Re: BRMS: System save only -- MIDRANGE-L

We are also experimenting with BRMS to bring our "backup and recovery plan" in
line with the organizational requirements (tape rotation, offsite storage,
etc.)

On your 3570s, are they currently in single drive mode (not library)? We did
the same thing, as far as running our own system save programs. BRMS basically
requires the 3570 to be in library mode. You really don't want to switch
between single drive and library mode very often.

I believe you must use BRMS "full time". It is difficult to use BRMS "part
time", due to the fact you would need to unload the 3570 magazines, manually
place the drive between library and single drive mode, and vary off/on
appropriate device descriptions on the AS/400 when you want to use/not use
BRMS.

The way I understand BRMS to work is: you switch the drive to library mode.
Load the 2 magazines with 19 (if you want the priority cell free) or 20 tapes.
BRMS decides which tapes to use, and performs media movement on the tapes. If
you have the barcode reader on the 3570, I believe BRMS automatically
initializes the tapes for you when adding them to the library.

BRMS does have a console monitor program that allows you to do restricted
state backups (under BRMS control). We have a similar program that used to
handle our CL-based restricted state backup.

It is a complicated system to set up. Just by ourselves, we spent the better
part of the week reading the redbook (highly recommended) and setting up the
system. We still have some bugs to work out for media movement.

I would start with the BRMS redbook
<http://publib-b.boulder.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/9445fa5b416f6e32852569ae006bb65f/e51055bba9390a1b862569ac007d3299?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,brms>
and the operating manual for the 3570. Make sure you have device descriptions
for both the 3570 drive and 3570 MLB (library). Vary off the 3570 device,
swich the 3570 to library mode, and vary on the MLB device. You lose the
ability to address single tapes, I believe.

One thing we haven't quite figured out yet is tape usage. Your tape usage may
increase with BRMS. In our backup CL, we could specify compression and
compaction for the save operation. Our full system save took 2 tapes. With
BRMS, the same operation takes 3 tapes. We thought we were specifying the
correct values for compression and compaction for the BRMS save, but that is
still an unexplored area.

Feel free to contact me privately, I wil put you in touch with the guy who's
done most of the reading and setup at our site.

Loyd

On Mon, 31 Dec 2001 12:59:47 -0500, rob@dekko.com wrote:

>
>We have some well established backup programs that frankly I don't want to
>upset that apple cart.
>
>However for our complete system save I am looking into using BRMS.  While
>traditionally we've used a program to do the SAVSYS, SAVLIB, SAVDLO, SAV
>combination we have some downtime we are looking to reduce.  We would like
>to use our two separate 3570's simultaneously and I am under the impression
>that BRMS will do this.  We've tried the SAVLIB and specifying two devices
>- that just takes turns.  We are hoping BRMS will truly do it
>simultaneously.
>
>1)  Will BRMS do this simultaneously?
>
>2)  Can I use BRMS to do this, and not mess with it for our other stuff?
>
>3)  How do I do it, or where do I look to get started?
>
>Rob Berendt

--
"Why, you can even hear yourself think." --Hobbes
"This is making me nervous. Let's go in." --Calvin
loyd@blackrobes.net  ICQ#504581  http://www.blackrobes.net/