Re: BRMS, TS3100 and being totally ridiculous -- MIDRANGE-L

How can I run media movement process to change the cartridge location but not eject the tape?

That's what I want to do.

Jerry

Patrick Bingham wrote:

If I remember right from a long time ago with an implementation of this type of scenario with a 3582 that only had 2 I/O slots. To make it work you could run the maintenance to flag the cartridges to move offsite with the daily maintenance but tell it to not eject the tapes. Then you can run the move process on demand but the tape would have to be removed from the I/O slots within a couple of minutes because the library operations would timeout after so many retries to put the next tape in the I/O slot. So what you could do is have the operator run the move process while near the library and keep grabbing tapes until it stops sending them. Not what I would call and ideal process.
Otherwise, you could just use the media movement process to change the cartridge location but not eject the tape, send a report of what tapes are to move offsite, then have the operator take the library offline and pull out both magazines, grab the cartridges from the report, put the magazines back and then bring the library back online.

Again, not a smooth solution as just having the cartridges in the I/O station waiting for the operator.
Are the tapes full or is this a multiple system/partition backup? Maybe you could append the data to the end of the tape (unless each save is a full system)?

Patrick Bingham
Power Systems Solutions Engineer
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert - Power Systems with IBM i
MSI Systems Integrators
(w) 402.965.2381
(c) 402.212.2944
(f) 402.965.2414
Your Business.Better

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of lgoodbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 3:31 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: BRMS, TS3100 and being totally ridiculous

What does IBM say on the subject? Is it just with the TS3100 or any unit
with a mail slot?

I do not have a single-feed unit. We use a 3581 (7 slots with 1 occupied
with barcode reader). The front panel opens to access the front 5 slots,
the other 2 slots are accessed via front slots 1/2 or 2/3 (if using
barcode reader). The BRMS move operation never attempts to eject the
tapes.

For what it's worth, our move policy "Verify moves" value is *YES:

*YES
Media moves performed for this move policy by the Move Media
using BRM (MOVMEDBRM) command must be verified by you.

*NO
Media moves performed for this move policy by the Move Media
using BRM (MOVMEDBRM) command are automatically verified by BRMS.

Now our Windows servers tape drive is a PITA to use, just as you
describe. The backup software (I forget the name) makes you eject 1 tape
at a time, and you have to wait for it to deliver it to the mail slot.

Sorry I could not help more....
Loyd

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jerry Draper
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 12:44 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: BRMS, TS3100 and being totally ridiculous

The lack of integration between IBM's BRMS and the IBM TS3100 tape magazine/drive (24 slots) makes for an awkward system that cannot be automated.

BRMS is setup with a move policy that runs on Friday mornings. We move tapes once per week. Eligible tapes need to have their locations changed in the BRMS database from TAPMLB02 to OFFSITE. A movement report needs to tell the operator which tapes to remove from the system.

Wouldn't it be nice if it worked seamlessly?

Running tape movement causes a tape error because only one tape can be "ejected" from the TS3100 at a time. You just can't move tapes in BRMS without the system trying to eject the tapes.