Re: physical / virtual tape backup file at a time -- MIDRANGE-L

Joe,

I would normally agree if for no other reason than that's the way I meetthe objective here.

If Adrienne is really that strapped for disk space, it might not bepractical. A save file does some compression but darn little. Breakingit down into manageable (small) groups of files, as you suggest, mightbe a solution.

Another one that I have looked at, but not explored much beyond readingabout it, is the SAVRSTOBJ command. It does require OptiConnect beinstalled on both systems, but that's a freebie (well, an i5/OS optionalcomponent, anyway). According to the documentation, it can be used tosave an object, a group of objects, or even an entire library and pushthat to the same or a different library on the target machine. I havenot, however, read anything about intermediate disk storage or even ifthere is any used. If there is no (or little) temporary disk storagerequired, this might be the way to go in this case.



There is a manual on OptiConnect: SC41-5414-xx.


        * Jerry C. Adams
*IBM System i5/iSeries Programmer/Analyst
B&W Wholesale Distributors, Inc.* *
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Joe Pluta wrote:

From: Adrienne McConnon

Evan,

I thank you for your respnse, and will try to clarify the issues below.
We appreciate all of your patience with my attempts to reiterate this
problem we are having.

1.  We have 2 iSeries - both on V5R4. One is local, one remote.  Also we
have a remote tape drive.

2. We must backup an iSeries in Timbuktu. That system does NOT have
enough disk space to backup all user data to virtual tape.

3. We can create a tape in Timbuktu but we can't pick it up or have it
delivered.

4. We thought we might backup Timbuktu to a physical tape and then copy
that Timbuktu physical tape one file at a time to a small virtual tape
that could be sent to a backup iSeries that is offsite from Timbuktu.

5.  Our stumbling blocks are that we are short on disk space - and
approval to purchase additional will not occur at theis time.  We have
enough for production purposes only.

6.  Our remote iSeries and tape drive are virtually non-accessible.


Adrienne, the "primary purpose" of a virtual tape is to break up the two
parts of the save process: grabbing an image of the data and then saving
that data to tape.  Typically with a SAVxxx operation, these steps occur at
the same time.  A virtual tape allows you to perform normal save procedures
as quickly as possible and then copy that data to tape asynchronously.

This really isn't what you are looking for.  To me, it seems that you want
to simply transfer these files from the remote machine to the local machine
and back them up locally.

I would consider performing a save to a save file for small groups of files
and then transmitting that save file via FTP to the local machine.  Once
you've done that, save the save file to a tape drive locally.  Then signal
the remote machine to save the next group of files, and so on.

Joe