On a project to setup a brand new Power system, migrating an application
from an existing application.
The current setup has ProtecTier VTL but that's not available in the new
setup of course.
From a business point of view we need to migrate across some 22TB of VTL
backups from ProtecTier to the new VTL.
Talking to IBM they have recommended we purchase DSI based VTL's because
- it's the only VTL they certify
- They can connect the DSI units to ProtecTier and suck all the backups
across over FC (on prem) or FC over IP if we want to do it remotely
- all the BRMS metadata would be maintained
Their pricing would stretch our budget somewhat so I have gone looking at
other solutions. Looking at this article there seem to be at least 5 VTL
solutions that are available.
https://www.helpsystems.com/resources/articles/virtual-tape-considerations-ibm-i
I don't know what certified or approved by IBM means but if the VTL
solutions just look like tape drives to IBMi, then does it matter? The
vendor can provide the support if required.
Another vendor with whom I have been discussion says they can do exactly
the same. Connect their appliance over FC to ProtecTier and duplicate the
backups and maintain metadata. We would deploy their appliance and use an
IBM Storwize V5030 SAN with 12 4TB SATA drives for the VTL storage for
about 40TB in RAID 6 . They are only 7.2K drives but fast enough for a VTL
I would think. The pricing here is quite attractive.
I am sure not all shops presented on this list are using DSI so just
wondering what people are using and their experiences.
Thanks
midrange.com
