Hi Everyone: I have the opportunity to get an EMC Clarion Disk Library for a very, very low price and was wondering if anyone out there has any experience, pro or con with this system. Here are my thoughts.
1. Since it's emulating tape drives, and I can't multiplex multiple sessions to a single tape drive with TSM, using this as the primary backup destination might be a major pain. I'd have to create as many virtual tape drives as I run concurrent backup/archive sessions... right? I can't imagine having a couple hundred drive and path specifications. What a nightmare. 2. I think I can get around the previous problem by fronting this device with a diskpool big enough for one night's backup, then using the CDL as the "next" and migrating it off. Then, I could copy those nightly files to tape for offsite vaulting. (I guess I could do it in the opposite order too...). 3. It seems like an easy way to get a large primary disk pool without having to go through the work of optimizing the file size, RAID groups, LUNS, filesystem v.s. no filesystem, devtype of file or disk etc.... The EMC sales folks say "Hey, just plug it in!!!" But, you know the old adage, "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is." 4. It might be nice as to use for my NDMP backups of our NetApp filers. Now, I don't have to assign physical tape drives to the backup, just create another virtual or two and it's off and running. Do any of you have any experience with this product, or others like it with TSM? If so, what are your thoughts? Curtis Stewart
