Daniel / Bill, I do appreciate you both taking the time to share your expert opinion.
My scenario is correctly represented by Bill's response: I don't want to create copy (COPYPOOL) of the primary tapes (TAPEPOOL). My daily backups, for both sites, are currently occurring centrally at one site. This totals to less than 100G a day. My plan is to split and reciprocally backup each site to the other as I indicated in my original email. My restore time would not be worse than it is now even during business hours, considering that I already restore from one central location today. In case of DR at one site, I am assuming that, disaster, site is out of the picture, and therefore the restores are going to be local to the DR servers at the other, recovery, site. I wanted to confirm whether my idea is NOT out of the ordinary or against the best practices and you both helped a great deal towards that. Thanks again to both of you! Khalid Khan -----Original Message--- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Daniel Sparrman Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 10:06 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Server-Server DRM Configuration ... Hi Well, had some problems figuring out exactly what they wanted to do... :) I dont know how large this installation is, but sending > 100 clients over a 45Mbs link suggests to me that rebuilding one site after a total disaster will probably take more than a few days... However, if Khalids installation is small(counting less than 100 clients, and a total amount of data at 5-10TB) perhaps this method could be used. Also, as I understand it from Khalids description, hes not going to utilize dr copies(or, copypool volumes), as he considers the data to be off-site. However, normally, the TSM server contains alot of data that is no longer on the host system(archives, HSM data, versioning and so on). Therefore, loosing the TSM server and it's data, without having copypool volumes offsite, could cost you alot in terms of lost data... I'd suggest either getting a FC connection between the two sites and utilize library sharing, or partitioning. Or, consider using iSCSI or FC over IP to copy the data to the remote library. iSCSI and FC over IP is alot faster and more tuned in handling theese kind of data transfers than IP is... Best Regards Daniel Sparrman ----------------------------------- Daniel Sparrman Exist i Stockholm AB PropellervÃgen 6B 183 62 TÃBY VÃxel: 08 - 754 98 00 Mobil: 070 - 399 27 51 Bill Boyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2003-11-11 16:55 Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject: Re: Server-Server DRM Configuration ... It doesn't sound like they are talking about the same thing. The consultant sounds like he wants to backup SITE-A servers to the local TSM and then send the copypool over to the other server via virtual volumes. Khalid wants to backup SITE-A servers over the link directly to SITE-B TSM server. That way when the backup is complete, the backup data is offsite to the original server. If either site goes down, you'll still be rebuilding a TSM server, but the clients can immediately start recovery because the data is on the TSM server at the other site. I've recently set up this configuration for a client. Each TSM server creates copypool tapes that also go offsite (more for redundancy), but I also have each server do a DBSnapshot across server-to-server in addition to the DBBackup that goes offsite. Lots of redundancy....it's a government agency! The only issue is the recoveries or just restores going across that link during business hours. Bill Boyer DSS, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Daniel Sparrman Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 10:39 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Server-Server DRM Configuration ... Hi Khalid You and you're consultant are talking about the same procedure.... To backup your primary site to the second site, you'll need to use server-to-server virtual volumes(if you cant get a FC connection to your library on your secondary site). You then define a devclass and a copypool based on that devclass. After that, you'll just have to start the process of backup stgpool primarypool copypool. I cant see any other way of backing up the two servers to eachother rather than using server-to-server communication. This method is also called "Electronic Vaulting" and is a part of TSM Disaster Recovery Manager. You cannot use any form of TSM backup/archive client procedure to backup the server data, as the client wont have access to the information stored on your tapes. Best Regards Daniel Sparrman ----------------------------------- Daniel Sparrman Exist i Stockholm AB Propellervdgen 6B 183 62 TDBY Vdxel: 08 - 754 98 00 Mobil: 070 - 399 27 51 "Khan, Khalid B." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2003-11-11 16:16 Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject: Server-Server DRM Configuration ... I have a humble question regarding the benefits of Server-Server communication. I have two sites 60 miles apart with 45MB pipe in between, and each of them has a TSM server and a library. I was proposed by a TSM consultant to establish server-server DRM configuration to enable quick recovery in case of disaster. My humble proposal in response is to NOT do that but rather backup each site to the other location. That way the DB is offsite as well as the primary copy, therefore DR copy of the primary is NOT needed either. I would do this reciprocally for the other site. In case of DR, data is locally available at the other site. Is this not a better solution than configuring server-server communication and send a copy of the primary pool as well as the DB tape offsite. Please help me understand what I may be missing in my proposal, or what benefits I don't see in the traditional DRM using Server-Server configuration. Please advise! Thank you, Khalid Khan