Thanks John - I like your idea of the script to do the mounts!
It also reminds me, those puppies have a web interface.
We could do the moves with that, as well, if I can talk them into setting up
4 IP connections.
If not, I'll crank up my perl skills...

W


On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 12:06 AM, John D. Schneider <
john.schneider AT computercoachingcommunity DOT com> wrote:

> Wanda,
>   My solution isn't much better, but here goes:
>
> 1) Like you said, define 1 manual library, 1 device class, with 4 LTO4
> drives, and get them all working and defined to the DR environment.
> 2) You will be using the IBM drives, of course, so I am presuming the
> IBM drivers will be installed by you or your DR vendor.
> 3) Start a TSM administrator window in -console mode, so you can see the
> tape mount requests.
> 4) When your tape operator sees a tape mount request, he puts the
> appropriate tape in the I/O door belonging to that tape drive's library.
> 5) You didn't say if you were Unix, Linux, or Windows.  I will explain
> it as if it is AIX, and you can transpose.  From a Unix shell window,
> your tape operator uses tapeutil, the linemode library manager that
> comes with the IBM drivers, to do the tape mounts for you.  He can issue
> the commands to move the tape from the element number of the I/O door
> straight to the tape drive.
> 6) When he sees an unmount request, he issues the tapeutil command to
> move the tape from the drive to the I/O door, and puts the tape back in
> the stack.
>
> If it were me tackling this one, I would write two short ksh scripts
> called "tape_mount" and "tape_unmount" where the tape operator just puts
> in which tape volser he is mounting, and which drive it should go in,
> and let the ksh scripts translate that into the actual device name, and
> tapeutil syntax, so there would be fewer mistakes.
>
> Also if it were me, I would build this experimentally using a tape
> library or libraries and drives while still back home, so I could build
> the script and debug it, then bring it with me to the DR exercise, and
> all I would have to change would be the /dev/smcX and /dev/rmtX device
> names, and start mounting tapes.
>
> Do you see any fatal flaws in this?  It is a lot like your original
> idea, but typing the mounts and unmounts on the faceplate of four
> different TS3100's would drive me buggy.  Hopefully this would be less
> tedious.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> John D. Schneider
> The Computer Coaching Community, LLC
> Office: (314) 635-5424
> Toll Free: (866) 796-9226
> Cell: (314) 750-8721
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [ADSM-L] Desperation, DR, and four TS3100 libraries...
> From: Wanda Prather <wprather AT JASI DOT COM>
> Date: Thu, July 09, 2009 8:33 pm
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>
> I'm drawing a blank here, any suggestions welcomed.
>
> I have a TSM customer who makes their copypool tapes using a TS3200 with
> LTO4 drives.
> The TS3200 is a rack-mounted, 2 drive, 40-mumble slot standard ASCII
> library. No issues.
> One copy pool, tapes vaulted and sent offsite.
>
> They want to go to a commercial DR vendor site and do a DR test next
> week.
> The commercial DR vendor, unbelievably, has no multi-drive LTO4-capable
> libraries.
>
> Instead, they want us to use 4 (count 'em, four) TS3100 libraries.
> The TS3100 is a rack-mounted, 1 drive, 20-mumble slot standard ASCII
> library.
>
> There's only 1 copy pool, so all tapes were created on the same device
> class.
> Ignoring the which-carts-would-go-in-which-library issue, I can't have a
> device class pointing to 4 libraries.
>
> And, the TS3100 is built in such a way that unlike a TS3500, you can't
> open
> the doors and access the drives for manual mounting.
> (I'd be happy to pull the covers off and try it, ignoring any warranties
> I
> might void, but I doubt the vendor will let me attack the thing with a
> screwdriver/wrench/hacksaw.)
>
> If I put all the carts in one TS3100 that will work, but that leaves me
> only
> 1 drive to restore all the clients, and they won't likely get done in
> the
> desired time window.
>
> The only thing I can think of to use all 4 drives, is to define those
> four
> TS3100's as 1 manual library with 4 manual drives, and use the front
> panel
> of each TS3100 to move tapes from the I/O slot to the drive when TSM
> requests a mount.
>
> (Actually the FIRST thing I thought of, was "cancel the DR contract,
> this is
> nonsense". But my customer isn't convinced yet...)
>
> Anybody got a better solution?
> I've already tried a margarita, it didn't help....
>
> W
>