Re: Backup to USB

The USB stick Limit for a USB2 port is 32GB.

Initially the limit for USB3 was also 32GB but then in 7.2 and 7.3 with PTFs the USB 3 capacity limit was removed. HOWEVER, IBM says the largest tested is 256GB. So based on that the two sizes listed are OK but anything larger is un-tested, though 'should work'.

https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/1111239#FLASH

- DrF

On 3/1/2022 3:30 PM, mlazarus wrote:

Larry,

 When it was working "properly" it seemed to run reasonably quickly. Since it's an overnight job a *little* faster or slower doesn't matter. It's when it's many hours that there's an issue.

 Do you know if there are issues specifically with larger capacity sticks, e.g. larger than 128GB or 256GB?

 These sticks are nearly new and they get rotated.

 -mark

On 3/1/2022 3:03 PM, Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis wrote:

I have used USB for ad-hoc backups but nothing more.

We had a customer migrate to our cloud recently and they sent us their full save on USB. It started to read and then failed. The thing looked tired and scratched. BI have never really trusted USB sticks for more than transient work.

Also as you're finding it's kinda slow too. :-)

    - DrF

On 3/1/2022 12:29 PM, mlazarus wrote:

  Does anyone backup their i to USB?  What has your experience been?

  For a while I was backing up to USB and it was working fine, maybe it took 2 - 3 hours.  A couple of months ago the USB backup seemed to go to sleep for a  3-5 hours in the middle of the backup, then again further down.  It started before I had put on the latest cume and group PTF's. The situation did not improve after I put the PTF's on.

   As a comparative test, a functionally identical backup is being done to tape first and it completes within a reasonable amount of time (about 2 hours.)   Now, after running 9+ hours I need to cancel it to let production run, so I don't know if it's just hanging or it's doing something.  A guesstimate of the amount being saved is 150 GB.

  IBM is looking into it, but I was wondering what others have experienced.

  -mark