ADSM-L

Re: TSM MF to AIX sizing?

2003-08-20 14:06:42
Subject: Re: TSM MF to AIX sizing?
From: "MC Matt Cooper (2838)" <Matt.Cooper AT AMGREETINGS DOT COM>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 13:50:19 -0400
THanks!
Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Prather, Wanda [mailto:Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 12:48 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: TSM MF to AIX sizing?


Hi Matt.
Can't answer your question about GB throughput, sorry.

However, my config:

AIX 4.3.3, TSM 4.2.0
TSM DB is 33 GB, 90% full.
Backing up about 30 Wintel & UNIX-flavor servers, about 420 Wintel desktops.
Largest data base on the server is only 8GB, so it's all small files.
Average about  120GB, 650,000 files per day, 5 days a week.
Backup desktops during the day, servers & backup stgpool overnight.


My TSM server is an RS6000- F50 2 way (it's old), 2 GB of RAM.
1 GB Ethernet adapter.
4  STK9840 tape drives in an STK9710 robot.

This config is at max capacity now; not because of the backups, but because
I have to run reclaims 12 hours a day (because our robt is now full) and
expiration at least 2 hours per day plus 4-6 hours weekends (thanks to all
those Wintel System Object files).

However, to get this much throughput I've got disk spread over 2 tape buses
(tape throughput is no problem), 2 SSA loops, and 1 SCSI adapters of
internal UltraSCSI disk, and an old STK External disk cabinet, 26 spindles
total.

Had to convert all the disk from RAID to JBOD (w/ TSM mirrors for DB & log)
to get speed.
We really need another 2 GB of RAM and another 9840 drive.
Have never worried about throughput on the Ethernet adapter, has never been
an issue.

And all this hardware is OLD.  You should have NO problem getting a new
RS6000 that is faster enough to handle your load, and your SHARK disk should
be faster than mine..   Remember your problem is most likely gonna be I/O
throughput on the DB and storage pools; make sure you have room to add
adapters/IO paths as you grow.

BTW, our nightly load would be 180 GB per day, except that we turned on
subfile backups for ALL desktops.
Cut the load by 30%.  Also I have the desktop clients all running with
compression ON to reduce the network load and the size of the disk pool.

Hope that helps....
Wanda







-----Original Message-----
From: MC Matt Cooper (2838) [mailto:Matt.Cooper AT AMGREETINGS DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 7:39 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: TSM MF to AIX sizing?


Wanda,
        My TSM DB is 78% of 32GB.  I have a hodge bodge of clients, 180
servers and 300 desktops.  Of the 15 TB, 2TB is a pre-compressed data
warehouse that looks like a dozen files.  On the other hand I have a bunch
of Wintel servers that have less than 20GB and over a million files.   My
current tape drives are 8 9840s (escon attached).  The new environment would
be Fiber attached, probably 9940s.  I have almost .5 TB disk pool on SHARK.
THe disk pools can be reassigned to the new environment...   I just don't
have a good guess at the CPU sizes or type.
        Right now I am using a GB ethernet adapter  and 2 ATM adapters on
the mainframe to move data.  I am in the process of moving everything to the
GB ethernet adapter.  WHAT SHOULD BE MY EXPECTED THROUGHPUT?  I haven't seen
it above 35MB/sec yet.  I realize I will not see the max until I have many
different concurrent backups using the adapter.
Matt

-----Original Message-----
From: Prather, Wanda [mailto:Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 4:33 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: TSM MF to AIX sizing?


1) How big is your current TSM DB?
2) How many clients do you support?
3) Is your 15 TB per month zillions of little files, or mostly big data
bases?
4) What type of tape drives/library are you planning to use?

TSM on AIX usually isn't CPU intensive except during EXPIRE INVENTORY; I
vote for 2 faster CPU's.

Most people hit an I/O bottleneck before the CPU bottleneck.

Just like on z/OS, make sure you buy enough disk/adapters/SSA loops so you
can spread your disk I/O over more than one I/O path.  (Or at least make
sure you can add an adapter/bus later if you need to add I/O paths.)  You
want to have your DB and recovery log on DIFFERENT disks than your storage
pools, if possible.  One big RAID array usually isn't the best choice for
speed.

You usually want at most 2 tape devices on a bus.

How much redundancy you require in disk/tape paths depends on how important
up time is to you.
Just like on z/OS, 100% up time is required if you are implementing the TSM
HSM function; less than 100% up time is probably satisfactory if TSM only
has to be available for nightly backups and occasional restores.

As a former mainframer, I can say with confidence you will be VERY HAPPY at
how well TSM runs on AIX, the I/O just screams....




-----Original Message-----
From: MC Matt Cooper (2838) [mailto:Matt.Cooper AT AMGREETINGS DOT COM]
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 1:12 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: TSM MF to AIX sizing?


Hello all,
        WE are currently running TSM 515 on z/OS 1.1 (9672-x57 gen 6) and
are considering moving it to AIX to free up CPU cycles that are being used
during 1st shift.   As we consider that versus doing thing to make it run
better on 2nd and 3rd (use 2 TSM servers, FICON to TAPE instead of ESCON,
LAN FREE for a few big Servers) I need to know the characteristics of the
AIX box to move to.  We are backing up about 15TB a month now.  I don't know
if we should be looking for a 2CPU machine or a 4CPU machine or if money is
best spent on 2 of the fastest CPUs versus 4 old CPU's.  It is hard to point
in a directions without knowing what the replacement system would be and
therefore its costs.  (yes I know that there is still 4GB of memeory, 2 GB
adapters, etc to cost out).   Is there anyone that can give my the voice of
experience or point me in the proper direction to correctly work this
problem though?
Thanks in Advance
Matt

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