I don't know about the /dev/null question.  But since the client and server
are on the same host, using dsmserv.opt option "COMMmethod SHAREDMEM" can
make a significant improvement.

On Mon, 6 Mar 2000, John Schneider wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> Is it possible to configure TSM to backup to /dev/null under AIX?  The
> reason I want to do this is I want to remove the performance of the tape
> drive units from the rest of the TSM performance.  If the backup can go
> directly to /dev/null, then the tape drive speed isn't slowing things
> down.
>
> The speed of the database backup software, SQLBackTrack and Oracle,
> drive contention, load on the system, etc. all are part of the
> equation.  I have a customer who is considering upgrading to faster tape
> technology to speed up their backups, but how do we know for sure if
> that is where the bottle neck is?  Typically the network would be, but
> in this case the server and the client are on the same machine.
>
> I figure that if we could backup to /dev/null, then we can see what the
> raw throughput of the rest of pipeline is, and that way we know if
> faster tapes will help.
>
> Any suggestions, including a completely better way to solve this
> problem, are appreciated.
>
> John Schneider
>
> ***********************************************************************
> * John D. Schneider   Email: jdschn AT attglobal DOT net * Phone: 636-349-4556
> * Lowery Systems, Inc.
> * 1329 Horan                  Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are
> * Fenton, MO 63026                   mine and mine alone.
> ***********************************************************************
>