RE: Multiple backups on single tape?

[Evan Harris <spanner@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy

If I have a number of partitions, how do I create a SAVSYS for each of them
? Seems like being able to use a tape in the way that was suggested might
have some application in a multiple partition machine.

Otherwise that expensive tape resource with extra capacity to backup all my
systems needs operator intervention when I'm doing a system save on ANY of
my partitions. Of course I probably do anyway as all system saves have to
happen interactively from the console. (not to mention having to have a
dedicated console connection for each partition)

 From an application point of view this does make the system a little hard
to manage and needs a little more thought IMHO.

Just another perspective.

Regards
Evan Harris

>Brian,
>
>IBM is not likely to support this kind of recovery scheme.  Nor is
>Microsoft for that matter (I'm speaking off the top of my head here, but
>I would imagine that if you ran into trouble on Ghost, Microsoft would
>suggest that you reload from your distribution CD or contact the vendor
>of Ghost (I'm willing to be wrong on this one though)).  It is something
>that could be implemented however.  All that is required is that a PC
>with a RAID array be recognized as a tape drive through DST.  Someone
>may have been working on such a configuration on this list.  I recall
>some postings a while back.
>
>I really don't see the market though.  This would allow for the
>substitution of thousands of dollars of technology for a few hundred
>dollars of tape, all of which may never be used.  Think about it, do you
>really see a market for something like this?  The common application of
>Ghost (and the majority of its licenses probably), replicating identical
>desktops, really doesn't apply to the iSeries market.  Nor is the
>iSeries as likely to experience a catastrophic failure as a
>Microsoft/Intel platform.  I think that IBM is awake on this one.
>
>I understand your frustration however.  You've got some rather expensive
>large-capacity tapes which are not being used completely.  They're
>costing you money and you would like to use them to their full capacity.
>I don't know of a solution for this.  I've never done a SAVSTG and
>generally don't have more a few copies of a SAVSYS at any one time.  Are
>you running these commands frequently?  Traditional disaster recovery
>would perform the SAVSYS after only after major PTF applications.
>
>Regards,
>Andy Nolen-Parkhouse