainframe data to go – the Cloud, open systems, or any LUW target – tcVISION from Treehouse Software is your answer.

Just fill out the Treehouse Software tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

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Providing a High Availability Framework for Mainframe-to-AWS Data Replication

by Dan Vimont, Cloud Solutions Architect at Treehouse Software, Inc.

Treehouse Software customers are using tcVISION to enable mission-critical mainframe-to-AWS data replication pipelines.  Some of these production pipelines are providing vital near-real-time synchronization between source and target, and thus can’t afford any significant downtime in the event of failure.  So it’s only natural that a number of our customers have been asking for advice in setting up a high availability configuration for their tcVISION components that run on AWS EC2 instances.  The High Availability Framework discussed here provides for a Failover EC2 instance to automatically pick up tcVISION processing should the Primary instance (running in another Availability Zone) go down.

The Core Components:  Primary Instance & Failover Instance

The core components of a tcVISION high availability framework consist of two EC2 instances running in different Availability Zones:  a Primary EC2 instance and a Failover EC2 instance.  Both identically-configured EC2 instances are attached to a shared working-storage file system (either an EFS or FSx volume), which allows the Failover instance to seamlessly and quickly pick up tcVISION processing should the Primary instance suddenly become unavailable.

Use a Step Function to Automate the Failover Process

In the event of failure of the Primary instance, the recommended framework calls for automatic triggering of a Step Function for reliable failover processing, with steps that include the following:

• verify that the Primary instance is unavailable (The tcVISION service cannot be active on both instances simultaneously, so this verification is vital.)
• redirect all network traffic from the Primary instance to the Failover instance (via Route 53)
• start tcVISION processing on the Failover instance

When Ready, Use a Step Function to Automate the Restoration Process

After operations personnel have completed recovery of the Primary EC2 instance, another Step Function may be manually triggered to reliably transfer tcVISION processing back to the Primary instance.

Many More Details are Available Upon Request to Treehouse Customers

Full details regarding our recommended High Availability Framework for tcVISION are available upon request to Treehouse customers.  AWS services utilized in the complete recommended framework include Step Functions, Lambda Functions, EventBridge rules, CloudWatch alarms, SNS topics, a Route 53 Private Hosted Zone, and more.  The following diagram is a partial visual inventory of the recommended framework components.

Interested in seeing a live, online demo of tcVISION?

Just fill out the Treehouse Software tcVISION Demonstration Request Form and a Treehouse representative will contact you to set up a time for your online tcVISION demonstration.

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