Hi Len, I have certainly used the BrightStor CA-1 Tape Management Copycat Utility in the past to perform media conversion, basically you just select the output device you require and the old data is input on a compatible device type while your target output device is something of your choice.
http://www3.ca.com/solutions/ProductOption.aspx?ID=1016 Performing such a cartridge media migration to a newer format such as 3590 might make more sense and should be easily achievable as you have 3590 devices at your site, so just a case of connecting up to the IBM Mainframe. >From a regulatory viewpoint, if you have to keep data then you have to be able to read it; so if your data is required for regulatory purposes, even after the IBM Mainframe has been eradicated from your site, this is something that you will have to address. Generally folks do some sort of data conversion from one platform to another, as the data created on one platform (I.E. IBM Mainframe) is generally created in a proprietary format and cannot be read on another platform (E.g. UNIX, Linux, Windows), regardless of any data creation format considerations such as ASCII and EBCDIC et al It looks like youre from an education installation and so you might be able to find a solution using a spirit of reciprocity with a philanthropic or like-minded installation? For example, several years ago I came across a similar scenario and the education facility was able to find some common ground with a local business and so an exchange was arranged where the education facility parked their data in a separate IBM Mainframe virtual tape pool on a minimal LPAR and so the data is retained indefinitely and exercised by the recycling/reclamation functions of the virtual tape solution. A further access facility supplements this should the data be required. In return the education facility had something to offer the business in the form of graduate and lecturer access. So maybe a question of if you dont ask you dont get, but I suspect IBM might also play a pivotal part in this and indeed have some other ideas that might not involve any outsourcing type costs! Ultimately the challenge seems to be with the data itself and if its required for regulatory requirements, then the retention and indeed access of said data seems mandatory. When we replace IT systems, we generally convert the data, and of course we might go from one RDBMS (E.g. DB2) to another (E.g. Oracle) when we decommission the IBM Mainframe, but if there is supplemental data on tape, we need to do something with this as well. When we use data movement utilities such as DSS and HSM then data is stored in a proprietary format, but generally its a readable extract of database and application related data (E.g. Sequential File, PDS Library, Etc.). In these cases generally one would imagine that some sort of data conversion should take place, and so this would go right back to the pivotal question: If the data is required for regulatory reasons, why isnt it being converted from the IBM Mainframe to the other platform? You certainly have options, but in todays increasingly regulatory bound world, Production and Business data deletion is on the decrease, and I guess youve decided to retain the data; so you just now need to find a solution that will safeguard data retention and access Regards, UK Mikey. On Thu, 9 Mar 2006 18:16:01 -0600, Len Rugen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >I'm in the process of shrinking our pool of 3490 carts by about 30%. We have CA-1, so I'm using COPYCAT. It works OK to stack to a like device, but as best as I can tell, it doesn't do media conversion. We also have a 3494 and 3590's. > >I also have users requesting that data be retained for 7 years, 10 years or even "forever". The problem is that the mainframe could well be gone before forever comes, it will probably be gone in 5 years, but we have been saying that for awhile. Today, the only 3490 drives are attached to the mainframe. We also have 3590 drives on AIX for ADSM (Whatever Tivoli calls it now). >....... >Any thoughts? > >Thanks ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
