Re: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape verification by restoring object?

[DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Auditors are like any inspector, gotta find something before they can 
leave. In my farm days it was the Milk Inspector. He was very 
predictable so the day we expected him we'd take the paper towel out of 
the holder, toss a little of the dry feed on top of the glass milk 
pipeline to make it look dirty, and 'forget' to run the gutter cleaner 
that day.  He'd write us up for the three minor violations and go away 
happy.  Meanwhile at least in theory (theory only-my uncle ran a VERY 
good farm) there could have been dead animals rotting out back that he 
would never find....

Toss a poor auditor/inspector a bone and they go away.  The good ones 
focus on different aspects at each visit in addition to their core list.

    - L

On 11/15/2011 1:21 PM, Jerry C. Adams wrote:
> I met an auditor a couple of years ago for whom this wasn't enough.  I told
> him that, sure we restore things from time-to-time and never had a problem.
> I told him that I run the PRTERRLOG command weekly.  None of this sufficed;
> I had to *prove* that I could restore from each day's backup tape.
>
> I wound up backing up a bogus (i.e., empty) library; deleting same from the
> System i; restoring same back to the System i; running CHKOBJ to be sure it
> was there.  He went away happy.
>
> I like auditors; I really do.  I have learned tons of stuff from them (the
> good ones).  One audit report even got us two [2] brand new 520's because he
> did not want me to do development on a production box.  But sometimes I
> think some of them just have to find something to put in their report so
> they can say that they found a "problem" that they corrected.
>
> Jerry C. Adams
> IBM i Programmer/Analyst
> Queen Victoria loved "Alice in Wonderland" and requested a copy of Lewis
> Carroll's next book.  It was "Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry."
> --
> A&K Wholesale
> Murfreesboro, TN
> 615-867-5070
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Musselman, Paul
> Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 11:11 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: RE: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape
> verification by restoring object?
>
> We don't perform a restore verification step after our backups-- we trust
> the tape management messages to indicate any errors.
>
> We do perform a Display Tape on some tapes...
>
> But we do regularly restore data from our backup tapes-- programmers need
> test data; we need to investigate why a transaction failed.  So we are
> routinely bringing tapes back from off-site and restoring 'random' files
> from our daily and monthly backups.  So we're reasonably certain that our
> backup tapes really can be used to restore data.
>
> Plus, we have a contract for a disaster-recovery site, and we perform an
> annual test to rebuild our primary system on bare hardware.  We usually grab
> a recent set of month-end backup tapes for the test.  It's just another test
> to show that we can actually read data off of our tapes.
>
>
> It's like the saying about submarines:  "A submarine dive isn't successful
> until the boat returns to the surface!"
>
>
> Paul E Musselman
> PaulMmn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> elehti@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 3:21 PM
> To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: IBM System Storage TS3100 Tape library; unnecessary tape
> verification by restoring object?
>
> Am I doing some unnecessary, over-the-top tape verification with our IBM
> System Storage TS3100 tape library?
> Are steps 5 and 6 actually needed so as to confirm that the tapes are
> readable and that data can be restored from them?
> Does the TS3100 tape unit have more than adequate verification
> algorithms in it that confirm that the data on tape is readable and
> restorable?
>
>
> Step 1:  GO BACKUP and save most user libraries and other objects to the
> LTO4 tapes.
> Step 2:  Seven libraries get saved  with these parms.  E.g.
>           SAVLIB     LIB(CRMSAT) DEV(TAP01) ENDOPT(*LEAVE) +
>               SAVACT(*SYNCLIB) SAVACTWAIT(360) +
>               SAVACTMSGQ(QSYSOPR) ACCPTH(*YES)
>
> Step 3: Save some of the IFS folders:  e.g.
>          SAV DEV('/QSYS.LIB/TAP01.DEVD') OBJ(('/WWW')) OUTPUT(*PRINT)
>
>
> Step 4:  Rewind and DSPTAP
> Step 5: DLTF a file from library VERIFYBKUP and get ready to restore
> this file from tape
> Step 6:  RSTOBJ from tape the file that step 5 deleted.
>
> Step 7:  CHKTAP     DEV(TAP01) ENDOPT(*UNLOAD)  to unload this tape and
> mount next tape for tomorrow