I'll admit to not having a good grasp of the PCI-E architecture, but I'll stand 
by my statement that you'll need PCI-E to get maximal performance out of LTO-4. 
I'm fairly certain you'll need to go LAN-free to hit the maximum as well - I 
know that's my current bottleneck. As a side note - does anyone know what the 
maximum drive data compression is on LTO-4? I'm getting about 4.1 to 1 on 
SAP/R3-Oracle, with some tapes hitting 3.5 to 3.7 TB before becoming full.

I am glad to hear the X86 architecture scales this well - thanks, Kelly.

Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Kelly Lipp
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:12 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Preferred TSM Platform

I have to disagree with that.  We routinely run multiple (up to six, and the 
only reason it's only six is we don't have any more to test so perhaps more 
will run) LTO4 drives as fast as they want to run using and IBM x3850 
processor.  We run four at a time using an x3650.  The buses are PCI-E, drives 
are either SAS or FC.  Would that box run six or eight of the IBM fancy pants 
drives? I don't know, haven't ever seen it tried.

For most sites, Windows and the crummy little hardware it runs on will be just 
fine.  For you big fellas, not so much. If you are in the "gotta push 
3-6TB/day" Windows will work.  For you 10TB/day folks, maybe not.

Kelly Lipp
CTO
STORServer, Inc.
485-B Elkton Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
719-266-8777 x7105
www.storserver.com


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Kauffman, Tom
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 7:39 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Preferred TSM Platform

Yup.

It boils down to Wanda's statement: "I/O, I/O, it's all about I/O" --- Wanda 
Prather

If you can do the work with LTO-1 or -2 drives, or DLT-7000, or similar 
speed/capacity, then Windows will work. When you get into 
high-speed/high-capacity drives the Intel/AMD architecture comes unglued. A 
single LTO-4 drive will use ALL the I/O bandwith of a PCI or PCI-x bus, and a 
significant chunk of a PCIe(1) bus. The challenge becomes one of finding a 
suitable X86 server with multiple PCIe busses in the design.

IBM has the GX series I/O modules with two PCIe busses each for the P6 
architecture that allows for significant I/O bandwith expansion -- for a cost, 
of course.

Tom Kauffman
NIBCO, Inc


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Kelly Lipp
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 4:14 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Preferred TSM Platform

I love it when somebody quotes me!  Somebody is listening.

I had this discussion with one of our customers yesterday.  It really 
does/should boil down to the OS experience you have on hand.  Does the AIX 
platform have more capacity/performance than the best Windows platform?  I'm 
guessing it probably does.  But at what cost? And then more importantly: do 
either of the platforms have enough for you?  If both do, then pick the one 
that makes more sense based on your OS experience.  And remember: one can 
always divide and conquer.

Kelly Lipp
CTO
STORServer, Inc.
485-B Elkton Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80907
719-266-8777 x7105
www.storserver.com


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Allen S. Rout
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:52 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Preferred TSM Platform

>> On Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:57:37 +0100, Henrik Vahlstedt <SHWL AT STATOILHYDRO 
>> DOT COM> said:

> Time to quote Kelly...

> "So to me it's either AIX or Windows (yes, you can do a lot of TSM
> on Windows once you get past the bigotry!).  Choose whichever one
> you have the most experience with."

<gollum> Achhhh!  It BURNS usss, nassssty windowsss.... </gollum>


- Allen S. Rout
- Prefers AIX for this. *koff* :)


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