Kevin: See below.
Thanks for the detailed reply. We are looking at a Universal Software VTA
since it's more of a "Windoze Friendly" solution which sits well with the
corporate mother ship. We will make the device accessible via our enterprise
backup system to create off-site physical storage images. We are also
investigating the possible use of network connected backup. This would be used to
quickly place offsite a set of backups directly from the VTA after our daily
zVSE backups. The DR considerations here are to have something offsite that we
could ultimately use. The corporate risk managers feel that a 3-5 day
restoration of operations is an acceptable risk; theory is we would always be able
to acquire enogh of our infrastructure to resume operations in a reasonable
period of time; insurance money greases a lot of wheels :-)
Admittedly I would've preferred that Bus-Tech used Windows. While I haven't
completely mastered Linux (their software runs under Linux), I've learned
quite a bit about a lot of its commands.
The main concern was the ability to import the AWSTAPE format media to a
virtual tape environment. If we were to receive the VSE distribution on CD (or
internat for that matter) the data is in AWSTAPE format. The VTA is capable
of importing these files to datastore or access it directly from a CD on the
same unit. It would then appear as any mounted tape on a 3490E device to the
mainframe. From talking to the folks at BusTech they indicated that they
would be able to do the same thing although their locally created AWSTAPE is
supposedly a little different from IBMs format; they indicated that there was
some "indexing" scheme in the first few physical block of the tape. In any
case, I should be able to IPL from the AWSTAPE file as if it were a real tape
on the end of the ESCON channel. The biggest hurdle may be to get a buy in
from the business partner selling us the z9.
The Bus-Tech does write an INDEX but I was told it's placed at the back of
the file. It's used to quickly locate files when there are multi-files on a
volume, thus avoiding READ FROM THE FRONT OF THE TAPE UNTIL THE FILE IS FOUND.
The need to write multi files on a single volume is obviated, IMHO.
I've FTP'd their files to my PC and used them using z/VSE VTAPE without any
problems.
There are at least three (3) utilities out there you can run on your PC to
view AWS formatted files (kinda like DITTO). I prefer the one written by David
Trout (aka FISH). Whenever I write an AWS file using z/VSE VTAPE I always
use this utility to make sure it can be read (I've had cases where I VTAPE'd
something and the file was corrupted), thus using the utility lets me know if
it's ok.
So, instead of stinkin' VM, you're a closet Herc user. I see where you can
get a pretty good head start in installing a new zVSE. I'm thinking as part
of the z9 installation, since LPAR is by default, to have the luxury of
creating a small sandbox LPAR for installing new releases and such. I've never
had them in the past but I've had a few hair-raising RSL applications in the
recent past. There's a lot of testing needs to be done to make the plug
pulling decisions by Sunday afternoon. I do have the luxury of 3 out of 4
weekends being idle. Of course. LPARs need some real resources to support and there
may not be enoough to really go around. This is a minimal installation with
a 4-5 year life expectancy until the "Windows platform" solution will be
available from the home office, you get the picture :-).
I don't know what z9 your looking at but, as I recall, they come with 8G
REAL storage, at a mininum. We have 8G real with 9 LPAR's and about 1200 dasd
cuu's in our IOCP and we really don't have REAL storage issues, although I
would've preferred at least 16G real.
I don't keep anything, of IBM's, anywhere, except in IJSYSRS.SYSLIB. We
don't put anything in PRD2.CONFIG or VSESPUC, including the CSD as we use our
own, or POWER (i.e. IJQFILE and IJDFILE). When migrating to a new z/VSE release
I create a IJSYSRS.MIGR, put the NEW proc's and anything else we use, from
IJSYSRS.SYSLIB, into it. I IPL from the old DOSRES and copy all the proc's,
etc. from IJSYSRS.MIGR to IJSYSRS.SYSLIB to the new DOSRES, copy a new CSD,
connect the VSAM USER catalogs, and do a few other things and IPL from the new
DOSRES. Thus a migration takes less than 2 hours. If there's a problem I simply
IPL from the old DOSRES.
Having a sandbox LPAR is great, although having a Herc sandbox is even
better. Copying DOSRES and SYSWK1, under Herc, before applying a PTF takes only 10
SECONDs. Lets see you do that with that stinkin' VM or native z/VSE. If a
problem occurs just delete the 2 volumes and rename the copied volumes back to
their original names and your back to where you were BEFORE applying anything.
Assuming your not changing the version|release of your current operating
system I think your making too big a deal out of this. It's really a PUSH|PULL
situation when going from one processor to another although if coming from a
FLEX or MP3000 with the later having integrated DASD it's a bit more involved.
Otherwise if your have sufficient dasd and you can connect both processors
to it you can do a LOT of work ahead of time.
Anyway, I appreciate your sharing of your experiences.
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