Justin, You may need to tell us more about your configuration and how much data and how long you need to keep the data before any migration with cache turned on/off. As you mentioned, you may not need the enterprise class stg for these particular diskpools unless your SLA requires certain strictness in performance. Because of the nature of SATA, write I/Os will be troublesome in any case, so make sure that the controller have enough cache and destage it later. Some people make mistake buying with single controller config, but remember that you can't afford to lose it during client backups. Look for the new SATA II which comes with a lot of fixes and also, TSM takes pretty much any disks that OS sees as available so consider giving multiple diskpools. Depending on what tape storage you have, but writing direct to tape device today is not a bad idea in many cases, so consider not only diskpool for immediate writes, but also tape devices such as FC LTO2 or LTO3. For the better pricing, ATA drives with proper RAID config could be considered. When configured correctly, SATA drives will be performing as good as other types of disks. I've been running and happy with them for a while for TSM and other applications. Hope this helps. Gus
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 07/11/05 10:01 PM >>> How are TSM admins using SATA disks for cache pools ? What type of SATA disks are being used and at what raid levels ? How satisfied are you with the backup times with SATA disks for cache pools on TSM ? We are looking at SATA for TSM cache pools is why the questions because we are using enterprise class storage for cache pools on TSM currently at a high cost. Looking for cheaper disks for TSM cache pools. Thanks Justin Case TSM Administrator/Storage Administrator IT Analyst OIT Infrastructure Support 334 Blackwell Street 2nd floor Suite 2108 Durham,NC 27701 Duke University Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]