Re: VTLs and backup time

[Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Q1:  VTL can be faster, but remember the interface and your DASD
configuration is likely going to be the limiting factor.  with a
standalone tape unit, I'm guessing it's a SAS unit.  If you went to 16Gb
Fibre with a VTL that can support it (most of them do, I use Cybernetics)
then it is likely to be faster.  The caveat comes into play with dedup.
Most VTLs will dedup to cut the storage needed dramatically.  If you do
inline dedup (meaning while the backup is running) that is going to slow
the process down.  Post dedup will allow the save to run as fast as the
storage and interface can handle it, then do the dedup after it's done.  So
it's IBMs favorite answer, it depends.....  IE: if you only have 4 DASD
units that would be the limiting factor, VS a SAN, then DASD I/O would
likely be much faster and not a limitation.

Q2, Sure, VTLs can be connected to multiple systems depending on the
interfaces on the VTL and in some cases licensing on the VTL.



--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


On Thu, Aug 18, 2022 at 11:40 AM Gad Miron <gadmiron@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello sages
>
> As our nightly Prod machine backup time has grown to 7 hours
> ( SAVLIB *ALLUSER to one stand-alone LTO7 3580 tape )
> We look into VTL to speed things up.
> But, we must backup to tape also (air gap and such)
> So, I think of this scenario:
> a. get a VTL and connect it to both the Prod machine and the Dev machine
> b. run the same nightly Prod machine backup to a VTL
> c. during the day after , use DUPTAP on the Dev machine
>    to duplicate the Prod backup to tape .(the Dev machine has a 3580 Tape
> also)
>
> Now:
> Is a back up to a VTL much faster then tape?
> Can a VTL be directly connected to 2 machines so that a DUPTAP can be done?
>
>
> TIA
> Gad
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