Re: External disk for iSeries -- MIDRANGE-L

I am by no means an external storage expert but have tried to understand
the environment as best I can with a little bit of effort.  We annually do
a visit to the executive briefing center and I always have them do a
storage presentation.  To be honest it's been a while and I'm muddy on the
details but I do think that the FAStT environment helps reduce the price
point of entry into this market and has possibly reduced the complexity.

And while at COMMON in Indianapolis (I know, some of us attended) at the
iSeries futures panel one of the speakers (I'm drawing a huge blank on
names.......) mentioned that he thought that iSeries customers needed to
make the move to external storage.  I wanted to get off-line to get a
better understanding of his thoughts but was not able to.  Point is, this
is not something new and there are those within IBM that think so.

My struggle is this:  We have 2.6 terabytes of data spread across three
systems, 8 LPAR's, 10 IXA/IXS's, etc.   Right now my time spent on DASD
management is less than 5%.  That is storage capacity, performance tuning,
backups, etc.  I've looked at the FAStT manuals and redbooks and I see a
significant increase in that effort and added complexity.  Again, I don't
do it in the real world so it is just my hunch but I think it is there.
Also, when I see the performance chart of a PCI-X tower, PXI-X dasd
controller card, and the 15K spin drives I have to ask what impact could
there be with performance. So, I have to ask:

1.)  What are the tangible iSeries benefits?
2.)  What are the changes in efforts and how complex are they?
3.)  What is the impact to performance to a modern internal solution and
what does it take to get that with external storage?
4.)  Assuming that the other questions can be answered how can I transition
in a cost effective manner - in other words if this is something with real
benefits I would think the storage people would be making programs that
allowed us to get there efficiently and cost effectively....

I don't want to be obstinate with regards to new technologies but I'm just
not buying that the benefits outweigh the costs yet.  And to be honest
based on my past experience a certain 3rd party vendor will never be asked
those questions.  Not after the stunts they have pulled in the past.  And
as a result I'm extremely biased in thinking that I can get a clear and
proper evaluation from a 3rd party vendor.......


Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just"  Abraham Lincoln






                                                                           
             Jeff Bull                                                     
             <Jeff.Bull@itm-gr                                             
             oup.co.uk>                                                 To 
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             06/07/2004 09:27          <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>           
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             Please respond to         External disk for iSeries           
             Midrange Systems                                              
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             <midrange-l@midra                                             
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I've just read an article on external dasd for the iSeries and thought that
you guys/gals might be interested.

The external disk thing will really take off when you can add non-IBM disks
(i.e. non-IBM prices) into the system or user-asp.
Mirroring or disk-to-disk backups could become a financial possibility for
lots of shops with smaller iSeries.
Perhaps someone somewhere in the iSeries world is already attaching non-IBM
disks to their ASP and would like to share their experiences with those of
us 'confined' to internal disk?

http://www.iseries400experts.com/aiw/06-0704.jsp

Kind regards,

Jeffrey E. Bull
OS400 Software Support Consultant

IBM Certified Systems Expert, iSeries Technical Solutions
IBM Certified Systems Specialist, AS/400 System Administration


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