Last week, members of the German union for train operators/engineers were on strike and only a fraction of trains were operating. I had to go to Zurich, Switzerland, but most of the trains on my usual route were out of service. That's when I had my
DB2 pureScale or DB2 Parallel Sysplex moment.
What is special about a DB2 Parallel Sysplex or DB2 pureScale configuration? It is a data sharing cluster. If one node in the cluster or a network connection goes down and is inaccessible, the other components can pick up the work. All this is usually transparent to the application. In my case I was the application and data at the same time: Try to get me to Zurich, discuss some issues in person, get back home.
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| Sunset over Lake Constance |
The cluster consisted of the
German Railways and the
Swiss Railways, connected by train tracks and ferries across
Lake Constance. As the application I had a single train ticket, good within the entire cluster. As net result I got to Zurich, had the meetings, and got back home without trouble. If I had closed eyes and ears, the routing and processing would have been transparent to me. But fortunately I was fully aware of the chosen route. In the morning I took the ferry across the lake to Switzerland, then hopped on a Swiss train to Zurich, and in the evening I went back the same route. And that's when - different to "regular" applications and data - I could enjoy my DB2 cluster moment and the rerouting: Sunset of Lake Constance on board a ferry.
