I'll take a 'best guess'...

The area where you should concentrate more resources is on the I/O capacity of 
the server. It looks like you have six (database, log and four disk storage 
pools) 'chunks' of disk to configure, not to mention the adapters to connect to 
the STK and the ethernet adapters. First count the number of adapters that you 
have/need. I would think you have at least two of each. Do you prefer SCSI or 
SSA disks? RAID levels make a big difference in performance.

Next find a AIX server with at least as many PCI slots as adapters you need, 
watch out for the number of 64 bit slots (if you have 64-bit adapters) and look 
at the number of buses with the box.

I currently use a Silver Node (in an SP) for my TSM server (this is the same as 
an H50 or F50). It has 4 CPU's and 2 GB of memory, it works well, but our 
environment is a little smaller. It has 3 SCSI, 1 SSA, 3 ethernet, 1 Switch 
adapters.

I would like to upgrade it, when I do I plan to go to a 6H1. For you I wouldn't 
go with anything smaller. The M80 is good choice and if you really want 
performance a 680 is at the top of the scale. I know of one shop that uses a 
S70 for ONLY their TSM server. But like I said focus on the I/O.

Miles

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Miles Purdy 
Miles Purdy 
System Manager
Farm Income Programs Directorate
Winnipeg, MB, CA
purdym AT fipd.gc DOT ca
ph: (204) 984-1602 fax: (204) 983-7557
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----------------
>>> BRIAN.NICK AT PHOENIXWM DOT COM 19-Sep-01 6:41:05 AM >>>
>>> BRIAN.NICK AT PHOENIXWM DOT COM 19-Sep-01 6:41:05 AM >>>
Good morning everyone.

 I have been asked to look into possibly moving our TSM 4.1.3 server on
OS/390 to an AIX box. I would appreciate any information that you can
provide. Here is our existing OS/390 TSM server set up.

 TSM 4.1.3 on OS/390 2.10 backing up the following clients AIX, NT, Novell,
Win95, Win98, OS/2 (no not a misprint), OS/390 USS and SunSolaris. We are
moving about 280GB over night and we then execute the storage pool copies,
expiration and reclamation during the day. Some of our Domino clients (no
we are not using TDP) take about 20 - 23 hours to backup. The TSM data base
is currently 37.5GB and running at 78% utilization. Our primary storage
pools are 70GB, 13GB, 5GB and 1GB. We have 8 STK 9840 cartridge drives in a
Powderhorn  Silo and are using RMM to manage tapes and are running
migrations at night along with the backups. I know that it would be faster
to stage everything to DASD and then migrate to tape but I do not have the
DASD capacity to accomplish this..

 My question is how large would my AIX box need to be to accomplish these
same backups more efficiently?

 Any input is appreciated.

 Thanks,
   Brian


Brian L. Nick
Systems Technician - Storage Solutions
The Phoenix Companies Inc.
100 Bright Meadow Blvd
Enfield CT. 06082-1900

E-MAIL:  Brian.Nick AT phoenixwm DOT com 
PHONE:   (860)403-2281