Networker

Re: [Networker] Alphastor users?

2002-09-06 06:06:50
Subject: Re: [Networker] Alphastor users?
From: "Wood, R A (Bob)" <WoodR AT CHEVRONTEXACO DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 05:17:52 -0500
Re your main concern, you need not worry about losing mminfo and the like.
Alphastor just 'sits' between Networker and the libraries.

It presents the libraries to Networker as logical devices and uses it's own
agents on the various Storage nodes to control the physical side of things.
The main advantage of this is, you don't have to worry about what tape is in
what physical slot. Alphastor presents Networker with a nice tidy display
showing tapes grouped by pool and sorted into order (slot numbers, being on
a virtual device, are also shown in order). The drives themselves are
virtual as well, takes a bit of getting used to (first drive physically may
be loaded but Networker may show Drive 6 as loaded, can be a bit unsettling
especially with mixed media. Drive 6 had DLT7000 tape loaded one minute - an
LTO on the next mount, etc.).

All in all, it is a pretty useful tool. Once the tape rotations have been
set up, you'll love the one click tape movement jobs.

Only down side is, when it gets confused (Networker, Alphastor and reality
having a disagreement, doesn't happen all that often, but it does happen) it
can be a bit of a pain getting back in sync.
(hyave to physically unload all drives, do an inventory on Alphastor then
nsrjb -Hv on Networker - takes a while but works).

Reliability and stability - takes a bit of getting used to, all the
'wrinkles' that you've found out over the years (how to get out of various
situations with the library and tapes, etc) will probably not work with
Alphastor. You have to do things the AlphaStor way (not a problem once you
know what 'the way' is...). Sure, it has it's quirks but they're easy to
live with, I wouldn't go back to non-AlphaStor tape management.

Oops, just re-read your note
As for nsrjb options, the main differences are that moving tapes in and out
of the library has to be done via AlphaStor. It is a bit messy on 2.02 but,
apparently, with 2.1 you can move tapes from location to location with ease.

Just upgraded to 2.1 so should have some more news in a month or so.

Regards
Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Heller [mailto:jason.heller AT HARLEY-DAVIDSON DOT COM]
Sent: 05 September 2002 00:50
To: NETWORKER AT LISTMAIL.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Alphastor users?

I didn't see any responses to this, nor any recent AlphaStor feedback in
the archives.

Does anyone yet have any real-world opinions on AlphaStor?  I don't need
its level of media management (yet), but I do wish to support mixed media
in my Scalar1000 (DLT and LTO), and AlphaStor may give me that
functionality without costing much more than library partitioning
alternatives.

Most specifically, with AlphaStor, do I loose any of the built-in Networker
functionality, such as mminfo reports, nsrjb options, etc.?  Also, is it
reliable and stable?

Thanks,
Jason


On Thu, 18 Apr 2002 13:20:20 -0700, Sharon Sampson
<ssampson AT VALLEYWATER DOT ORG> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>We are considering buying Alphastor (media management)and I wondered
>if anyone on the list was using it and had any comments about it, good or
>bad.
>If you are not using it, do you have any media management software that you
>recommend, that works with Legato in a Windows environment. Thanks!
>
>Sharon Sampson

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