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  1.  Home
  2. MIDRANGE-L
  3. May 2019

RE: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

If you buy new 8Gb fibre cards they can get pricey. Used ones are several
hundred dollars.

Yes, VIOS is the best way to go, however, VIOS MUST have a dedicated disk
controller or Fibre card to boot from SAN. If you don't have a SAN then
the cost of a VIOS solution get's very high very fast.

The SAN switch is the same regardless of the presence of VIOS. To
accomplish what we've been discussing you need a SAN switch. Again, the
used market comes to the rescue. You only need 8GB switches and then I'll
bet only 8 ports so those can be found at reasonable costs.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Rob
Berendt
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2019 11:48 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

True you must allocate. On all lpars we use Allocate Unprotected. They
just grab what's available in the pool of drives.

However I find his solution extremely expensive versus spinning up a VIOS
lpar to virtualize the tape library. IBM doesn't give those cards away.
Plus the expense of a port on the SAN switch for each card. And if you're
into the whole redundant thing, oh my! And then you have to concern
yourself with that if you want to spin up another lpar.

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Jim
Oberholtzer
Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2019 12:11 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

Well, not quite.

What you do is allocate unprotected. That way any of the partitions can
grab a tape device as needed, then release it when it's done. To set a tape
device so it is exclusive to a partition you would allocate it protected.

So, you must allocate them to start with.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Steinmetz, Paul via MIDRANGE-L
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2019 10:58 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion' <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steinmetz, Paul <PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

Jim,

We have FC cards on each LPAR connected with a FC switch to the tape
library.
All drives in library available to either LPAR, with the correct zoning.
No need to allocate/deallocate.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Jim Oberholtzer
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2019 11:51 AM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: RE: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

IF you have the attachment cards, (with a SAN switch) then you can just
allocate/deallocate, no real need for VIOS.

I agree VIOS is the better choice, but it can be done without.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Holger
Scherer
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2019 10:30 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Tape libraries on IBM i hosting IBM i.

For i on i there is not much option. Best idea would be to have a VIOS and
NPIV config.

-h

Am 07.05.2019 um 15:15 schrieb Jim Oberholtzer
<midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:


Then again, a VTL all but solves the problem since they can emulate
multiple libraries on a single device. All that holds that up is the
attachment card on the POWER system.

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