David Boyes wrote:
How is "Emulated Tape" different from the VTAPE product from VSSI
(Virtual
Software Systems, Inc.)?
Unless I totally misunderstand what VTAPE does, it solves a different
problem. What I'm asking for is the ability to use existing SCSI tape
drives w/o having to rewrite applications not designed for them by way
of CP emulating a device that VM already supports, much as emulated FBA
disk allows unmodified operating systems to run on SCSI-only devices.
AFAIK, VTAPE doesn't provide that capability.
Example: One of my customers has a large library with 30 SCSI LTO2 tape
drives in it and plenty of capacity -- a half-million dollar unit with
full-on automation, etc -- yet he still has to purchase, power and
maintain a 3590 and FICON-based connectivity just to support backing up
the VM side of his zSeries. If he could emulate a 3490 or 3590 and use
the LTO2 drives over FCP, that would be a significant cost benefit both
from acquisition and ongoing operational cost.
Is what you are asking for better than VTAPE -- or are you just asking
IBM
to provide free what you can already get for a price? IBM might not
want
to undercut a VM vendor.
I think it is a different problem. If VTAPE does it, I'd like to know
how.
David Boyes
Sine Nomine Associates
No, VTAPE does not do that. It creates virtual tapes that are stored in
a library on dasd. There are no real tape units or tapes involved. It is
more like the spool system in that the vdev is not associated with any
rdev. Strictly smoke and mirrors.
