Hi All,

I've been working with TSM for nearly 2 years now and have a fairly good knowledge of how it works. I am now in-charge of implementing TSM for VE to replace our current virtual backup software vRanger.
I'm currently planning to deploy TSM for VE at work but there is too much detail I currently don't understand but I will need to cover in my testing and deployment plan.
I would like a possible opinion on how I could architect TSM to include TSM for VE

The current configuration for my company is detailed below

2 x IBM TS3500 tape libraries (1 onsite, 1 offsite)
6 x production TSM Servers using TSM 6.3.1 (1 library manager, 1 configuration manager, 4 secondary TSM servers). The library manager does not backup any data, only controls the library, the other 5 do the data backup
95+% of servers are virtual, there is about 1700 servers
Approx 65% of servers are already being backed up by TSM BA client or TSM BAC with TDP modules.
We don't have a VTL and probably won't look into it until a couple of years time.
We would prefer a virtual system for TSM for VE but will consider physical if the performance outways the cost.

I understand that the TSM vStorage Backup Server (TSM Data Mover) and the DP for VMware vCenter plugin server can co-exist on the same server.
Considering the size of the environment, there will be around 4-6 vStorage servers to cater for the entire environment. I have read over the main parts of the IBM TSM for VE deployment guide.
I would like to know if I will need to present a fair amount of storage (5TB-10TB give or take) to each vStorage Backup Server so it can store the backup VM's before sending them to a TSM Server to go to tape?
How would I go about architecting TSM for VE into an already complex system of TSM?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks all