Re: VTL - Fiber vs SAS

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 06:04:21PM -0500, DrFranken wrote:

To make the VTL visible AS A LIBRARY by multiple LPARS you have two choices.

a) Install multiple SAS or FIBER cards and allocate one to each partition.

The plot thickens. I was reviewing the PCIe adapter placement rules and
slot priorities for the 8286-41A:

https://www.IBM.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/8286-42A/p8eab/p8eab_82x_84x_slot_details.htm

The only SAS card I could find that supports tape is 57B3. An 8286-41A can
only have a maximum of two 57B3 cards in slots P1-C6 and P1-C7. We already
have two 57B3's in those slots. It looks like adding two more tape capable
SAS cards so that we would have one card for each LPAR isn't an option.
Does anyone know if any other tape capable SAS cards I'm missing? That
might limit us to fiber.

b) Install VIOS and a single FIBER card and connect the VTL to an NPIV
Capable fiber switch and the VTL will be available to each partition.

I would love to have VIOS, but that might be a challenge. All of our
internal DASD is already allocated to our host LPAR.