Re: BRMS, TS3100 and being totally ridiculous

Hi Jerry, did anyone answer the question on running the media movement to change the location but not eject??
Thanks



-----Original Message-----
From: Jerry Draper <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Jun 5, 2009 5:28 pm
Subject: Re: BRMS, TS3100 and being totally ridiculous



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.