> I'm planning implementing a fibre connected shared tape library between our
> AIX systems. A question I have is about the path of the data. ie if I have
> the client using the network free backup does it travel:
>
> Client > TSM Server > Tape drive   or
> Client > Tape drive
>
> If the data is transferred directly from the client to the tape drive
> without passing through the TSM server then I don't have to worry about the
> workload of the TSM server and I can get away with having just one. If the
> data travels through the TSM server and then to the tape drive then I may
> need more than one server sharing the library as each AIX system has large
> amounts of data to backup. Hope this makes sense!

I can't answer your question directly but TSM still doesn't support
the 3rd party SCSI commands. So migrations from a disk-pool to a tape-pool 
require
the data to physically go through the TSM server. This was told to me by
Tivoli last December. I would imagine this would apply to remote data.

I have also been told that the LAN free component is not currently available
for AIX (only for Windows). Tivoli will be announcing the availability of during
this quarter.
Looks like marketing were pushing that hype as soon as they dreamed it up.
I'm scrutinising anything I am looking to buy off IBM nowdays.

Cheers, Suad
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