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I am by no means an external storage expert but have tried to understand the environment as best I can with a little bit of effort. We annually do a visit to the executive briefing center and I always have them do a storage presentation. To be honest it's been a while and I'm muddy on the details but I do think that the FAStT environment helps reduce the price point of entry into this market and has possibly reduced the complexity. And while at COMMON in Indianapolis (I know, some of us attended) at the iSeries futures panel one of the speakers (I'm drawing a huge blank on names.......) mentioned that he thought that iSeries customers needed to make the move to external storage. I wanted to get off-line to get a better understanding of his thoughts but was not able to. Point is, this is not something new and there are those within IBM that think so. My struggle is this: We have 2.6 terabytes of data spread across three systems, 8 LPAR's, 10 IXA/IXS's, etc. Right now my time spent on DASD management is less than 5%. That is storage capacity, performance tuning, backups, etc. I've looked at the FAStT manuals and redbooks and I see a significant increase in that effort and added complexity. Again, I don't do it in the real world so it is just my hunch but I think it is there. Also, when I see the performance chart of a PCI-X tower, PXI-X dasd controller card, and the 15K spin drives I have to ask what impact could there be with performance. So, I have to ask: 1.) What are the tangible iSeries benefits? 2.) What are the changes in efforts and how complex are they? 3.) What is the impact to performance to a modern internal solution and what does it take to get that with external storage? 4.) Assuming that the other questions can be answered how can I transition in a cost effective manner - in other words if this is something with real benefits I would think the storage people would be making programs that allowed us to get there efficiently and cost effectively.... I don't want to be obstinate with regards to new technologies but I'm just not buying that the benefits outweigh the costs yet. And to be honest based on my past experience a certain 3rd party vendor will never be asked those questions. Not after the stunts they have pulled in the past. And as a result I'm extremely biased in thinking that I can get a clear and proper evaluation from a 3rd party vendor....... Michael Crump Manager, Computing Services Saint-Gobain Containers 1509 S. Macedonia Ave. Muncie, IN 47302 (765)741-7696 (765)741-7012 f (800)428-8642 "The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just" Abraham Lincoln Jeff Bull <Jeff.Bull@itm-gr oup.co.uk> To "Midrange-L (E-mail)" 06/07/2004 09:27 <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> AM cc Subject Please respond to External disk for iSeries Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@midra nge.com> I've just read an article on external dasd for the iSeries and thought that you guys/gals might be interested. The external disk thing will really take off when you can add non-IBM disks (i.e. non-IBM prices) into the system or user-asp. Mirroring or disk-to-disk backups could become a financial possibility for lots of shops with smaller iSeries. Perhaps someone somewhere in the iSeries world is already attaching non-IBM disks to their ASP and would like to share their experiences with those of us 'confined' to internal disk? http://www.iseries400experts.com/aiw/06-0704.jsp Kind regards, Jeffrey E. Bull OS400 Software Support Consultant IBM Certified Systems Expert, iSeries Technical Solutions IBM Certified Systems Specialist, AS/400 System Administration * +44 [0] 149 454 9533 swb. +44 [0] 149 454 9400 mbl. +44 [0] 786 750 4961 <<...OLE_Obj...>> +44 [0] 149 454 9454 web. http://www.icm-computer.co.uk <<...OLE_Obj...>> ICM Support Services, Latimer Square, White Lion Road, Amersham, Bucks, HP7 9JQ, UK ________________________________________________________________________This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by ITM. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, email marketing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ITM - Managing Communication and Information through technology Company registration number - 3783433________________________________________________________________________ -- This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
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