Marc,

"Basically what I am asking is, Does TSM better utilize additional RAM or
additional Processors?"

Yes.

You didn't mention what OS you're running on.

What I've seen with  my undersized AIX TSM server is this:
a certain amount of CPU horsepower is essential.  All TSM activities
involve database reads, processing, and writes of updates, as well as
management of the recovery log.  We went from one 166 MHz CPU to two 332
MHz CPUs and are very glad we did.

TSM is extremely disk intensive.  Disk pool volumes, database volumes,
log volumes, and on and on.  AIX does memory-mapped disk I/O, that is, a
page of memory is mapped directly to a page of disk file.  Windows NT has
the same capability, though I don't know if TSM/NT uses that.  In either
event, having inadequate memory means that either a) if your system is
properly tuned, you will spend significant amount of time remapping memory
pages from file to file; or b) if you system is not properly tuned, you
will experience the same behavior but with paging to/from disk added to the
mix.

If you are running AIX, use the VMSTAT command to test memory remapping
while the system is busy.

If you are running NT, use PerfMon and monitor Memory / Pages per Second.

Note that others in the forum have stated that TSM will not use more than
1.5 GB RAM.  Some high-end machines will take a lot more than that.

Tab Trepagnier
TSM Administrator
Laitram Corporation












Marc Levitan <marc.levitan AT PFPC DOT COM>@VM.MARIST.EDU> on 04/02/2001 
02:36:33
PM

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

Sent by:  "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>


To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:
Subject:  Add CPU or Increase RAM???


Hi All -

I have the opportunity to upgrade my TSM Server.

Current:
1 CPU 233mhz
512MB RAM

We are considering one of two situations:
OPTION 1:
Replace CPU with (2) 450mhz
Replace 512MB RAM with 1.5 GB RAM

OPTION 2:
Replace CPU with (4) 450mhz
Replace 512MB RAM with 1 GB RAM

Basically what I am asking is, Does TSM better utilize additional RAM or
additional Processors?
Thanks...


Marc Levitan