Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Jon Perryman wrote: >One very important detail I did not mention is the location of your data >in the cloud. You may connect to a cloud location thinking that is where >it will be stored. In order to be more efficient, some clouds may redirect >your request to a closer location. Potentially the country of the requester. >Why send the data halfway across the world when their cloud has a >location closer to the point of origin. Mike Schwab wrote: > Most clouds store data in the nearest facility for reduced read write >time. Some clouds replicate to other sites. Have been outages when a >cloud site went down and the data was not available. Itschak Mugzach wrote: > If you use S3, you can specify which zone to use. I agree with Itschak, but it’s even better than that. ALL the major public commercial cloud providers offer cloud object storage services with selectable geographies. (Why was there a presumption they don’t offer geographic choices?) For example, here’s the menu for IBM Cloud’s Object Storage: https://cloud.ibm.com/objectstorage/create#pricing You can choose Cross Region, Regional, or Single Site. Each of these choices then offers various geographic choices. Cross Region keeps copies of your data in multiple data centers across a continent-sized area. Regional keeps copies of your data in multiple data centers across a country or large metro area. Single Site is just what it sounds like: one copy of your data (typically with versioning) in one site. You can provision more than one of these choices if you wish. Moreover, you’re not limited to one public commercial cloud, and you’re not limited to public commercial clouds. Cloud object storage APIs are reasonably well standardized, and you can have cloud object storage pools wherever you wish — across multiple public commercial clouds and/or private/on-premises cloud object storage pools, as you prefer. For example, including an ex-missile silo site if you want. David Jousma: >So the issue of using public cloud storage is a question you have >to answer for yourself. “How quickly do I need to be able to >restore?” If its TB of data, streaming in at network speed, that >could be days or weeks. Will you be out of business by then? It’s a possible consideration (weighed against various other considerations), but backups of z/VM *itself* aren’t typically that big. That’s one reason why I mentioned that you could view the IBM TS7700-based approach (with TS7700-to-TS7700 cross-site replication — what’s known as a Grid configuration — combined with a cloud object storage tier) as “cloud object storage caching.” So if there were a “small pipe” issue when recovering then that issue is partially or fully mitigated thanks to the TS7700’s own virtual tape storage in front of the cloud tier. Another possible approach is that you put your cloud object storage “on-premises” alongside the IBM Z machine, or even on the IBM Z machine. You can host a cloud object storage server on an IBM Z machine quite easily. Then your in-country TS7700’s cloud object storage tier is the remote cloud object storage server, alongside or on the out-of-country IBM Z machine. And then your recovery is via the remote TS7700 (alongside the DR machine) which is just pointing back to DR machine’s cloud object storage service, or the cloud object storage adjacent to the IBM Z machine. No “small pipe” problem with that! Jon Perryman wrote: >Googles cloud backup/recovery is very different from IBM z/OS You headed off on a tangent here that I don’t think I encouraged. I’m not sure what you’re referring to. >No IBM z system has cloud backup. You can't backup z/OS to >any other cloud than that provided by TS7700. Yes, you really can! There are software-only cloud object storage backup/restore solutions for z/OS. The two IBM products that are most directly relevant are: IBM Cloud Tape Connector for z/OS IBM Advanced Archive for DFSMShsm These products are available individually or in the IBM Advanced Storage Management Suite for z/OS license package. There’s a helpful YouTube video about these products here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inih7c4VeiQ Some other vendors also have products in this segment. As I mentioned, I’m not aware of any vendors that offer a pure software-based cloud object storage solution *for z/VM* backups/restores. IBM’s offering for z/VM (which also works with other operating systems) is the IBM TS7700 with its cloud object storage tier, in your choice of “baby” rack mount or factory frame form factors. But for z/OS (and Linux on IBM Z/LinuxONE) there are some pure software-based choices available too. Moreover, it’s possible to configure both z/OS and Linux on IBM Z/LinuxONE as cloud object storage *servers*. — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM zSystems/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific sipp...@sg.ibm.com
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:15:06 +, Jousma, David wrote: >So the issue of using public cloud storage is a question you have to answer >for yourself. > “How quickly do I need to be able to restore?” If its TB of data, streaming > in at network speed, > that could be days or weeks. Will you be out of business by then? There are many requirements to consider. Each company must list their requirements to ensure all are met. You don't want another disaster occurring during disaster recovery. You don't want to be creating a wish list during that time especially when system z is not the only part of the company dealing with the disaster. You're only as strong as your weakest link. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
It is based on the Amazon Rest API. It is not a product, just a solution we use here for testing and also runs on our appliances. You can follow the Amazon manual about the API. ITschak *| **Itschak Mugzach | Director | SecuriTeam Software **|** IronSphere Platform* *|* *Information Security Continuous Monitoring for Z/OS, zLinux and IBM I **| * *|* *Email**: i_mugz...@securiteam.co.il **|* *Mob**: +972 522 986404 **|* *Skype**: ItschakMugzach **|* *Web**: www.Securiteam.co.il **|* On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 10:49 PM Jon Perryman wrote: > On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:27:10 +0300, Itschak Mugzach < > i_mugz...@securiteam.co.il> wrote: > > > We backup our servers to Amazon S3 and wrong the protocols > > ourselves, so it is possible. > > Hi Itschak, > > Can you give a very short overview of how your solution works. Which cloud > API's you used? Is it z/OS, z/VM or z/VSE? Is it strictly disaster recovery > or includes file recovery? Are you using standard backup utilities and how > you integrate with those utilities? > > Thanks, Jon. > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 21:27:10 +0300, Itschak Mugzach wrote: > We backup our servers to Amazon S3 and wrong the protocols > ourselves, so it is possible. Hi Itschak, Can you give a very short overview of how your solution works. Which cloud API's you used? Is it z/OS, z/VM or z/VSE? Is it strictly disaster recovery or includes file recovery? Are you using standard backup utilities and how you integrate with those utilities? Thanks, Jon. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 06:23:25 +, Timothy Sipples wrote: >Jon Perryman wrote: >> Since there are lots of reasons, can you name 3 beyond those I mentioned? >> (backup to cloud) >How about everything else works this way (including z/OS), Googles cloud backup/recovery is very different from IBM z/OS. The TS7700 is a private cloud and z/OS believes the TS7700 is a tape drive which does not use any cloud API nor TS7700 cloud object. We know that Google starts a Linux image when you request recovery which is not cloud object API unless Google is deviating from the spirit of cloud object. Maybe multiple cloud API's are involved but that is internal to Google. I'm sorry if you think I'm insulting you or IBM. To the contrary, IBM builds exceptional solutions. There are lots of exceptions because there is more than one way to solve a problem. The first few design drafts of "the cloud" were met with great excitement because of IBM participation that made "the cloud" sound like an ad for z/OS sysplex. Many of those features were dropped after other vendors realized it would take many years to implement those features. > they don't want z/VM to be different/exceptional (not in this respect), > and they have greater confidence/assurance that their backups will > be better secured/encrypted and better protected from local disasters this > way? No IBM z system has cloud backup. You can't backup z/OS to any other cloud than that provided by TS7700. TheTS7700 completely hides cloud backup concepts. >Why does Iron Mountain exist and thrive? It�s the same basic set of reasons. It exists because IBM does smart design instead of convenient design. Take for example z/OS datasets where a cobol programmer easily uses various access methods with a simple changes to the FD, READ and WRITE. On the other hand, Unix requires the programmer to rewrite their programs using NOSQL and SQL API's to achieve the same results. >> I suspect Ayre is saying cloud but I doubt Ayre has a specific cloud solution >>in mind nor implied "cloud object storage". > Cloud object storage is what the public commercial clouds (also) all provide > for backup data storage/retrieval. Cloud object storage is the service, > and then that service can be provided by public commercial clouds (e.g. > Amazon S3), > privately hosted cloud object stores, or some combination. Not to downplay the importance of cloud objects but what makes it the only solution he should consider? I agree this is an obvious solution.but my point is that "cloud" is not a requirement but considered his obvious solution. Until proven otherwise, we have to assume everyone involved has a birds-eye perspective without specific knowledge of things like cloud object. >>Implementing a new feature request takes time (Potentially years). > Potentially, but that�s not a reason to skip filing a feature enhancement > request. > It�s a great reason to file a request now rather than later. If this a feature that Ayre would implement, then asking doesn't hurt other than wasting valuable resources that IBM continues to reduce. I suspect that z/VM backup has a similar design to z/OS backup. Ask yourself why IBM didn't implement cloud object for z/OS DFDSS instead of building a TS7700 with cloud objects. Imagine all your files are migrated and every "open" causes a recall. Recall then causes the restore (a cloud object). I'm not familiar with cloud object API but this could cause a lot of network processing and processing that was previously handled by controllers. Worse yet, you potentially have huge delays that IBM avoids in their hardware design. >>The obvious problem is maintaining a TS7700 in another country and >>moving it if that country becomes a problem. > No more or less obvious than the already extant requirement to maintain a > suitably configured IBM Z server > with sufficient storage in an alternate site to restore the data, recover, > and resume service. "requirement to maintain" is part of what I'm talking about. The company must maintain IBM equipment where they don't have trained staff. All other cloud services (e.g. Google, AWS, Microsoft, ...) have trained staff. Many of these clouds encompass the world. You move data from one location to another without hardware considerations. Better yet, they will most likely have staff that speaks your language. All your points are valid. Each company has requirements. In the case of Ayre, the company doesn't want to maintain anything. It sounds like they want a disaster recovery solution that is as simple as offsite tape backups. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
So the issue of using public cloud storage is a question you have to answer for yourself. “How quickly do I need to be able to restore?” If its TB of data, streaming in at network speed, that could be days or weeks. Will you be out of business by then? Dave Jousma Vice President | Director, Technology Engineering From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List on behalf of Itschak Mugzach <0305158ad67d-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> Date: Wednesday, October 25, 2023 at 2:28 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ? Mike, If you use S3, you can specify which zone to use. BTW, I think Amazon has a new local zone in Israel, but I think the requirement Arie put was outside of Israel. We backup our servers to Amazon S3 and wrong the protocols ourselves, so Mike, If you use S3, you can specify which zone to use. BTW, I think Amazon has a new local zone in Israel, but I think the requirement Arie put was outside of Israel. We backup our servers to Amazon S3 and wrong the protocols ourselves, so it is possible. ITschak This e-mail transmission contains information that is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended only for the addressee(s) named above. If you receive this e-mail in error, please do not read, copy or disseminate it in any manner. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. Please reply to the message immediately by informing the sender that the message was misdirected. After replying, please erase it from your computer system. Your assistance in correcting this error is appreciated. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Mike, If you use S3, you can specify which zone to use. BTW, I think Amazon has a new local zone in Israel, but I think the requirement Arie put was outside of Israel. We backup our servers to Amazon S3 and wrong the protocols ourselves, so it is possible. ITschak *| **Itschak Mugzach | Director | SecuriTeam Software **|** IronSphere Platform* *|* *Information Security Continuous Monitoring for Z/OS, zLinux and IBM I **| * *|* *Email**: i_mugz...@securiteam.co.il **|* *Mob**: +972 522 986404 **|* *Skype**: ItschakMugzach **|* *Web**: www.Securiteam.co.il **|* On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 7:34 PM Mike Schwab wrote: > Most clouds store data in the nearest facility for reduced read write > time. Some clouds replicate to other sites. Have been outages when a > cloud site went down and the data was not available. > > 2022 Google outage when a fire occured. > > https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/google-alphabet/data-center-fire-google-suffers-electrical-incident-3-injured > > On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 10:45 AM Jon Perryman > wrote: > > > > On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:08:20 +0300, Arye Shemer > wrote: > > > > > one of the most important reason is the > > >time frame that should be immediately (preferably tomorrow :-) ). > > > > One very important detail I did not mention is the location of your data > in the cloud. You may connect to a cloud location thinking that is where it > will be stored. In order to be more efficient, some clouds may redirect > your request to a closer location. Potentially the country of the > requester. Why send the data halfway across the world when their cloud has > a location closer to the point of origin. > > > > My assumption was that this was an ASAP request which is why I suggested > FTP. Someone could manually FTP the backups starting today and a REXX exec > quickly written to automate the process. Writing a cloud enabled program > takes longer which could be considered later when there isn't a time > constraint. > > > > Another possibility you may not have considered is using one of your > satellite offices located in a different country using a PC with USB > drives. Transfer the backups to the USB drive and take the drive to a safe > deposit box or a company similar to the one you currently use. > > > > -- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > -- > Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA > Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Most clouds store data in the nearest facility for reduced read write time. Some clouds replicate to other sites. Have been outages when a cloud site went down and the data was not available. 2022 Google outage when a fire occured. https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/google-alphabet/data-center-fire-google-suffers-electrical-incident-3-injured On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 10:45 AM Jon Perryman wrote: > > On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:08:20 +0300, Arye Shemer wrote: > > > one of the most important reason is the > >time frame that should be immediately (preferably tomorrow :-) ). > > One very important detail I did not mention is the location of your data in > the cloud. You may connect to a cloud location thinking that is where it will > be stored. In order to be more efficient, some clouds may redirect your > request to a closer location. Potentially the country of the requester. Why > send the data halfway across the world when their cloud has a location closer > to the point of origin. > > My assumption was that this was an ASAP request which is why I suggested FTP. > Someone could manually FTP the backups starting today and a REXX exec quickly > written to automate the process. Writing a cloud enabled program takes longer > which could be considered later when there isn't a time constraint. > > Another possibility you may not have considered is using one of your > satellite offices located in a different country using a PC with USB drives. > Transfer the backups to the USB drive and take the drive to a safe deposit > box or a company similar to the one you currently use. > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
On Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:08:20 +0300, Arye Shemer wrote: > one of the most important reason is the >time frame that should be immediately (preferably tomorrow :-) ). One very important detail I did not mention is the location of your data in the cloud. You may connect to a cloud location thinking that is where it will be stored. In order to be more efficient, some clouds may redirect your request to a closer location. Potentially the country of the requester. Why send the data halfway across the world when their cloud has a location closer to the point of origin. My assumption was that this was an ASAP request which is why I suggested FTP. Someone could manually FTP the backups starting today and a REXX exec quickly written to automate the process. Writing a cloud enabled program takes longer which could be considered later when there isn't a time constraint. Another possibility you may not have considered is using one of your satellite offices located in a different country using a PC with USB drives. Transfer the backups to the USB drive and take the drive to a safe deposit box or a company similar to the one you currently use. -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Heads up: z/os 3.1 WAIT 006 under z/VM + DS6800 question
Thanks Jim - it is always good to get an answer from an expert. > On 24 Oct 2023, at 20:43, Jim Mulder wrote: > > The Validated Boot enhancements to z/OS made a change to a channel program > that we > use to build the nucleus. The changed channel program is used regardless of > whether you are doing > a validated boot or not. z/VM minidisk caching screws up while emulating the > channel program. Last > I talked to the z/VM developers, they still had not figured out what the bug > is. As long as minidisk caching (MDC) > is turned off for at least the z/OS IPL device minidisk, the channel program > will be executed by the I/O subsystem, > which executes it correctly. The problem only occurs when you are IPLing > z/OS from a minidisk to which you > have LINKed (or is in your VM directory), with MDC enabled for that minidisk. > If you instead ATTACH the device to > the VM user, the problem will also not occur, since it is not being treated > as a minidisk in that case. > The type of processor or DASD controller is not relevant to the problem. > > Jim Mulder > > > >> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >> Subject: Heads up: z/os 3.1 WAIT 006 under z/VM + DS6800 question >> >> For my first z/OS 3.1 IPL (under z/VM) I got WAIT 006. After a long search I >> found z/VM APAR VM66721: Z/OS GUEST IPLS FAIL AFTER APPLYING >> UJ92591/UJ92728. There is no PTF as -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Thank you Jon, I will convey your suggestions to the customer and talk with them to see how it fits their needs. Arye Shemer On Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 1:32 AM Jon Perryman wrote: > On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 09:52:26 +0300, Arye Shemer > wrote: > > >the standard existing backup policies (ex: taking copies to another remote > >site in this country) are not sufficient. > >Hence the idea of backup to another geographical (cloud) area is raised. > > I believe you are saying that you want offsite out of country backup. Are > there any other uses for this backup than disaster recovery? For instance, > will it be used for file recovery or will onsite copies of these backups be > used for file recovery? > > >(TS7700...) were already offered to the customer but rejected. > > The obvious problem is maintaining a TS7700 in another country and moving > it if that country becomes a problem. > > I personally don't recommend using the offsite backups for specific file > recovery. Disaster recovery is suitable. Volume recovery is suitable if it > can meet your recovery requirements. I don't think build an inhouse > solution would be difficult if you already maintain offsite disaster > recovery tapes. Here is how I would approach this: > > Step 1. Convert the backup to make it portable. > > I don't know z/VM backup / restore backup file structure. I suspect z/VM > doesn't care about disk or tape block sizes. In z/OS, we would use IBM's > AMATERSE to retain file and block attributes. I suspect (but not sure) > AMATERSE also creates checksum to verify the file is not corrupted during > transmission. To restore the file, AMATERSE has an option to restore the > z/OS file. > > Step 2. Create programs to send and receive the backups to the cloud or > non-cloud server. > > You don't care if this is a cloud solution as long as it meets your > requirements. > > There are many ways to send and receive these backups to the cloud. As > Timothy said, writing a program using cloud objects is one solution. There > are other cloud API's that could also accomplish your goals. > > I suspect there are other solutions that I haven't considered. > > if your customer does not want to become cloud literate. then maybe use > FTP is an option because many cloud providers support FTP. Does z/VM FTP > have a REXX API like z/OS? If not then maybe pipes would allow you to use > REXX. Worst case, you stack commands to FTP and process the messages file. > > Another possibility is to send the file to a local PC that mapped the > cloud as a local drive (e.g. MS Onedrive). > > You don't care if the solution is cloud enabled. Maybe your disaster > recovery provider also provides offsite backup services. > > Step 3. Test, test, test. > > Setting customer expectations from the solution requires testing backup > and restore, using someone with minimal knowledge and experience ensures > disaster recovery doesn't require key personnel. > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Hi, As mentioned in my previous posts I do not have permission to disclose customer reasons, *but *I'll let myself state that one of the most important reason is the time frame that should be immediately (preferably tomorrow :-) ). Regards, Arye Shemer. On Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 11:55 PM Jon Perryman wrote: > On Tue, 24 Oct 2023 04:38:40 +, Timothy Sipples > wrote: > > >> Why would anyone want to do z/VM backups to a cloud? > >There are lots of great reasons to do that! > > Since there are lots of reasons, can you name 3 beyond those I mentioned? > "Save money? Offsite backup? It's new technology? Don't need to worry > because it's the cloud? They want to say they are cloud enabled?" > > > Also, I understood the request to mean �cloud object storage� as the > target. > > I suspect Ayre is saying cloud but I doubt Ayre has a specific cloud > solution in mind nor implied "cloud object storage". That is certainly one > solution but it's not the only possible solution. I think Ayre wants the > simplest non-confusing solution possible. > > >I see that IBM Backup and Restore Manager for z/VM is listed in the > Product field. > > Maybe that product could have another input/output handler (CLOUDOBJ?), > > Implementing a new feature request takes time (Potentially years). I > suspect Ayre's customer is looking for a shorter time frame. > > -- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Does z/VM have a product/tool which can send backup to the Cloud ?
Jon Perryman wrote: > Since there are lots of reasons, can you name 3 beyond those >I mentioned? "Save money? Offsite backup? It's new technology? >Don't need to worry because it's the cloud? They want to say they >are cloud enabled?" How about everything else works this way (including z/OS), they don’t want z/VM to be different/exceptional (not in this respect), and they have greater confidence/assurance that their backups will be better secured/encrypted and better protected from local disasters this way? Why does Iron Mountain exist and thrive? It’s the same basic set of reasons. > I suspect Ayre is saying cloud but I doubt Ayre has a specific cloud solution >in mind nor implied "cloud object storage". Cloud object storage is what the public commercial clouds (also) all provide for backup data storage/retrieval. Cloud object storage is the service, and then that service can be provided by public commercial clouds (e.g. Amazon S3), privately hosted cloud object stores, or some combination. >Implementing a new feature request takes time (Potentially years). Potentially, but that’s not a reason to skip filing a feature enhancement request. It’s a great reason to file a request now rather than later. >The obvious problem is maintaining a TS7700 in another country and >moving it if that country becomes a problem. No more or less obvious than the already extant requirement to maintain a suitably configured IBM Z server with sufficient storage in an alternate site to restore the data, recover, and resume service. This emergency infrastructure (server, storage, network, etc.) could be customer owned, leased, or contracted/shared/multi-tenant. The IBM TS7700 is available and supported worldwide (with the obvious very few exceptions), and it’s the most popular virtual tape solution for these servers. Note that it is possible for TS7700 equipment to replicate with each other AND to provide cloud tiering, to do both. The former would speed restoration and recovery since some or all of the backup would be locally available on the emergency infrastructure — but still able to pull from cloud object storage if need be. You can think of this approach as adding a cross-site replicating cloud object storage cache, and it’s quite lovely really. But all we can do is list the various viable options then let the client decide whether any of these few options are worthy of selection or if inertia will rule. I understand the client doesn’t like any of the options available, but they seem to be the available options. So it’s probably time to choose their “least worst” but still viable option and get on with it. — Timothy Sipples Senior Architect Digital Assets, Industry Solutions, and Cybersecurity IBM zSystems/LinuxONE, Asia-Pacific sipp...@sg.ibm.com -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
