AIX server requirements

[etchingsj]

We are currently moving from a Windows server to an AIX Server.
Our sales people have suggested a 40K primary P-Series server. Management loves these types of bids.

Our TSM enviroment looks like this:

250 Nodes
1.7TB of change data / night
211 tape TS3310 Library
Eight LTO4 Drives
120GB TSM database

The server specifications being suggested are:

Power6 4.2ghz-P6 Proc8203:Model-E4A w/ 4 core proc card
2x 73GB 15K rpm local SAS drives
8192 RDIMMS 667mhz, 512MB stacked DRAM

Does this solution seem to be overkill?
I am unfamiliar with AIX architecture and wanted to get some other opinions.

TIA

 

[THE_WIPET]

Any reason switching from Windows to AIX? We are discussing maybe to do the swicth to AIX. But we know that our ENV still have a lot of room for expension.. Do you have any unix knowledge in you companie?

we have
450 nodes
8TB of backup/night
1 VTL 95TB
1 TS3500 with 8 LTO3 drives.

This run on 2 Intel servers (backup servers) both are dual quad core with 16gb ram. 4HBA cards with SAS drives and SAN drive for the TSM DB
1 Server is the librairy manager it's a 1 dual core CPU. 4gb ram 2HBA.
All running on Win2k X64.

I'm asking this cause as i said, We are talking of maybe doing the switch..

Thanks for the answer

 

[etchingsj]

The primary motivators for the change are simple. TSM is basically TSM under Windows or AIX, either you know it or you don't. TSM is known to be 30% faster when running on AIX (This is a quote from IBM). Also the average uptime of an AIX TSM server is usually 6 months to a year or longer? When was the last time your Windows server had that sort of stability? AIX also has built in components for perfomance tuning that Windows does not.

The memory management aspect of AIX is far greater as well. But when speaking to management one of the best motivators for this change is when you do have an issue you do not need to engage two different vendors. You call IBM and your issue is handled.

Currently we have two Windows servers as well and the environment will soon outgrow the current configuration. In this effort we are also moving from LTO3 to LTO4.


If you need help selling this to senior management I can post some more specific data as well as denote the source.

 

[THE_WIPET]

Thanks for the info. As i said on previous post. I'm never had the chance to work with AIX and TSM. I mostly we are a windows shop we have a couple of unix server and they run solaris... So if we talk with our unix admin he says that Solaris if for more better than AIX.. and blablabla!!!( Same kind of war between mac of PC)

I run TSM on windows for more that 5 years.. I saw it crash every 2 days running on win2k.. And on windows 2k3 it's much more stable.. it's been 4 month that my windows is running. It was stop due to hardware maintenance(add a quad network card).

The fact of 1 single point for support is interesting. I know that any os having a "unix" kernel have a better memory management than windows. (did not try win2k8).

I'll keep in mind what you said when we will do our major TSM hardware upgrade in 1 to 2 years from now.

 

[heada]

The p-Series server you're describing will be able to handle more than 4 times the load you currently have. One of my TSM servers is running on a p520 2x 1.5Ghz(Power5), 6GB RAM attached to EMC DMX3 disk and a 3494 with 13 3592-J1A drives (800 tapes), handles ~4TB every day and is never more than 50% used.

You could get away with a Power6 based p520 for about $25K but if management is willing to spring for the bigger box, go for it.

-Aaron

 

[greenyez]

the bigger the better.. you will have less headache to handle future growth.

 

[n9hmg]

That'll be adequate, but I recommend you look at a pile of local disk for the db and log. You want to isolate those from stgpool and from each other. Ask management for a D20 to attach to the p6 and have it and the CEC filled with little drives. Spread your db across as many spindles as you can get. With that kind of horsepower, the only thing holding back expiration will be disk.
I've got my db on 2 sets of 4 36GB drives(I've got a LOT of space available). I'd rather have it on 12 or 24 drives.

 

[groener]

That looks good

It might be a slight bit of overkill, though. The great thing about POWER 6 is that procs and memory are Capacity on Demand. You could get that box with the 4way chip and leave 2 of the chips in-activated. If you need them later on, you can purchase the activations, plug in the key and away you go! That solution will save a little money (if that's what management is worried about)

I agree on finding as many spindles for your DB as possible. You'll find that the database runs excellent on a set of disks with cache (i.e. SAN disk, small disk subsystem dedicated or D20 Expansion w/ cached RAID card).

HAve fun with the new P6.....I think you'll dig it!