I am also a mainframer, having spent MANY years doing mainframe storage management/performance management/capacity planning. And I LOVE running TSM on AIX. I never would have believed it until I implemented it myself, but AIX can push I/O AMAZINGLY fast, it is a terrific TSM platform.
Running TSM on an AIX box, you get back not only a chunk of your mainframe disk, you get back cycles that otherwise have to be dedicated to TSM. SO you could think of moving TSM to AIX as giving yourself a mainframe capacity boost! I also know what a pain using TSM with a VTS can be when you start to thrash your VTS cache; the VTS was designed to be used for SMALL files, and TSM creates BIG files. It is not a good fit. I have TSM with 3590's AND LTO drives, and believe it or not, for TSM use I love the LTO-2 drives. They are fast and they have been MUCH more reliable than I ever would have believed. Unless you have a strong reason to keep 3590's, I would look at an AIX box with a 3584 library and LTO drives. You will save enough money on the 3590 drives to MORE than pay for having the extra library. If you are, for instance, in a very-high-duty-cycle environment, say using HSM with TSM and doing many recalls per hour, I would stick with the 3590's. But if it is a typical backup-overnight-then-create-copy-pool-tape type environment, LTO should be fine. Now the BIG ugly is the conversion. There isn't any way to convert directly. The best way is to set up your new AIX TSM server, point your clients there, and let your OLD data on the mainframe just age off naturally. If you have data with very long retention times, or archives, you will have to EXPORT/IMPORT the data to get it to your new TSM server. If you keep your 3590 tapes, you will EXPORT your client data to 3590 tapes, then IMPORT it into the AIX box. If you use LTO you will have no compatible media between the 2 TSM servers. So you have to set up a server-to-server connection and EXPORT/IMPORT via TCP/IP, which is a time-consuming, error-prone, miserable process. A lot of people use a combination method - point your clients to the new server to create new backups; let your old data age off for several months, then EXPORT/IMPORT your archives and whatever else is left. If you want to test the process, you could set up a second instance of the TSM server and test couple of EXPORT/IMPORTs for timing purposes. Figure your conversion cost based on your time required, training costs, the value of the mainframe capacity and disk savings vs. the cost of the new hardware. If you go to AIX there will also be a bit of a learning curve for you, but it's really great fun. 1) Get a copy of "UNIX FOR DUMMIES", or something similar to get familiar with basic commands 2) Go to the IBM AIX adminstration class. 3) Have someone who knows AIX set up your TSM server for you initially. After that the basic admin class info is all you'll need. AIX just runs and runs - hardly ever even needs a reboot. The only AIX thing you'll need to know right away is how to interact with its file system; all the rest of TSM administration is just the same, no matter what platform. My opinion, and nobody else's... Wanda Prather "I/O, I/O, It's all about I/O" -(me) -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Van De Vijver Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 10:11 AM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Move TSM server from Z/OS Mainframe to AIX : pro's and con's ? Experiences ? Hi, Would it be possible to give some comments on next please ? Because we are requesting some more diskspace (500 GB) for TSM on our mainframe our management is wondering why we do not run TSM on AIX where diskspace is much cheaper. I agree with them that diskspace is cheaper on AIX, but I think the total convertion/migration cost will be a factor x more expensive then the price difference in disk space Some figures about our current configuration : Primary pool is about 30 GB disk and 6 TB in Virtual Tape System (approx 6000 virtual 3490 volumes) Our copy pool is on 3590 tapes (copied during day time from VTS to 3590 on MAGSTAR) We have 10 3590 drives on our Magstar, but TSM can use a maximum of 5 drives during day time and only 1 drive during night Daily backup volume is approx 450-500 GB TSM Database is 12 GB +/- 150 clients (Windows, AIX ) TSM server version 5.2.4.0 If we could get 500 GB extra disk space for our primary pool then this could cover our total daily backup volume and the data could be copied directly from there to our copypool which would be MUCH faster iso our current situation where almost all data has already been migrated to our VTS and causing hundreds of tape mounts (physical tape mounts because VTS cache is too small to keep all TSM data and other data) If we should consider to move to AIX, I see next issues : - VTS can no longer be used with AIX - we will need more 3590 drives - we will need extra 3590 tapes for primary pool - maybe extra frame needed in Magstar - new AIX box of course - Z/OS - AIX migration issues ? - other points to consider ? Any comments (pro's and contra's) are welcome Has someone done this migration before ? Many thanks, Paul Van de Vijver TSM Aministrator Honda Europe NV Belgium The information contained in this communication is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the individual or the entity to whom it is addressed and others authorised to receive it. If you have received it by mistake, please let the sender know by e-mail reply and delete it from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Honda Europe NV is neither liable for the proper and complete transmission of the information contained in this communication nor for any delay in its receipt.
