Re: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape verification by restoring object?

Auditors are like any inspector, gotta find something before they can leave. In my farm days it was the Milk Inspector. He was very predictable so the day we expected him we'd take the paper towel out of the holder, toss a little of the dry feed on top of the glass milk pipeline to make it look dirty, and 'forget' to run the gutter cleaner that day. He'd write us up for the three minor violations and go away happy. Meanwhile at least in theory (theory only-my uncle ran a VERY good farm) there could have been dead animals rotting out back that he would never find....

Toss a poor auditor/inspector a bone and they go away. The good ones focus on different aspects at each visit in addition to their core list.

- L

On 11/15/2011 1:21 PM, Jerry C. Adams wrote:

I met an auditor a couple of years ago for whom this wasn't enough. I told
him that, sure we restore things from time-to-time and never had a problem.
I told him that I run the PRTERRLOG command weekly. None of this sufficed;
I had to *prove* that I could restore from each day's backup tape.

I wound up backing up a bogus (i.e., empty) library; deleting same from the
System i; restoring same back to the System i; running CHKOBJ to be sure it
was there. He went away happy.

I like auditors; I really do. I have learned tons of stuff from them (the
good ones). One audit report even got us two [2] brand new 520's because he
did not want me to do development on a production box. But sometimes I
think some of them just have to find something to put in their report so
they can say that they found a "problem" that they corrected.

Jerry C. Adams
IBM i Programmer/Analyst
Queen Victoria loved "Alice in Wonderland" and requested a copy of Lewis
Carroll's next book. It was "Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry."
--
A&K Wholesale
Murfreesboro, TN
615-867-5070


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Musselman, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 11:11 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape
verification by restoring object?

We don't perform a restore verification step after our backups-- we trust
the tape management messages to indicate any errors.

We do perform a Display Tape on some tapes...

But we do regularly restore data from our backup tapes-- programmers need
test data; we need to investigate why a transaction failed. So we are
routinely bringing tapes back from off-site and restoring 'random' files
from our daily and monthly backups. So we're reasonably certain that our
backup tapes really can be used to restore data.

Plus, we have a contract for a disaster-recovery site, and we perform an
annual test to rebuild our primary system on bare hardware. We usually grab
a recent set of month-end backup tapes for the test. It's just another test
to show that we can actually read data off of our tapes.


It's like the saying about submarines: "A submarine dive isn't successful
until the boat returns to the surface!"


Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
elehti@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 3:21 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape
verification by restoring object?

Am I doing some unnecessary, over-the-top tape verification with our IBM
System Storage TS3100 tape library?
Are steps 5 and 6 actually needed so as to confirm that the tapes are
readable and that data can be restored from them?
Does the TS3100 tape unit have more than adequate verification
algorithms in it that confirm that the data on tape is readable and
restorable?


Step 1: GO BACKUP and save most user libraries and other objects to the
LTO4 tapes.
Step 2: Seven libraries get saved with these parms. E.g.
SAVLIB LIB(CRMSAT) DEV(TAP01) ENDOPT(*LEAVE) +
SAVACT(*SYNCLIB) SAVACTWAIT(360) +
SAVACTMSGQ(QSYSOPR) ACCPTH(*YES)

Step 3: Save some of the IFS folders: e.g.
SAV DEV('/QSYS.LIB/TAP01.DEVD') OBJ(('/WWW')) OUTPUT(*PRINT)


Step 4: Rewind and DSPTAP
Step 5: DLTF a file from library VERIFYBKUP and get ready to restore
this file from tape
Step 6: RSTOBJ from tape the file that step 5 deleted.

Step 7: CHKTAP DEV(TAP01) ENDOPT(*UNLOAD) to unload this tape and
mount next tape for tomorrow