I'm putting up a new TSM 6.2 system on AIX, and I'm trying to plan for
how many instances I need to create. Is fewer better, or more? I'm going
to have three distinct groups of client nodes:

1. A variety of local server systems running AIX, Linux, Windows,
Solaris. Connections are very high-bandwidth.

2. A large number of local desktop machines running various versions of
Windows, MacOSX, and Linux. Connections are very high-bandwidth.

3. A much smaller group of desktop machines in a remote office for which
I want to use client source deduplication to conserve the somewhat
limited bandwidth to the remote office.

Should I back these up into one instance, or three? Or more than three?
If this were still Version 5.5, I'd be looking at more like 6 instances.
The real tape library is already shared using a separate Library Manager
instance.

Reasons to have one:

1. TSM 6.2 scales much better than previous versions, so it can get big
OK.

2. Simplified management.

3. Saves overhead of multiple copies of the same code running.

4. Dedupe is by storage pool, and can be isolated in a separate storage
heirarchy without using another instance.

Reasons to have three:

1. Simplifies future growth in case we ever need to separate them on
their own hardware

2. Simplifies scheduling of dedupe operations

3. Prevent dedupe operations from interfering with other nodes not being
deduplicated.

4. Optimizes scheduling of other operations such as migration and
reclamation to maximize tape drive use.

5. Smaller instances can be easier to handle simply because they "weigh
less".

So, any advice on which direction to go here in Version 6.2 would be
appreciated. The right answer could be two instances, combining the
local and remote desktops into one. I don't know.

Roger Deschner      University of Illinois at Chicago     rogerd AT uic DOT edu
               Academic Computing & Communications Center ======I have
not lost my mind -- it is backed up on tape somewhere.=====