Thanks for all the responses. As it turns we did not have mirrored disks. The
main reason for the lengthy restore was that an IBM CE had taken our software
offsite a few months ago to restore another customer of theirs and never brought
the software back.

 As part of a major hardware upgrade to the tape drives in the coming weeks, we
will be getting a new PC with redundant drives.

Thanks again,

Bill








Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU> on 02/09/2000 10:04:15 AM

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>








 To:      ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU

 cc:      (bcc: Bill Maloney/SSC/US/PepBoys)



 Subject: Re: 3494 Tape Libraries









>I would be curious to hear if anyone has a backup strategy for the OS/2 PC that
>runs the 3494 tape library? The reason I ask is that we had a hard disk failure
>on the PC this weekend and it took three IBM CE's three days to rebuild it.
>Three days without a tape library is not pretty. The process was basically a
>complete re-install of the OS.

Bill - As Valeriano pointed out, redundant hardware usually takes care of the
       situation.
But to have three IBM CE's take THREE DAYS to rebuild the disk is just
inexcusable.  A whole 3494 itself can be installed in one day.
Sad to say, but IBM CE proficiency these days is sadly lacking, as per
similar experiences at my own site - despite this being "enterprise" hardware.
Make sure your site management leans on IBM about this.  There should also
be a survey call in coming days asking how satisfied you were with the
handling of the service call, where you can express your satisfaction.
Be aware that that route gets little remediation, though.
     Richard Sims, BU