I have just been tasked with coming up with a TSM solution to the following problem. We currently have two OS/390-based TSM servers and a 3494 with 10 magstar drives backing up 200+ AIX/Solaris/NT clients.
Our management has finally become disillusioned with the backup/restore problems on some of our LANs. Our LAN people have been allowed to do use whatever they pleased for this function, meaning ARCSERVE since that's all most of them know. They recently deployed a Compaq SAN and were tasked with consolidating several, God help us, Groupwise post- offices. Apparently, Netware uses some proprietary file system (NSS?) which prevents the post office from being backed up directly, so they make some sort of 'snapshot' like copy which can then be backed up. Problems with ARCSERVE have stopped this consolidation in it's tracks until some other, more reliable backup system can be implemented. They need to restore these GW post offices (20-30GB) in a relatively short period of time, not the 6+ hours currently seen. We are looking to eventually replace most or all of their existing Arcserve systems and have an alternative to increasing the load on our OS/390 servers. I have tentatively suggested using their existing Win/NT machine as a server with their SAN-attached DLT ATL to be replaced eventually with an RS/6000 with connection to fibre-attached 3590s in our existing 3494. However, I see that LAN-free backup in TSM does not support a Netware client. I know that this is an incomplete list of facts/requirements, but would appreciate any comments/suggestions based on what I have been given so far, particularly if anyone has heard of plans for further Netware support (Lan-free) in Version 5. Sam Sheppard San Diego Data Processing Corp. (858)-581-9668
