Tape, Tape, Tape, Tape (almost feel like a duck saying quack) Support to share IBM tape drives (that is Ficon/Escon attached) as a native device. These drives will be shared with the 390 side. We need to know when we hit EOV for multivolume tapes and have a method of unloading and calling for the next mount.
Support to share the IBM VTS (Virtual Tape System), which is a tape based virtual system. Support to run the IBM 3494 robotic system. Yes, I agree that the use of these "390" devices is less efficient than FCP defined devices. Yes, I can buy FCP card(s) and SCSI attach the 3590/3592 drives (as in buy more drives and not share the with the 390 Operating Systems). Yes, there are SCSI attached VTS systems (that can't be shared with the 390 Operating Systems). Yes, large shops can afford $50K to "try things out". But a fair amount of the z/890 class of systems..... Our tape systems are sitting there idle anyway....why can't we share? Separate but equal doesn't jive well with "server consolidation". Our VTS (hopefully coming in Oct/Nov), is a small one, but bigger than we need, and we can't share it with the Linux side? Eventually, the budget cycle and need, may push us towards dedicated, FCP attached drives and, perhaps, a dedicated FCP based VTS, but it shouldn't be forced, up front. For a while, I can trade performance and CPU cycles for not having to dedicate funds, up front. Yes, Bacula allows for some use. But not with Oracle. Not with DB2/UDB. (it seems we have to stage to disk first, before we can copy to tape.) How about a device driver, that makes the FICON/Escon attached tape drive, look, and addressed like a SCSI attached drive? I don't mind losing some performance (such as using CKD drives on a fixed block I/O method). If the driver gave us 80%, I would be happy. But at 50%....I don't think so. The resulting performance would still have to be 80-90% of native, just to keep the drive from shoe shining. Anyway... tape, tape, tape, tape, tape, (give me the winning lottery number), tape, tape, tape... Tom Duerbusch THD Consulting >>> Mark Post <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 8/4/2007 11:40 AM >>> Now that SP1 for SLES10 is out, planning efforts are turning to SLE[SD]11. If you have anything you'd like to see added, removed, or improved for the mainframe version, please send me an email _off-list_. Some people responded to a similar request I made a few months ago. You don't have to resend them to me, I've already forwarded them on to the appropriate people. As always, no guarantees I'll be successful with any of the wish list items, but I'll certainly try for those things that make sense. (And just about everything anyone has suggested so far has made good sense.) Thanks, Mark Post ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
