yeah that's what I figured. I took particular interest in one of you
statements below, when you said that if TSM is calling for a tape mount,
all the operator has to do is put a tape in the ATL I/o slots drawer and
the robot will take it and check it in to TSM and use it?. Did I read that
right? Or do the operators have to physically open of the the 3494
bays/doors and physically mount the tape as if it were manual?

--Justin



                      "Thorson, Paul"
                      <PThorson AT LRS DOT COM        To:       ADSM-L AT 
VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                      >                        cc:
                      Sent by: "ADSM:          Subject:  Re: volume management 
in tsm
                      Dist Stor
                      Manager"
                      <[email protected]
                      .EDU>


                      09/26/2002 12:46
                      PM
                      Please respond to
                      "ADSM: Dist Stor
                      Manager"






Justin,

I've experienced this on several occasions including having close to
1000 tapes outside of a 3494.  Obviously, someone has miscalculated the
size necessary to house all your primary storage pool volumes - the
easiest solution is to bolt on a couple more 'S' frames on the ATL.

TSM will manage the tapes automatically outside of the ATL - there is no
need to update their location as 'rack'.  If needed, TSM will request a
tape volume until the tape is checked in or the "mount wait" of the
device class is exceeded.  When put in the ATL, the tape is
automatically checked in and used by TSM.  If the mount wait is
exceeded, the tape is then updated to "unavailable" and causes a
restore/retrieve to fail and reclamation to move on to the next
candidate tape.

Predicting which tapes will be reclaimed can be a challenge, since TSM
splits files and often needs a highly utilized tape to move a file
segment.  If you can identify a set of tapes which are full and not
expiring too fast and they are not needed to often for restores, you can
rotate them out of the ATL.

I had the luxury of having tape operators monitor the requests, so we
made it work until more slots were installed.  That took a bit of
training and documentation, but is fairly simple.

Regards,

- Paul

Paul Thorson
Levi, Ray & Shoup, Inc.
Tivoli Specialist - LRS IT Solutions
(217) 793-3800 x1704


-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Bleistein [mailto:justin.bleistein AT SUNGARD DOT COM]
Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 10:52 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: volume management in tsm


      We are in a bit of a pickle or soon will be anyway.... We have an
IBM/3494 atl in our TSM environment. Which has about 1,000 slots in it.
These slots are filling and fast. We're trying to make room for more
scratch tapes. Now I've tried everything from "move data" to weird
"reclaimation" sinareos. And we just can't seem to free up sificiant
slots. I had an idea of ejecting all tapes which haven't been written to
in a while there just waiting to expire, this way migration or backup
storage pool processes won't call for them, and once they're out rack
them in the data center and mark there location as: "rack". Now that
will free up a ton of spots in the atl. The problem is how can TSM
manage those tapes even though they are not in the ATL. I can check them
in with check label = no, and just mark there location as: "rack" this
way the database will keep updating them. The problem is what if
reclaimation runs, now you can't do it because the tapes can't be
mounted they're in the rack outside the atl. Unless the robot comes out
to get them I don't see how this can work. It seems that trying to come
up with a solution to the problem of lack of slots in the atl will just
create more of a problem. Any thoughts? Or ideas? on how I can manage
these tapes even though they can't be mounted?. P.S. = Yes it is
collocated. Let me know if anyone has done this thanks!.

--Justin Richard Bleistein