Unplanned outages
IBM® i high availability solutions can provide protection from unplanned outages caused by human error, software problems, hardware failures, and environmental issues.
As a business grows, the protection from unplanned events becomes more critical. Unfortunately, unplanned events cannot be scheduled. The high availability requirement of the business should focus on the time frame that is most important to the business. The cost of being down at the most critical moment should be considered when selecting which high availability solution will be implemented and how the implementation is done.
- Human Error
- Unfortunately human error is probably the biggest factor in unplanned outages. Procedures may not be followed correctly, warnings may be missed, education may be lacking, or there even may be communication problems and misunderstandings between groups. These can all lead to unplanned outages which impact the business.
- Software Problems
- Application, operating system, middleware, or database complexities can result in unplanned outages. Every business is unique and interaction issues between different software components can cause problems.
- Hardware Failure
- At some point in time, mechanical devices will fail. Electrical components are subject to environment changes such as heat, humidity, and electrostatic discharge that can cause premature failure. Cable damage can occur and connections may loosen.
- Environmental Issues
- Power failures, network failures and air conditioning can cause a single system to become unavailable. Redundant measures can be taken to help address some of these issues, but there is a limit to what can be done.
Recovery from unplanned outages in a high availability environment is failover to a backup system. While the problem is being diagnosed and fixed, the business can continue to operate on the backup server.