Radoslaw, You do not have to buy a USP or a USP-V. The NSC55 can do this just fine, and you can buy it without any disk drives. This is an enterprise class rack-mount controller that can run with external storage only.
I'm not aware of anyone else providing virtualization for Mainframe, so yes your options are limited to these three virtualization boxes. From what I know of your shop, the NSC55 would probably be a better-size for you. Then again, there are probably other options that are right for you, including staying with tape. I guess there is some choice of vendor - you can get these boxes from HDS, SUN, or HP. (GD&R). Note that the USP is now n-1 as of yesterday. The midrange controllers can come from EMC, IBM, SUN, HP, and a few others. You can also use old enterprise boxes as long as they can be fitted with FCP connections. I have a customer in Asia with IBM ESS E20 and F20 virtualised - they use them for development LPARs after migrating production off them into a USP. Yes you have to pay for the virtualisation and VTFM software, just like any other software. You pay for DFSORT so you can sort don't you? You pay for DB2 so you can have a RDBMS don't you? So what is different? (you wouldn't pay for VTFM to replace ML1 or ML2 though). Replacing ML1 with SATA disk would allow you to have more aggressive migration policies, and less aggressive ML2 policies (keep it on ML2 longer) - and I believe you already have some experience with ML2 disk as a further option. I don't agree that virtualised storage doesn't scale. I don't think that virtualization, VTFM and SATA are the answer to everything - I've stated many times in the past that I'm a TMM bigot, and that has not changed. I do like the idea of combining TMM and External storage. I do agree that cost justifying this may be hard in your shop. I recall from previous posts that you manage a lot of storage (disk based ML2 I think) by using n-3 storage with no maintenance or support. These costs are often the drivers to move to new storage - but if you aren't paying maintenance how can there be a saving. Ron > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of R.S. > Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2007 3:01 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Virtual tape limits (Was: OEM software electronic download > report card) > [...] > So, I have to buy USP (I like USP, but like the *choice* more), then I > have to buy some SATA disks, preferrably from HDS, then pay license for > "virtualization" (less if HDS SATA is used), then buy VTF software, then > consume CPU cycles for compression. > Well... > We did some analyzes for SATA as "ML1" disks. It seemed that it is simply > to expensive, it is better to negotiate good price for "n-1" technology. > Using ML1 disks instead of tapes is 1) too expensive, 2) not scalable > enough. > It can be suitable for small amounts of data and high demands on > availability and reliability. Such a disks are RAID protected and can be > easily mirrored across the sites. > My $0.02 > -- > Radoslaw Skorupka > Lodz, Poland > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
