This sounds like you did not turn off the RSM (Windows removable storage
management) service. RSM will take exclusive control of any tape/library
device, so this sounds like a configuration issue.

Library sharing and storage agents is functioning just as advertised on
both Linux, Windows and AIX (and when mixing platforms) so this should not
be a factor in determining platform.

Windows 64bit (2k3 and 2k8) is just as viable a platform as Linux x86 and
performance wise I have yet to see any difference that doesnt boil down
to either hardware or configuration. Just use what your admins are
comfortable with.

And ofcourse, POWER when you need something that can push I/O.

-km


On 25/02, Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU wrote:
> Been there.......tried to do that..........and would never put TSM on a
> Windoze box.
>
> Your environment is a big factor in platform decisions.
>
> When we first discussed moving off AIX (yes, I would have loved to have
> stayed on AIX but it was decided by higher-ups that AIX was not a
> "strategic platform" and was told to move to an x86 platform), I tried to
> put up a Windoze TSM server.  I quickly found out that Windoze does not
> play well in a SAN/shared device environment.  Every time I tried to get
> the Windoze server to use a tape drive, it would kill all tape processes
> on the other TSM servers (it has the "Bill Gates"
> persona.......MINE....ALL MINE.......I WANT TO OWN/CONTROL IT
> ALL.......;--)).  There were constant SAN issues.
>
> So, we went to Linux and haven't looked back. Everything worked the first
> time.  No issues with sharing resources/SAN, etc. Granted, we overload our
> servers (190GB DB with over 300M objects, 200+ nodes per server), but they
> work and share resources just fine and a RedHat Linux license is cheap
> ($50/server)
>
> Just my $.02 worth
>