Re: Thoughts on VTL solutions

Thanks for that. A few points

1. I meant SAS drives for the SAN :-( The V5030 does not support SATA
drives
2. The other vendor mentioned DUPTAP also with their VTL solution
connected to the ProtecTier. So would you connect the second VTL over FC,
and then go into BRMS and run the DUPTAP command to copy the entire
ProtecTier library to the other VTL? I should add the migration of the BRMS
backups would be a one-off exercise. Once completed production would move
to the other site and there would be no need to connect back to ProtectTier.
3. The SAN seemed like a good option since it meant we could use the SAN
replication feature to replicate the VTL backups to the DR site
4. Another VTL we were looking at LaserVault (
https://www.laservault.com/vitl-2/vitl/ ). I looked at their demo and it
looks like it's BRMS so the users would be used to that. Plus there is a
web interface. Plus thei provide software only as an option so you can run
on your own kit or even on a VM in your virtual machine farm



I am presuming that nobody really minds that the VTL vendor they are using
is not "approved" by IBM?


On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 2:49 PM DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I work a LOT with both ETI SPHiNX and with the Cybernetics VTLs. I have
also worked with Dell/EMC units.

40TB of RAID storage is very cheap today and easily supported by all
three of these vendors without the complication and expense of SAN for
storage.

All support Fiber connectivity and the SPHiNX and Cybernetics units
support SAS as well.

While I'm not sure you could directly connect any of these to the
Protectier and migrate directly you can certainly connect to IBM i and
use DUPTAP or the BRMS equivalent to dup the tapes to the new unit you
select.

For the user interface I prefer the SPHiNX. I find it simpler and more
intuitive to use. Reliable system and good support.

If you want to replicate your data to a remote site for automatic
off-site backups then the Cybernetics unit is your choice. Their
deduplication technology can end up sending your nightly backup between
sites in 15 minutes! (Of course YMMV!) Of course thie means your local
backups are deduplicated as well and thus consume vastly less storage as
well.

Both the SPHiNX and Cybernetics units are available in various sizes of
rack-mounted units from 1 to 4 U, redundant power, various RAID
selections and generally use 7.2K RPM SAS drives (You NEVER want to use
SATA drives in RAID. Don't do it)

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

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

On 5/8/2020 9:40 PM, Laurence Chiu wrote:

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

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