Franco, Sam did a wonderful job giving you the different post-creation stacking options (gotten to be a real crowded field) and also the different virtual-tape solutions (always a very good method to fully utilize the high capacity cartridges).
You never mentioned the tape management system you use, and what software you are using to manage your robot. Most IBM ATL's (3494 and 3584) are managed with SMS (OAM) since it is given free to manage, but some sites use BTLS (extra cost option from IBM). If you are using CA-1 or CA-Dynam/TLMS as your tape management system and BTLS to manage your IBM ATL, then there is also an option called "real time stacking" that allows files to be stacked as they are created (the file-seq is automatically changed). This would prevent you from having to post-copy tape files. However, this option will NOT work with an SMS managed 3494/3584 robot. However, I do know of one client that ran for about 2 years using an IBM 3494/ATL with CA-1/CopyCat and did stacking on a daily basis. He would use about 1/2 the scratch tapes inside the 3494 during the daily processing; and then late at night (after all the backups were finished) they would run a large CA-1/CopyCat operation to stack that days processing onto 1 or 2 fully utilized cartridges. Then, on a weekly basis they would consolidate those cartridges even further. It wasn't a pretty operation, but it allowed them to process for 2 years before upgrading to a 3494/VTS (which by that time was almost thrown in for free as part of the maintenance package for the 3494 itself). If you are interested, I will see if that client would be willing to share his experience. Russell Witt CA-1 Level-2 Support Manager -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of FRANKO DSOUZA Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:50 AM To: IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU Subject: Re: enterprise tape system 3590 HI EVERYONE, WE HAVE AN ATL 3590, AND ARE USING 3590 AND 3592 DRIVES,WITH 60 GB AND 300 GB CARTRIDGES TO BACKUP OUR DATA, IS THERE ANY SUITABLE PROGRAM TO STACK DATA ON THESE CARTRIDGES AND ALSO USE THESE CARTRIDGES TO THEIR OPTIMUM LEVEL, MEAN USE THEM 100% ANY HELP SUGGESTIONS WILL BE APPRECIATED THANKS FRANCO ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
