Successful Mainframe Disaster Recovery Test
June 25 , 2010
On June 15, 2010, the Information Technology Services Administrative Systems team re-built a production-ready system from scratch on mainframe equipment at a SunGard facility in Arizona. The remote system was a complete copy of the production mainframe applications and databases as they looked when an earlier snap shot was taken. The work was accomplished without anyone leaving the UT Austin campus.
Team lead Robert Trent along with Brick Jones, Jim Bullock, Jon White, Curtis Pew, and Jim Ferrer worked to make the most of the available testing period. Critical processes were methodically tested, including: 3270 terminal access over secure sTunnel, UT Direct connectivity and functionality, and job submission/execution including batch autosubmit, general printing, green output, secure file transfer, and check printing.
Jonathan Wong, from the ITS Core Networking team, played a key role in establishing a secure network link to carry traffic between the SunGard and University data centers. The test took place over a 48-hour period and provided the opportunity to update ITS procedures and improve disaster recovery documentation with many lessons learned.
Weeks of preparation resulted in a successful, full off-site disaster recovery test of the mainframe system and confirmed that the university can take full advantage of this resource if it is ever needed.
