Re: Evaluating ADSM

Item Subject: Evaluating ADSM

     Here is a little more info....

     What does managing tapes to do with mainframes... we use an RS/6000
     with an IBM 3494 robot and IBM 3590 drives... 10 GB / cart. raw with
     an advertised 30 GB capacity with compression. Everything works
     beautifully....  When we first put in the robot we opened it up,
     started tossing tapes in the racks (500 initially) issued the dsmlabel
     with the scan option... then the checkin with the scan option.... we
     started the label one night and then went home... next day we started
     the checkin and walked away...

     We don't really have much of a problem along those lines... About
     every server we are worried about has mirrored dasd... mainly if we
     have a drive crash it is just a data drive and most of the times they
     are mirrored... YOU are correct that in everything I have read or
     heard you will need to replace the op system, install adsm, then do a
     recovery BUT THIS WILL GIVE YOU YOUR CONFIGURATIONS BACK... if you are
     dealing with small PC's you can get DOS, WINDOWS, TCP/IP, & ADSM
     installed in about an hour BUT to go back through configuring them for
     that machine specifically or your over all environment YECH! and there
     is probably TONS more software on them other than the above
     mentioned...

     I try not to bad mouth companies & or products so I won't mention
     specifics but ADSM is fairly new here at AMOCO and I had only been
     working with it a short # of days (plenty of hours though... <--THAT'S
     A JOKE OF HOW HARD THEY ARE WORKING ME... not what it takes to master
     ADSM) Anyway, I had to set up a lab of 14 machines with ADSM client
     code and an RS/6000 390 with server code for an inhouse class. The
     inst. Al Hamilton would fly in just in time to get here and start
     teaching... (ie he could not review any of the env before starting)
     The class went perfectly.               a couple of weeks later we had
     another backup software inhouse class for another product we use... I
     took that class and even though these people had all the time in the
     world to set up and had been working with that product for years AND
     had TWO SERVERS, not just one... Class was 1 week... 30% we had both
     servers, 50% we were running on just one server and about 20% we spent
     smoke'n cigarettes BECAUSE we had 0 servers... and this other backup
     software had a nasty habit of crashing all PC's associated with the
     backup server when it died... THAT WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVER SAW THAT
     HAPPEN !

     Speeds... I had one of our IBM'ers dig up stats for me and he provided
     me with: IBM ADSM/6000 Performance Test from Dec 11,1995... seems like
     it was Craig Jackson, RISC System/6000 Sales Specialist, Tulsa Branch
     who performed the tests... at least his name is on the front...
     In our working environment we are seeing times that are right in there
     with the test results... you might find out if IBM has any of their
     misc benchmarking tests on the internet or ask your local rep to dig
     some up for you....

     God, I spew alot about ADSM but I like it!

     later
          Dwight



________________________Forward Header________________________
Author: INTERNET.OWNERAD
Subject: Evaluating ADSM
04-11-96 06:27 PM

We're in the process of evaluating ADSM as our server backup and restore
software and, of course, I have quite a few questions.  Just a few of the
questions :

1. Do most ADSM users pipe their data to a mainframe and then manage the
tapes with mainframe tools?

2. How does one go about restoring a server whose hard drive has just
crashed.  I realize there may be many different ways to do this, but I'm
just looking for a general answer.  Are software files and user data files
restored separately or differently.

3. How does ADSM match up to other backup software in terms of speed.  I
also realize this has a lot to do with Network bandwidth, but, again, I'm
looking for a general answer.  Hopefully someone has done some benchmarking.

Any feedback will be very much appreciated.  Thank you!


Sebastian Ragusa   sragusa AT tne DOT com
Storage administration
TNE Information Services, 501 Boylston St, Boston, MA, 02116  USA
Voice: (617) 578-4216    Fax: (617) 578-3776
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