OK,
Bad idea to use the OS/390 as the TSM Server is what they are saying and
also not a good idea to use a VTS because TSM fills tapes up.  Typically,
users install the OS/390 version and eventually move to AIX.

Now, the idea of sharing your 3494 with a AIX TSM server and install some
3590 drives is a good idea.  And if you are small enough you may be able to
get by with a W2K server.  We run both.  The 3494 support is not going away
for a long time.  IBM is installing a lot of 3494s in the open systems world
at customer sites that do not believe Ultrim is ready for prime time.  They
just installed 2 in our area last week.  There is no follow on product
announced.

We have 2 3494s with HA, a total of 38 open systems 3590E drives, 1 VTS, and
20 S/390 drives.  I have presented numerous times of how to implement this
kind of configuration in a multi-vendor environment on AIX, SUN, S/390, W2K,
and SGI.  It works great.  We actually have both Netbackup and TSM, 28TB of
Shark storage.

I will be presenting again on this subject at Share in Nashville.

Your skittishness because of the 3466 debacle has merit, but it does not
apply here, at least for 5 years.