ADSM-L

Re: tape to tape copy

2002-12-09 20:39:46
Subject: Re: tape to tape copy
From: Roger Deschner <rogerd AT UIC DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 19:39:10 -0600
I don't think you can do it, reliably. TSM tries to try to fill each
tape as full as it can, until it hits physical EOT. Two tapes, even if
from the same manufacturer and the same batch, will inevitably be
slightly different lengths. So, when you copy one full tape to another
tape, there is a 50% chance that the output tape will be the shorter of
the two, and it won't all fit. What's bad is that you might not even
know it didn't all fit, until you have to rely on it for an emergency
restore and it does not work.

Roger Deschner      University of Illinois at Chicago     rogerd AT uic DOT edu
======I have not lost my mind -- it is backed up on tape somewhere.=====


On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, StorageGroupAdmin StorageGroupAdmin wrote:

>Hello,
>
>Running TSM 5.1 on Solaris 8, using IBM 3590's in an ATL over a SAN (& SAN 
>DATA GATEWAYS)
>
>Does anyone know how to copy a TSM BACKUPSET series of tapes directly to 
>another set of tapes (1 at a time is fine)
>
>I already know the following: TSM has no way of doing this.
>Solaris DD or TAR cannot do this as it requires EOT markers on each tape
>IBM TCOPY also cannot do this as it also requires EOT markers on each tape 
>(tcopy can copy a backupset on a single tape)
>MMUNIX software cannot see scsi tapes in an ATL over the SAN.
>
>I do not have the space to recover the data and make another copy.
>
>Appreciate any help,
>
>Thanks
>Anthony Langford
>Sydney Water
>
>
>
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