Thanks to Remco for pointing out to me that TSM 5.3 has added this
capability.  I stand corrected.

> First, let me verify what I was told TSM _could_ do.  I was told that
during
> the initial backup (if you went straight to tape, such as with a large
> dataset), TSM could write to two tape drives simultaneously, making two
> copies in the time it takes to make one.  Is that part true?

Yes.

No, I do not think this is possible.  Howard, the Copy Group DESTination
can only specify one storage pool.  Thus, it is not possible to send
incoming data simultaneously to two different tape drives.  This is by
design, and is not an oversight.  The normal way of doing things is to
receive the data on disk first, and then you can simultaneously migrate
the data from disk to tape, and copy it to a copy storage pool.  Perhaps
Howard missed your premise that you want to go straight to tape.

--
Paul Zarnowski                            Ph: 607-255-4757
Manager, Storage Services                 Fx: 607-255-8521
719 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-3801    Em: psz1 AT cornell DOT edu