Re: Controlling a tape library remotely over an IP network

[DrFranken <midrange@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Adam,

    You can certainly "Control" the tape drive over the network. Such 
things a looking at the library, exporting tapes, mounting tapes. That's 
can be done with the web interface. That almost certainly isn't what 
you're after. :-)

    The FC #280D card (aka FC #5761 ) is a fiber channel adapter. Now I 
know of customers who have installed equipment to convert FC to Ethernet 
and back on the far end. The connection between the locations was 
private fiber however so bandwidth was *LOTS.  You mention MPLS which is 
good but how fast is the MPLS Network? Even if it's a full Gb speed a 
500MB Backup would take a minimum of an hour and 5 minutes and I'm 
guessing that it won't be that fast. (If I'm wrong of course, you win, 
buuuuut you still need the equipment on each end to do the converting!)

    A better concept would be something like a Crossroads SPHiNX unit 
on site which would then replicate the data off-site to a second unit 
after the backup has completed. The SPHiNX looks like a tape drive to 
your system but is actually a virtual tape library. This way the backup 
is done quickly (local fiber speeds) and then the replication can run 
off line as time permits.

     - Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

On 7/17/2012 4:51 PM, ADriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We have an IBM TS3500 tape library (and a Power 6 520 system). We are planning for some HA/DR scenarios at the moment and one of the possibilities is moving the Power System to a vendor data center. The tape library however will stay onsite (it's also used by a TSM server and that and the Windows servers are remaining onsite). The connection between our building and the vendor data center will be an MPLS network.
>
> I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this? Specifically,
>
>
> 1)    Is it even possible? The tape controller is a 280D PCI-X Fibre Channel controller. Is it possible for this to work over an IP network?
>
> 2)    Assuming it is possible, does anyone have any experience with the performance of such a set up?
>
> Thanks
>
> Adam Driver
> IBM Certified Systems Administrator - System i
> Consultant - Infrastructure Engineer
> Exacta Corporation
> (608) 661 6697 ext 2581
> adriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:adriver@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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