James,
The biggest consideration which I know of, and have seen on here many many
times, is the throughput capability of a Linux server. Your main thought
here is not so much how many PCI slots are available but how many pci buses
are available, as this is where your internal I/O limitations fall into
place.
For example your Gb Ethernet interface, as this will be one of the highest
I/O loaded adapters, should be on a difference PCI bus to the disks, and the
disks should in an ideal world be separate to the tape drive interfaces, and
then your tape drives should be split across buses... You also need to
consider how many adapters you are running for your tape drives in that if
you have two tape drives with a theoretical max transfer rate of
40MB/second, you wouldn't want to run two drives off an interface that is
also only capable of 40MB/second as you could restrict the max perf of your
drives.
This is where your true midrange class machine falls into place as, taking
AIX & RS/6000 for example, the PCI slots are available in drawers, so you
could start with a couple of drawers, and add more should your environment
require it. I am not very familiar with Wintel systems, but I am fairly
certain (although willing to be proven wrong) that there are either very
view, or possibly no Wintel boxes with this kind of expandability.
Hope this provides so food for thought!
Many thanks
Andy Wilcox
UNIX Systems Administrator
Midlands Electricity
-----Original Message-----
From: James R Owen [mailto:Jim.Owen AT YALE DOT EDU]
Sent: 31 March 2004 15:23
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: ?Linux TSM service to backup >100 clients to disk->tape?
Hi Linux TSM Sys.Admins!
None of you responded to my previous query, so I'm trying again.
We are considering to use RedHat EL 3.0 on IA32/64 platform
(rather than AIX on p-series) to host an additional I/O intensive
TSM service (to split our current service and handle half of future
growth.) We are hoping to build based upon others' experiences.
Are you already using or actively planning to use Linux (RedHat EL 3?)
to host an I/O intensive TSM service similar to any described under the
recent ADSM-L thread, "Sizing an AIX platform and tape libraries"?
If not, do you have a Linux TSM service backing up >100 clients to
disk -> tape storage? Please describe what you have and what limits
you think might apply to your set up (or reply w/ a phone# if you
would rather just talk.) Thanks for any advice you care to share!
--
Jim.Owen AT Yale DOT Edu (203.432.6693)
= = = from my previous posting = = =
We believe we are approaching the maximum that can be achieved w/
TSM: v5.2.1.3
OS: AIX 5.1 (64bit)
CPU: IBM 7025-6F1 w/ 4 * 750Mhz proc's + 3GB RAM
SAN: 1 Gb w/ EMC Symmetrix 8830
LAN: 1 Gb Ethernet
ATL: IBM 3494 w/ 6 * 3590E drives
IBM 3584 w/ 4 * 3580 LTO1 + 2 * 3580 LTO2 drives
This configuration is successfully supporting our current ITS TSM service
(see details below), but we believe we either need a major performance
boost or to split this load onto an additional host platform:
Linux, Win*, or must we remain w/ AIX for I/O performance?
to handle expected additional growth.
Which platform have you chosen (or would you choose) for similar TSM
service?
Yale ITS TSM Service:
--------------------
Active Clients: 2400 <= 3d, 2500 <= 7d, 2700 <= 35days
Servers: 151
WinNT,2K* 105
Linux 20
Solaris 9
AIX 7
SQL-BT (Oracle) 3
Mac 2
TDP's: MSSQL,MSexchg: 2 + 1
[new] 2
Personals: 2549
WinNT,2K*,XP 2230
Win98,ME 26
Mac 183
Linux 50
Solaris 5
AIX,DEC*X,HPUX,IRIX: 1 ea.
[new] 51
Expected growth: +500-600 clients for several years
+20% data for existing clients/year?
TSM DB: 75.7% of 160GB
BAckup DB w/ LTO1 HCmpr. takes 2.3h
EXPIre Inv examines ~6M obj, deletes ~1M obj. in 8-9h
Disk STGpools: 600 + 180GB
Nightly Backup Period: 15:30-08:00+
Weeknight Backup Load: 500-650GB+
Thanks for any experience/insight you are willing to share with us!
--
Jim.Owen AT Yale DOT Edu (203.432.6693)
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any of their group undertakings (as defined by the Companies Act 1989)
(together referred to as the "Companies") accept legal responsibility for this
message or liability for the consequences of any computer viruses which may
have been transmitted by this e-mail.
Monitoring: All electronic communications with the Companies may be monitored
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