I am also a mainframer, having spent MANY years doing mainframe storage
management/performance management/capacity planning.
And I LOVE running TSM on AIX.
I never would have believed it until I implemented it myself, but AIX
can push I/O AMAZINGLY fast, it is a terrific TSM platform.

Running TSM on an AIX box, you get back not only a chunk of your
mainframe disk, you get back cycles that otherwise have to be dedicated
to TSM.  SO you could think of moving TSM to AIX as giving yourself a
mainframe capacity boost!

I also know what a pain using TSM with a VTS can be when you start to
thrash your VTS cache; the VTS was designed to be used for SMALL files,
and TSM creates BIG files.  It is not a good fit.

I have TSM with 3590's AND LTO drives, and believe it or not, for TSM
use I love the LTO-2 drives.
They are fast and they have been MUCH more reliable than I ever would
have believed.

Unless you have a strong reason to keep 3590's, I would look at an AIX
box with a 3584 library and LTO drives.
You will save enough money on the 3590 drives to MORE than pay for
having the extra library.

If you are, for instance, in a very-high-duty-cycle environment, say
using HSM with TSM and doing many recalls per hour, I would stick with
the 3590's.  But if it is a typical
backup-overnight-then-create-copy-pool-tape type environment, LTO should
be fine.


Now the BIG ugly is the conversion.
There isn't any way to convert directly.

The best way is to set up your new AIX TSM server, point your clients
there, and let your OLD data on the mainframe just age off naturally.

If you have data with very long retention times, or archives, you will
have to EXPORT/IMPORT the data to get it to your new TSM server.


If you keep your 3590 tapes, you will EXPORT your client data to 3590
tapes, then IMPORT it into the AIX box.
If you use LTO you will have no compatible media between the 2 TSM
servers.  So you have to set up a server-to-server connection and
EXPORT/IMPORT via TCP/IP, which is a time-consuming, error-prone,
miserable process.

A lot of people use a combination method - 
point your clients to the new server to create new backups; let your old
data age off for several months, then EXPORT/IMPORT your archives and
whatever else is left.

If you want to test the process, you could set up a second instance of
the TSM server and test couple of EXPORT/IMPORTs for timing purposes.
Figure your conversion cost based on your time required, training costs,
the value of the mainframe capacity and disk savings vs. the cost of the
new hardware.  

If you go to AIX there will also be a bit of a learning curve for you,
but it's really great fun.

1) Get a copy of  "UNIX FOR DUMMIES", or something similar to get
familiar with basic commands
2) Go to the IBM AIX adminstration class.
3) Have someone who knows AIX set up your TSM server for you initially.
After that the basic admin class info is all you'll need.

AIX just runs and runs - hardly ever even needs a reboot.  The only AIX
thing you'll need to know right away is how to interact with its file
system; all the rest of TSM administration is just the same, no matter
what platform.



My opinion, and nobody else's...

Wanda Prather
"I/O, I/O, It's all about I/O"  -(me)


 







-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Paul Van De Vijver
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 10:11 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Move TSM server from Z/OS Mainframe to AIX : pro's and con's ?
Experiences ?


Hi,

Would it be possible to give some comments on next please ?

Because we are requesting some more diskspace (500 GB) for TSM on our
mainframe
our management is wondering why we do not run TSM on AIX where diskspace
is much cheaper.
I agree with them that diskspace is cheaper on AIX, but I  think the
total
convertion/migration cost
will  be a factor x more expensive then the price difference in disk
space


Some figures about our current configuration :

Primary pool is about 30 GB  disk and 6 TB in Virtual Tape System
(approx
6000 virtual 3490 volumes)
Our copy pool is on 3590 tapes (copied during day time from VTS to 3590
on
MAGSTAR)
We have 10  3590 drives on our Magstar, but TSM can use a maximum of 5
drives during day time and only 1 drive during night
Daily backup volume is approx 450-500 GB
TSM Database is 12 GB
 +/- 150 clients (Windows, AIX )
TSM server version 5.2.4.0

If we could get 500 GB extra disk space for our primary pool then this
could cover our total daily backup volume
and the data could be copied directly from there to our copypool which
would be MUCH faster
iso our current situation where almost all data has already been
migrated
to our VTS and causing hundreds of
tape mounts (physical tape mounts because VTS cache is too small to keep
all TSM data and other data)

If we should consider to move to AIX, I see next issues :

-  VTS can no longer be used with AIX
-  we will need more 3590 drives
-  we will need extra 3590 tapes for primary pool
-  maybe extra frame needed in Magstar
-  new AIX box of course
-  Z/OS - AIX migration issues ?

-  other points to consider ?

Any comments (pro's and contra's) are welcome
Has someone done this migration before ?

Many thanks,

Paul Van de Vijver
TSM Aministrator
Honda Europe NV
Belgium





The information contained in this communication is confidential and may
be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the use of the
individual or the entity to whom it is addressed and others authorised
to receive it. If you have received it by mistake, please let the sender
know by e-mail reply and delete it from your system.
If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any
disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance of
the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful.
Honda Europe NV is neither liable for the proper and complete
transmission of the information contained in this communication nor for
any delay in its receipt.