RE: Tape Drive Compatibility Question

I'm not sure.  I don't see why it wouldn't work, but it seems like it
could be prone to quirks/instability in the connection to the NAS.

I'd suggest one of two simpler routes:

1. NFS mount a dir on the 570 and copy the NAS to it (or have the
iSeries mount the NAS).  Back it up with a dedicated 570 tape drive.  It
turns your NAS backup to disk-to-disk-to-tape.  Advantage: NAS restores
may not require a tape retrieval from off-site if the file is on the
iSeries.  Disadvantage: Needs iSeries DA$D.
2. Up your budget a little and get a 3582 with 2 drives and dedicate a
drive to each device.  Advantage: If one backup runs long, say that big
pipe gets congested somehow, it won't interfere with the other system's
backup.  Advantage: You can recover both servers at the same time.
Advantage: If one tape drive fails, you still have another to use (with
manual switching).  Disadvantage: More $ up front.

How fast is METS?  We're looking at a 650Mbps SONET ring here.

John A. Jones, CISSP
Americas Information Security Officer
Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc.
V: +1-630-455-2787 F: +1-312-601-1782
john.jones@xxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Whisonant
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 10:32 AM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Tape Drive Compatibility Question

I've been trying to find a definitive answer to this for several
months... 
Basically, the boss wants to be able to use a shared tape drive with a
NAS appliance and our iSeries.

We are looking for LTO3 (either 3581 or possibly 3584) Current iSeries
is 820 at V5R3 and are in the process of planning for a 570 upgrade this
year NAS appliance is a NetApp server located 30 miles from data center
NAS appliance will need to use NDMP to send the data back to data center
over ethernet (pretty big pipe - METS connection I think...)

The question is this:

Can we get a fibre attached LTO3 drive for the iSeries plugged into a
fibre switch and then use a fibre media converter (to convert the gig
ethernet NAS backup to fibre) and connect it into the same fibre switch
and save the data to the shared tape drive with the iSeries?

Thanks in advance!

Chris Whisonant
Comporium
Senior Mid-Range Systems Administrator
IBM eServer Certified Systems Expert - iSeries Technical Solutions V5R2
IBM Certified System Administrator - Lotus Notes and Domino 6/6.5 IBM
Certified Associate Developer - Lotus Notes and Domino 6/6.5
803.326.7270 | 803.326.6142 fax

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