We use a disk pool to catch the data during the backup window.  300-400 
simultaneous sessions.
We have physical tape to create our off-site (copy pools) copy.
We have VTLs to store the on-site (primary) copy of the data.
It has been that way for 5 years.  Various pieces have been replace.

As far as making TSM act like other backup applications, I think it can be 
done, but I am not sure why.  There are previous discussions on this.

We only send certain primary pools to the copy pools, so you can control what 
is written to the copy pools.

If your DB is growing, be sure you are running expiration.  Also reclamation 
should be run on a regular schedule.

Andy Huebner

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Capo
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 3:35 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] TSM + VTL and physical tape library

Hi all,
I'm involved in a TSM + VTL project but, unfortunately, I'm quite new in TSM 
world: please apology me if I make trivial questions:
My customer has currently got 4 TSM instances copying to a small disk pool and 
then to an IBM Tape library.
They would like to introduce a VTL in the existing environment to improve 
overall performances and give TSM servers a little break.

My questions:

1. TSM catalog is growing too much. Would VTL help them to reduce its size ? 
When data are copied offline (I suppose via a copy pool), does the catalog 
still keeps track of them?
2. Physical tape generation from Virtual media is really important in this 
project: customer would like to keep fresh backups on VTL and old ones on 
tape. With other BU applications this would be quite easy but, since TSM has 
got a peculiar way to manage files (versions), I am a confused: do you think 
that defining the tape library as a copy pool is a good idea? What level of 
granularity can I reach with the storage policies and copy pools? Can I 
simulate the lifecycle policy of other backup applications ? Can I tell 
migrate XX backup to tape after 1 month and remove it from the VTL and stuff 
like that ?
3. Any real life experience to share ? The candidates for this project are 
Centricstor and DXi 7500 (or the new DXi 8500).


Thanks for your help
Max

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