Re: Controlling a tape library remotely over an IP network -- MIDRANGE-L

Adam,

You can certainly "Control" the tape drive over the network. Such things a looking at the library, exporting tapes, mounting tapes. That's can be done with the web interface. That almost certainly isn't what you're after. :-)

The FC #280D card (aka FC #5761 ) is a fiber channel adapter. Now I know of customers who have installed equipment to convert FC to Ethernet and back on the far end. The connection between the locations was private fiber however so bandwidth was *LOTS. You mention MPLS which is good but how fast is the MPLS Network? Even if it's a full Gb speed a 500MB Backup would take a minimum of an hour and 5 minutes and I'm guessing that it won't be that fast. (If I'm wrong of course, you win, buuuuut you still need the equipment on each end to do the converting!)

A better concept would be something like a Crossroads SPHiNX unit on site which would then replicate the data off-site to a second unit after the backup has completed. The SPHiNX looks like a tape drive to your system but is actually a virtual tape library. This way the backup is done quickly (local fiber speeds) and then the replication can run off line as time permits.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

On 7/17/2012 4:51 PM, ADriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi,

We have an IBM TS3500 tape library (and a Power 6 520 system). We are planning for some HA/DR scenarios at the moment and one of the possibilities is moving the Power System to a vendor data center. The tape library however will stay onsite (it's also used by a TSM server and that and the Windows servers are remaining onsite). The connection between our building and the vendor data center will be an MPLS network.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this? Specifically,

1) Is it even possible? The tape controller is a 280D PCI-X Fibre Channel controller. Is it possible for this to work over an IP network?

2) Assuming it is possible, does anyone have any experience with the performance of such a set up?

Thanks

Adam Driver
IBM Certified Systems Administrator - System i
Consultant - Infrastructure Engineer
Exacta Corporation
(608) 661 6697 ext 2581
adriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:adriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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