Interested folks might want to look into IBM's Seascape SAN stuff...
     It has multiple platform interfaces, runs internally with SSA disks,
     (last I heard) will in the future have the ADSM functionality
     internally so data is backed up locally without going over the net.

     Now I'm NOT an IBM sales person OR developer THUS this is just what
     I've heard at presentations... BUT if they get it working like they
     say they want to it should be the best of all worlds.

     big if, huh!

     On SSA's, their flexibility has allowed me to configure our servers to
     perform GREAT, with "higher availability" I had some servers
     configured where if the server lost one of its two internal busses and
     itself could still run, we would still have access to half our disk
     pool and 1 set of DB & LOG volumes.  In short if the box was up, adsm
     was up!  I could have split the redundant ssa cards across the
     internal busses but that would have doubled the data across each buss
     during normal operation and only paid off if an internal buss failed
     and the processor stayed running... the way I wired it reduced buss
     traffic and pays off in the event of an ssa adapter failure.
     When their Seascape goes into full swing... you will be able to move
     all your existing SSA disks into the Seascape environment !  So if you
     have a bunch of older 4.5 GB ssa drives that you have replaced with
     the 9.1 GB's... don't throw the 4.5's away just yet... well, if you
     must  you may trash them my way ;-)

     later,
          Dwight


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: ADSM and SAN
Author:  nathan.king (nathan.king AT USAA DOT COM) at unix,mime
Date:    2/3/99 11:47 AM


You're absolutely right Dwight. ADSM Developement really need to address
this quickly otherwise they're going to be left behind!
They especially need to get going with Fibre Channel development.
Although Fibre Channel standards have yet to be set, IBM appears to be
showing little interest and is instead pushing SSA which essentially noone
else is interested in except IBM ofcourse. I'm not demeaning SSA - it is in
a lot of respects superior to Fibre , but the market appears to believe
otherwise.

Nathan

        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Dwight Cook [SMTP:decook AT AMOCO DOT COM]
        Sent:   Wednesday, February 03, 1999 10:27 AM
        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        Subject:        Re: ADSM and SAN

             Have you been to an IBM storage presentation lately ? ? ?

             'bout 6 months ago I brought up such topics...

             Answers were... "it is in the works..."

             This is where adsm investments will pay off in the future and
be
             functional through continued business growth, with the big SAN
push,
             the adsm server will be integrated into the SAN server and
basically
             the backups/archives & restores/retrieves will actually never
hit the
             network.

             When this will happen? ? ? ?

             later,
                   Dwight


        ______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
        Subject: ADSM and SAN
        Author:  JButt (JButt AT GECTS.GE DOT COM) at unix,mime
        Date:    2/3/99 9:25 AM


        Consider the following setup
        An RS/6000 as the ADSM server connected via ultra scsi to a tape
library
        like 3575. A couple of NT and Sun servers connected to the same
library
        via ultra scsi acting as clients to the RS/6000  ADSM server.

        All the systems are also part of a LAN

        How would you ensure that tthe data path is not along the LAN but
along
        the ultra scsi attachment. I dont think we can use the sharedmem
option
        in this case because the server and the client are not on the same
node.
        If we use tcpip, the data will go along the LAN. In short how can
adsm
        integrate in a true SAN environment.

        Am i correct in these assumptions or am i missing something.

        Thanks in advance.

        Jawad Khayyam Butt

        Senior Integration Specialist
        GE Capital IT Solutions
        5985 Mclaughlin Road, Mississauga, ON L5R 1B8

        Tel: 905-568-9707x7151     Email: jbutt AT gects.ge DOT com