TSM support for iSCSI tape?

[bhuntley]

Howdy!

I've been a TSM admin for about 11 years, but we're contemplating a new setup here, and I'm not finding much around on anyone else who has gone before us...

We're considering making our deployment geographically diverse (on campus, though) by using iSCSI disk storage for primary pools with a copy pool going to a dell iSCSI-attached LTO4 tape library (PV2000) w/ encryption enabled. All will be connected via 1Gb/s backbones to a Linux TSM 6.1 server.

Has anyone else heard of this being done or done it themselves?

TIA!

- Brian
"UNIX *is* user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are."

[moon-buddy]

Howdy!

I've been a TSM admin for about 11 years, but we're contemplating a new setup here, and I'm not finding much around on anyone else who has gone before us...

We're considering making our deployment geographically diverse (on campus, though) by using iSCSI disk storage for primary pools with a copy pool going to a dell iSCSI-attached LTO4 tape library (PV2000) w/ encryption enabled. All will be connected via 1Gb/s backbones to a Linux TSM 6.1 server.

Has anyone else heard of this being done or done it themselves?

TIA!

- Brian
"UNIX *is* user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are."

Although I have no direct experience on connecting iSCSI devices to TSM, I would venture to say that these types of connections can be treated like "as if" these were regular SCSI connections.

My understanding is that the command protocol structure is basically still SCSI encapsulated on another layer to enable the basic protocol to be transmitted a lot further.

This is akin to fiber connected SCSI libraries like a TS3500 wherein the connection is fiber but the command structure is SCSI.

I would venture to say that your proposed setup should work with the right HBAs (and drivers) in place.

[bhuntley]

Thanks for the quick reply!

That was generally my thought as well (e.g. if I can get the OS to see them and set them as a device, TSM should be able to work with it). FWIW, the iSCSI bridge connects to SAS LTO4 drives.

Thanks again - b
"UNIX *is* user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are."