Competed the migration from LTO7 to Laservault/Exagrid VTL.
Running on a Power9-9009-42A, multiple I5/OS V7R3 LPARs using BRMS.
Production and R&D LPAR each have a EN0A PCIe3 16Gb 2-port Fiber Channel Adapter connected to a Cisco 9148 Fiber Channel switch with 16gb ports.
The Cisco 9148 FC switch is zoned so each LPAR can see both the IBM 3573 LTO7 library and the LaserVault/Exagrid VTL.
The Laservault VITL is connected to a EX40000E-SEC Exagrid via redundant Cisco Cataylist 9500 with 10gb ports.
At our DR site, connected via dedicated fiber, is a second EX40000E-SEC Exagrid, for offsite replication.
All 50 full LTO7 volumes were successfully migrated to EX40000E-SEC Exagrid using BRMS DUPMEDBRM, 902,337.62 GB total backup data.
This included 53 weeks of Production weekly saves, Production ME saves back to 2004, R&D ME saves back to 2007.
EX40000E-SEC Exagrid retention space at 49%, with landing zone still set at 50%.
Landing zone will now be reduced, 25% or possibly lower, to give more space back to retention.
Everything was replicated to DR site, EX40000E-SEC Exagrid retention space at 75%, with landing zone set to 0%.
Process took about 3 months, doing two full LTO7 volumes at a time, (3 would fill up the landing zone).
Each process took about 48 hours, 24 hours for DUPMEDBRM, 600mb/s , followed by a 2nd 24 hours for the DEDUP process, 900mb/s.
DEDDUP ratios for the migrated volumes reached as high as 400:1.
The key to the high DEDUP ratios was to minimize the number of files Laservault presents to the Exagrid.
This was accomplished by setting the Laservault number of files from 8 to 1.
Current Production daily full BRMS save, 1 hour using 2 drives, 1,200mb/s, 3,000gb total backup data, followed by a 2 hour DEDUP, 900mb/s, ratio averaging 100:1.
Current R&D daily BRMS save, 30 minutes using 2 drives, 1,162 total backup data, followed by a 1 hour DEDUP 900mb/s, ratio averaging 400:1.
Also successfully tested using Laservault/Exagrid VTL via IBM's latest PTFs was the ability to Share Tape Libraries Across Partitions Without VIOS.
See links below for the technical details of how this works.
Pencor06 R&D LPAR was shared with Pencor07 Upgrade LPAR.
A dedicated BRMS full system save was completed on Pencor07.
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_73/rzam4/rzam4clientvirtdevices.htm
https://www.itjungle.com/2020/05/04/sharing-tape-libraries-across-partitions-without-vios/
Still to be tested.
A complete BRMS recovery via LaserVault/Exagrid from a full BRMS dedicated system save done via Laservault/Exagrid.
Thank You
_____
Paul Steinmetz
IBM i Systems Administrator
Pencor Services, Inc.
462 Delaware Ave
Palmerton Pa 18071
610-826-9117 work
610-826-9188 fax
610-349-0913 cell
610-377-6012 home
psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx<mailto:psteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx>
http://www.pencor.com/
midrange.com
