Re: 3590 Tape Drives

Just to add a couple things to David's comments.  We've had 3590- B1A's in a STK
Silo for a 2+ years.  Had some initial problems with tension between the STK
Robot and IBM drives. IBM installed new clips on the drives and we didn't have a
problem after that.  We had to define them as 3490's in the MVS iodef and set
the drives for 3490 emulation because the STK HSC software did not support 3590.
As far as I know it still doesn't.  If you still need to define them as 3490 you
also won't be able to take advantage of the new TAPEIOBUFFS option introduced in
TSM 3.7.  We are upgrading our tape hardware and have decided to replace the
Silo with a IBM 3494 and VTS.

Jeff






John Naylor <John.Naylor AT SCOTTISH-SOUTHERN.CO DOT UK> on 03/30/2000 09:55:50 
AM

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:    (bcc: Jeffrey P Connor/IT/NMPC)

Subject:  Re: 3590 Tape Drives



David,
   We have STK 9840 rather than magstar, but we also have 3490 and 3480
   cartridges still in use.
   There is no problem, except maybe you will not get the capacity on the
   magstar tapes you expect (depends on client)
   You need to make sure that any tapes you can no longer write to are marked
   read only, and of course you will need to retain some drives that can read
   18/36 track.
   You will also need to specify a different Adsm prefix in your device class
   defintion for the 3590's
   I am not sure  about the MVS iodef for 3590's but as far as our 9840 drives
   are cocerned they are known to MVS as 3490s.
   You will need to go through the STK "libgen" process to make all the new
   drives known to the silo software.
   Correct drive selection from those available to MVS will then be made by the
   silo software via files containing
   "tapereq" , "unitattr" and "volattr" statements.
   There are no worries about filling the tapes. ADSM will just go onto the next
   scratch tape.
   Make sure you have sufficient maxscratch defined for your needs.
   Restores also are not a problem, ADSM knows where the data is on the tape.
   I suggest collocation for your primary pools, certainly for your large server
   pools, but copy pools are fine without
   collocation.
   All this is my experience with mixed tape environment, but 9840's not
   magstar.
   The 9840's have proved reliable, no media problems after 5 months use, but I
   would strongly recommend the use of copy pools if only because of the extra
   volume of data per single tape.
   Hope this helps,

   John





"David Browne." <dbrowne AT HUMANA DOT COM> on 30/03/2000 13:46:53

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>

To:   ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:    (bcc: John Naylor/HAV/SSE)
Subject:  3590 Tape Drives



Currently we have three Tivoli Storage Manager servers and we are at
Version3 Release7 level 1.0 ,we run on OS 390 2.5, however we are in the
process of upgrading to OS390 2.8 .  We use 36 track tapes and STK silos
with 3490E tape drives(STK 9490-M34). We are considering moving all of our
TSM tape processing to Magstar 3590 tape drives installed in the silos(IBM
3590-E1A) and use the 10GB tapes(20GB X 256 Tracks/ 80GB compressed). I am
concerned about all of our current backup tapes. Some are still on 18 track
tapes(created on MTC 5490 tape drives) and most are 36 track tapes( created
in STK silos). I am concerned about doing restores and filling the 10GB
tapes.  Has anyone converted and what problems have you encountered?






**********************************************************************
The information in this E-Mail is confidential and may be legally
privileged. It may not represent the views of Scottish and Southern
Energy plc.
It is intended solely for the addressees. Access to this E-Mail by
anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient,
any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted
to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful.
Any unauthorised recipient should advise the sender immediately of
the error in transmission.

Scottish Hydro-Electric and Southern Electric are trading names of
Scottish and Southern Energy Group
**********************************************************************