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There is a simple solution. Buy the lower capacity/cheaper tapes for SAVSYS backups. I believe the original post mentioned 100GB LTO tapes. Like VHS tapes in anything other than T-120 length, they aren't as easy to find (or probably as cost effective on a $ per GB basis) but they do exist and are definitely cheaper than the 100/200GB tapes. For example EMTEC (new name for BASF) makes 10/20GB, 30/60GB, 50/100GB and 100/200GB LTO tapes. PS - The generation 2 LTO drives & tapes will be out shortly, with 400GB compressed capacity. Later we will see generation 3 with 800GB compressed, and Generation 4 will follow with 1.6TB compressed (and data transfer rates will reach 320MB/sec at Generation 4). PPS - all the above capacities are based on a 2:1 compression ration. IBM resting shows that 3:1 is more typical with LTO on iSeries . ...Neil "Andy Nolen-Parkhouse" <aparkhouse@attbi.com> To: <midrange-l@midrange.com> cc: Subject: RE: Multiple backups on single tape? 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 > Subject: Re: Multiple backups on single tape? > > From: "Andy Nolen-Parkhouse" <aparkhouse@attbi.com> > To: <midrange-l@midrange.com> > Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 11:18 AM > Subject: RE: Multiple backups on single tape? > > > > In a way, this makes sense. The main purpose of either of these saves > > is to recover a system, often at power up without operator intervention > > which would allow the specification of a file sequence number. When > > powering back up from a crash, you have a tape with three SAVSYS's on it > > and need to reload your system. What do you do? How could you tell the > > system to use the middle one? > > What I'm about to say isn't useful, but I still feel like saying it. > Norton's Ghost for PCs essentially does SAVSTG -- it creates compressed > images of an entire disk or disk system. It's possibly to save any number > of these images to a spare hard disk, provided that it has space, and > restore from any one of them in the case of a catastrophic failure. IBM, > please wake up. > > Thanks for the info, though! I'll work something out to make effective > use > of the tapes I have. > brian.
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