Cleaning tape cycles CLI

#IBM 3494#

mtlib -l -q L | grep 3592

#IBM 3584, A.K.A. IBM TS3500#

/opt/java6/bin/java -jar TS3500CLI.jar -a -viewCleaningCartridges -u -p | awk -F',' '{total=total+$9;}END{print total}'

Insert it into your own morning TSM report script! ;-)

Data Domain vs. Protectier

Where I am currently employed we are looking to replace our 3592 based library with a deduplication solution. Currently the higher ups are leaning towards IBM ProtecTIER without having thoroughly investigated any other solutions. Having previously used Data Domain solutions at my previous employ I was somewhat concerned that the ProtecTIER solution would be a bad fit for our environment. I have had some run ins with people who have used IBM's ProtecTIER solution and when compared to those who have used Data Domain (including myself) you immediately see the difference in how they talk about the two products. So I was hoping to find a good write-up showing in-depth details comparing the two solutions and it took a blogger like me to provide a great comparison.  If you would like a good overview of how Data Domain and ProtecTIER stack up against one another in technology and performance check out the following link. It's very informative and solidifies why I would prefer using Data Domain.

Deduplication: Data Domain Vs. ProtecTIER Performance

One item that was not covered was the NFS capabilities of both. While I used VTL functionality with Data Domain, I was a HUGE NFS proponent. You can save a lot of money over a TSM TDP + LAN-Free solution using NFS with 10Gb Ethernet for your DB backups  (since IBM's licensing costs are still questionable). When I was first exploring ProtecTIER they did not yet have NFS capabilities, so I'd like to see a NFS performance comparison between the two products.

Tivoli Storage Manager Next Administrative Interface / Beta Programme

It'll be called: Operations Center (a bit sounds like admincenter ;-) I hope they didn't only change the design!

Upgrading A TSM 5.5 Library Manager to 6.x

I just helped (sort of) perform an upgrade of two TSM library managers from TSM 5.5 to TSM 6.2. First off I'd like to say that the process involved was really not worth the time it took. Our library manager had a 1GB DB and contained no client data. When the library controller contains no client data you can easily move from 5.x to 6.x without all the headaches of a DB upgrade through the extract and insert process (which took 1 hour to complete once we started the insert). Here are the basic steps to easily upgrade a TSM library manager:

• Backup the TSM library manager DB
• Backup Volhist and Devconfig
• Copy all define statements from devconfig into a TSM macro
• Uninstall TSM 5.5
• Install TSM 6.x
• Follow the steps to create a new TSM 6.x server
• Start the TSM 6.x server
• Run the macro to redefine all the servers, devclasses, libraries, drives, and paths
• Check-in the tapes to the library
• Run audit library from each of the library clients

It might seem like a lot, but once you've got the TSM 6.x server up and running, defining the other items is easy and will take a lot less time than running the upgrade process.

NOTE: This only works if you do not perform ANY backups (Client or NAS) to the library manager.

Do Large Corporations Need Tape?

I am dealing with a situation where I have to gone from a tapeless TSM environment to the standard TSM tape model and I have to wonder why you would use tape when you have multiple data centers? If you have multiple data centers why not backup to disk and replicate the data on disk to a disk solution at the alternate DC? I did this with Data Domains and it made life so much easier. Multiple DR tests showed it was efficient and successful, of course this also utilized deduplication so disk usage and costs didn't get out of hand.  So I ask why is any large corporation still using tape?

TSM Explorer v6.3

Siberia Software has released TSMExplorer (ver 6.3). TSMExplorer and TSMExplorer Collector are an easy and powerful product for managing and monitoring IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. The product allows you to manage many TSM servers from a single sign-on and supports Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.

Check out the demos:

http://www.s-iberia.com/demo/demo1.html
http://www.s-iberia.com/demo/demo2.html 

or go to the main site:

http://www.s-iberia.com