Tom, Sounds like a story most of us are familiar with - "increase data protection, but do it for free".
Based on your limitations, I can only think of a couple of options, none of them quick/easy/simple/free: 1. Go ahead and use your LTO-2 tapes to make 2nd stgpool backups at the end of the day and send the tape offsite. You will need more tapes, be wasting a lot of space on each tape, and reclamation will have to be considered, but this is the most straight-forward method. 2. Invest in a small library using lower capacity tapes just for these backups. Send them offsite daily and don't reclaim at all, just wait for them to roll off. 3. Use some type of data reduction tool to get the moved data size small enough to work over a T1 pipe - check out vendors such as Data Domain, Avamar, etc. Some of these will work with TSM, others would not. Good luck! Steve Schaub Systems Engineer, WNI BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee 423-752-6574 (desk) 423-785-7347 (cell) -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kauffman, Tom Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 10:29 AM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Running tapes off-site multiple times in a day? No backups, just Oracle redo logs -- but I can generate 20 GB of redo in the prime shift window on a good day. We currently run the redo logs to TSM every 15 minutes; two copies, to two separate storage pools, backed up to two separate backup copypools. We have sites doing production and shipment updates to SAP 24 X 7, with invoices being generated and faxed multiple times per day. This is the activity we really don't want to loose. I have a dedicated p5-550 TSM server, all disk is ESS raid-5, and my tape is LTO-2 in a fiber-attached 3584. The 'safe' building is our hangar at the local airport -- 13 miles away direct line. We've looked at the various fiber extenders, iSCSI, and all the other options -- and can't make a business case for the cost. The best option we've come up with was an Intel-based system, running linux, with a local raid array and DAT tape -- but the monthly charge for the circuit was a project killer. Tom -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Sims Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 10:11 AM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: Running tapes off-site multiple times in a day? On Jan 5, 2006, at 9:54 AM, Kauffman, Tom wrote: > Our management wants to reduce the possible data loss in the event of > a disaster by taking copies off-site both in the early morning and > again at the end of first shift. ... Tom - That implies that they are thinking of running backups and then Backup Stgpool during prime shift - something which isn't usually done due to impact on production. Not knowing all the factors, I might think of using mirroring (perhaps even through FC to a disk array in a "safe" building) for failure protection during the day, and stick with conventional overnight backups for corruption, DR, and auditing reasons. I'd encourage them to step back and look at the big picture, in conjunction with prevailing technology opportunities. Richard Sims Please see the following link for the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee E-mail disclaimer: http://www.bcbst.com/email_disclaimer.shtm