Migration Process to DL700 suggestions requested

[jaeger]

Shortly we will be migrating to the EMC DL700 virtual tape library and we would like suggestions as to what our upgrade path may be.



Currently our server is on AIX with SSA drives containing 3 disk pools. One is for databasees and is colocated. The second os non DB and is colocated, the third is not colocated.



Each day we migrate the diskpools to onsite tapepools. Then we copy the onsite tape pools and create an offsite copy.



When we migrate to the DL700, ultimately we would like to have all of our onsite tape tapes copied to the DL700 and stored on disk.



Can anyone provide us with a suggested method and setup to perform this process.



We have over 250 nodes so we wouldn't be able to copy this all at once either.



Any Help you can provide would help



Thanks Dana

 

[AndyRH]

I would create duplicate tape pools on the new "library" and set these new pools as the next storage pool for the disk pools.

Then set the "Reclaim to storage pool" option to the new pool in the new "library". This option will move all your data to the new pools with no other human intervention, however, it could take a great deal of time. While reclamation is not a great way to empty the pool, it will move lots of data at first and you will want to maintain the old tape pools in-case something goes wrong on the new "library".

Once everything seems stable and happy, start moving tapes manually from the old tape pools to the new tape pools.



Just some thoughts, I may have missed something.



Please let us know how it works out, my management is considering buying one of these as well.



Andy

 

[jreichardt]

Dana,



Keep in mind that you are using "Virtual" volumes now that look like tape, yet are really disks. So you may want to choose non-collocated stg pools on the DL - In the case of restore, you may now open many threads using resourceutilization options because now you have MANY mountpoints. If all your data is on 1 tape, you can only open 1 thread or session for restore.



I have some other ideas. Give me or Russell a call.

 

[jreichardt]

Dana,



Keep in mind that you are using "Virtual" volumes now that look like tape, yet are really disks. So you may want to choose non-collocated stg pools on the DL - In the case of restore, you may now open many threads using resourceutilization options because now you have MANY mountpoints. If all your data is on 1 tape, you can only open 1 thread or session for restore.



I have some other ideas. Give me or Russell a call.