Ann,
You shouldn't have any trouble using virtual tape with VM or VM:Tape.
We use it here, primarily for VM:Backup and VM:Spool. VM:Spool uses
SPXTAPE under the covers. I'm sure DDR will work fine, too. One phase
of our DR process mounts virtual tapes as FOREIGN on another VM system,
and it works fine.
My only question is, if your virtual tapes are in a VTS, how will you
get them to the DR site? In our case, the VTS is physically at the DR
site, and the production system has a channel extension connection to
it. A peer-to-peer VTS might also be an option.
Dennis O'Brien
"No government deprives its citizens of rights without asserting that
its actions are "reasonable" and "necessary" for high-sounding reasons
such as "public safety." A right that can be regulated is no right at
all, only a temporary privilege dependent upon the good will of the very
government officials that such right is designed to constrain. --
Herbert W. Titus and William J. Olson, attorneys for Gun Owners of
America
-----Original Message-----
From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Smith, Ann (ISD, IT)
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 14:56
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: [IBMVM] Question about virtual tape in a zVM environment
It's probably me that is confused.
I have been told VM will have virtual tape but no native tape.
They also have used the term 'backend tape'.
I obviously have more to learn.
-----Original Message-----
From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Tom Duerbusch
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 3:14 PM
To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
Subject: Re: Question about virtual tape in a zVM environment
Someone there may be getting confused.
The IBM DS8300 is a virtual tape system. It can work standalone as a
disk based VTS or, in conjunction with the robotics side to make it a
tape based VTS system (with a very large disk cache).
Then, there is the IBM TS1120. These are real tape drives (not
virtual).
So, if your VM system can get access to your IBM TS1120 drives, just
backup to them for off site storage.
If you can only get access to the virtual tapes, then backup to a
virtual tape and, on a system that has access to the IBM TS1120, do a
tape copy from the virtual tape located in the IBM DS8300 to a real tape
mounted in the IBM TS1120.
The IBM TS1120 drives support hardware encryption. That is great.
However, in a disaster recovery situation, it may not be so great.
Until you get the disaster recovery tested with encryption, you may want
to create your VM recovery tapes, without encryption enabled.
With the VTS, you do have to execute some code to tell the VTS what tape
you want. VMTAPE should be able to handle this.
Tom Duerbusch
THD Consulting
Law of Cat Obstruction
A cat must lay on the floor in such a position to obstruct the
maximum amount of human foot traffic.
>>> "Smith, Ann (ISD, IT)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 3/24/2008 1:41 PM
>>> >>>
We are running zVM 5.2 and currently still have manual 3490 tape drives.
We may soon be getting an IBM DS8300 (shared with zOS) with TS1120
virtual tape.
We have 5 VM systems with separate VMTAPE catalogs.
They currently do not have any native physical tape drives planned for
the VM systems.
We normally do maintenance on 1 VM system and use DDR and SPXTAPE to
propogate to the other VM systems.
Is anyone familiar with using virtual tape with DDR and SPXTAPE?
Can I just VMTAPE mount the virtual tape as a FOREIGN tape and be able
to do DDR restore and/or SPXTAPE load?
I am also wondering about how to do SPXTAPE's for DR.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Ann Smith
Mainframe Systems Support -zVM and zLinux Support Integrated Technology
Delivery IBM Global Service Integrated Operations At The Hartford Work
phone: 860-547-6110
Pager: 800-204-6367
Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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