TSM 714/715: Theoretical Use of Containers

[BDMcGrew]

Good morning all...

I've been really reading up on all the container storage pools over the last couple of days and think I have it all figured out in my head lol and wanted to throw my theory out there publicly and see if I'm anywhere near accurate.

I'm running 714 on RHEL 7 on physical hardware (will upgade to 715 today) with with disk and tape storage pools. I'm thinking I should be able to do something like the following:

1) Build a new virtual TSM server inside my on-site virtual infrastructure with enough disk to hold everything.
2) Setup a cloud account with Softlayer and use protect stgpool and replicate node to copy all the data outside the building.

This would allow me to eliminate a physical server and a tape library but still allow for local restores if necessary and give the same level of disaster protection in the event of a complete obliteration, correct?

Am I thinking of this accurately, missing anything, way off???

Thanks all!

-brian

 

[marclant]

So you would replicate your physical to your virtual?

What would you use for storage on the physical? Softlayer cloud or local directory container?
Is your network pipe big enough to handle the replication?
Are you sure you can allocate enough resource to the VM? Physical with dedicated hardware is what is recommended

 

[BDMcGrew]

So you would replicate your physical to your virtual?

Yes, that is what I was thinking.

What would you use for storage on the physical? Softlayer cloud or local directory container?

I'd use a directory container on my local (virtual) machine and then Softlayer cloud for replication?

Is your network pipe big enough to handle the replication?

Yes, absolutely.

Are you sure you can allocate enough resource to the VM? Physical with dedicated hardware is what is recommended

Yeah, I think so... 8 processors, 48 cores, 192GB of RAM across 4 hosts 96TB of iSCSI storage across 3 different NAS all managed by vCenter with HA running.



My problem is I'm running thin on power, rack space and cooling here. Anything I can do to get rid of current draw and heat production is a bonus but yes, I know it's recommended to stay physical - but there's a trade off. The only way I'd put all this into a VE is if I can safely protect it, outside the building, in a cloud somewhere.

 

[marclant]

My first recommendation would be to check the blueprint: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/Tivoli Storage Manager/page/IBM Spectrum Protect Blueprints

See where you fall in terms of small/medium/large and if the machine(s) you have match that.

Keep in mind you would need 2 TSM Server instances because you can't replicate to the same instance (same VM machine or different), but that doubles your requirements regardless if it's the same VM or not, because the blueprint specs are per instance.

Now, if you don't use directory containers, then you can go with a single instance and do a copy pool instead of replicating, but you loose the benefits of inline dedup and you have to use legacy dedup which is less appealing than inline.

 

[DanGiles]

I do not fully understand your replication model though. Are you talking about setting up a second TSM instance in the cloud, or simply using cloud storage to protect the storage pool?

Your scenario would certainly work. I would just look more closely at what happens if you end up needed the data on the cloud (i.e. full disaster). You would have to build another TSM server (assuming the latter cloud storage) then pull out all of that data from the cloud, which could cost you big $$. If possible, I would go with a second live TSM server at a DR site.

Full disclosure: I am not fond of this "cloud" thing.