The answer is, of course, "It depends". For my "big" TSM server (AIX/RS6000), I use any type of disk I can get my hands on for the disk pool!
We started with SSA, added space gradually by adding large SCSI drives in every available internal slot. Also have a SCSI connection to some older STK (actually Clariion) disk in an external drawer. No complaints. First thing I do each night is backup the disk pool to offsite tape. So the data is copied whether it migrates out to primary tape, or not. So the exposure to data loss is minimal, even if we had a crash of a disk pool volume before all the data migrated out. If you are doing nightly backups to diskpool, consider that most of the data is going to come into the disk pool, then just sit there doing nothing, until time to migrate out to tape. So speed for disk pool is not that important for many sites. Keep your DB and logs on the SSA, put the backup diskpool on the next slowest, put the archive diskpool (if you have one) on the next slowest, etc. It's the DB and log that are crucial. -----Original Message----- From: Steve Schaub [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 11:17 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Best value for disk pool We have a 3466 C00 (AIX 4.3.3 TSM 4.1.0) using approx. 144gb of SSA disk for our db, logs, and several disk pools. We have reached a point of needing to add more disk for the db and pools, but because of budget cuts, the $$ for additional SSA disks is not looking good. It is time for us to consider using other types of direct attached disk for this system. Currently, we are not raid-ing the disk pool at all, and using tsm mirroring for the db. Can I get some feedback from those with experience using other vendor's disk systems on an AIX box. Cost, reliability, speed are of course the important metrics. I do understand that hooking up non-SSA disk probably means decoupling the 3466 and turning it into a standalone rs6k box. Anyone with tips on that path would also be appreciated. Steve Schaub Systems Engineer Haworth, Inc [EMAIL PROTECTED] No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
