How Carhartt Safeguards IBM i Operations with Maxava HA
CUSTOMER STORY
For over a century, Carhartt has been synonymous with quality and durability. Behind the scenes, the company applies the same standards to its IT operations, maintaining business continuity with Maxava HA for IBM i.
A Scalable and Flexible HA/DR Strategy
Carhartt operate a large IBM i estate across two IBM Power10 servers located in Kentucky and Michigan. Their environment supports a range of business-critical applications, with Warehouse Management and the backend database for Commerce being the most essential. Traditionally, Carhartt has employed a one-to-one HA/DR approach, but for their Commerce environment, they leverage Maxava HA’s flexible one-to-many configuration. This setup allows for both HA and HA/DR target servers, ensuring tasks such as Business Intelligence (BI) and backups are conducted away from the demands of the production environment.
Maintaining Availability Without Disruption
Maxava HA role swaps are not an everyday necessity, but when required, they are executed efficiently with swaps typically taking less than 30 minutes aided by Maxava HA’s Command Scripting Function (CSF) which automates many manual tasks, ensuring fast and accurate transitions. By continually refining their process through Simulated Role Swaps (SRS) and maintaining well-documented procedures, Carhartt has optimized their HA strategy. Their recent migration from Power9 to Power10 was executed seamlessly using Maxava HA, which was accomplished with zero downtime.
Rapid Response to Critical System Events
In a notable instance, Carhartt experienced a major issue with their Commerce database server, preventing users from performing interactive processing. While investigations were underway, Carhartt turned to Maxava’s technical team for guidance. Given that logical replication remained active and only interactive user activity was impacted, the decision was made to execute a role swap to the backup server.
Carhartt’s IBM i System Administrator, Gary Adkins, followed a detailed recovery runbook, which had been meticulously built through prior simulated role swap testing and support with Maxava specialists. “The support provided by the Maxava technical team, along with the clearly defined and documented steps for completing a role swap with Maxava HA, resulted in a smooth and quick transition to our target system,” Adkins recalled.
The Maxava technical team provided real-time support, helping validate the swap process, refine automation scripts, and ensure seamless execution. “Maxava’s technical team was in contact with me throughout the role swap,” said Adkins. “Their expertise and guidance ensured the process was executed quickly and effectively, minimizing any impact on our ability to serve customers.”
Once the root cause was addressed, Carhartt seamlessly swapped back to the original production environment before the start of the next business day. “Simulated role swap tests will help you develop a solid plan and feel confident in your ability to handle a real-life role swap,” added Adkins. “But it is real-world successes like this that validate the process.”
Expert Support and Proven Reliability
Carhartt’s long-standing partnership with Maxava is built on trust and expertise. The Maxava support team plays a key role in ensuring smooth role swaps and system transitions, providing hands-on assistance when needed. Whether testing, troubleshooting, or optimizing their HA strategy, Carhartt knows they can depend on Maxava’s highly skilled professionals to help maintain a resilient IBM i environment.
Through strategic planning, cutting-edge technology, and expert support, Carhartt continues to uphold its legacy of reliability—not just in its products, but in its IT operations as well.