Re: Compatibility between different vendors VTL solutions

I just found out that in location A which is two sites, ProtecTier is used
as the VTL solution to backup one site and transmit backups to second site.

We are creating a new site but want to be able to transmit backups from
that site as well as restore many years of backups. From my research it
appears today ProtecTier is no longer sold by IBM. If it uses a proprietary
backup format then we will face some challenges getting today data
transferred. If it's standard tape them I guess one way or to dump the
virtual backups to a physical tape (s) and restore from that.

On Wed, Feb 12, 2020, 9:06 AM Rob Berendt <rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Tough to know where to begin with that last question...
In a BRMS managed shop I would need to see some explanation as to why
anything would be saved to a save file and then saved to tape (virtual or
otherwise).

Ignoring that, when you use a VTL (Virtual Tape Library, not to be
confused with a tape device or a virtual tape image catalog) the IBM i
thinks it's saving to an IBM tape library. To the IBM i this tape library
could have one or more drives. And the IBM i thinks the library could have
a vast number of tape cartridges loaded into the tape library. So the IBM
i sends the data to the VTL like it was a mylar tape library. Now, how the
VTL stores the data on it's disk drives is it's own business and is very
proprietary between brands. And how they replicate the data between two
VTL's of the same manufacturer is again proprietary and is NOT done by
DUPMED or DUPMEDBRM. Therefore you cannot just plop a VTL from a different
manufacturer in there and have them duplicate the tapes between each other.


Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1
Group Dekko
Dept 1600
Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com


-----Original Message-----
From: MIDRANGE-L <midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of
Laurence Chiu
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 2:45 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Compatibility between different vendors VTL solutions

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This is somewhat vague but why I asked about VTL solutions I was told this.

Backups are managed using BRMS.

The application saves the DB to a Save file and then saves the Save File to
tape. So perhaps the storage appliance is only being used as a virtual tape
device replicating what you would do with a physical tape or autoloader?
So the formats are not proprietary?

On Tue, Feb 11, 2020, 1:47 PM DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

It would be 'very unlikely' that two different VTLs could exchange data
unless they were both connected to an IBM i partition where you could
utilize DUPTAP from one to another.

From the three vendors that I've worked with significantly the format
of the data on disk as well as the connection between systems are very
different between them. I expect that difference would extend to
virtually all vendors.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 2/10/2020 4:36 PM, Laurence Chiu wrote:

I am in a situation where in one data center there is a VTL solution. I
want to implement in another data center a VTL solution and then copy

all

the tape backups from the first to the second data center. Assuming the
backup is using BRMS do I need to keep the same hardware solution at

each

DC? So for example if one DC is using say a Dell VTL could I use DSI

at

the second and still be able to migrate and use all the backups taken

on

the Dell?

I'm actually trying to find out what specific VTL solution is used in

the

first DC but thought I would ask the generic question to know my

options.

Thanks

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