Image Copies

[rr14]

Hello All,

Seeking some advice/input.

We are in the process of moving from 3490 to 3592 tapes.
For most items we have completed and are implementing a transition to
HSM volumes and then
using HSM to archive to ML2 tapes.

For our image copies though, the number and size would require us to
do many HSM tape
recycles. Due to the length of time of the recycles, and that they
would use all of our tape
drives we would like to come up with a different scenario for the
image copies.

Our first thought was to put image copies on DASD, but that would
require over 250 volumes.
Our second thought was to write to DASD and then archive the contents
to tape and reuse the
volumes, and reuse the tapes every 10 days, thus only requiring 25
volumes, but our DBA says
the data sets need to remain cataloged.
Do the image copy data sets have to remain cataloged for DB2 to be
able to use them?

We are a small shop and do not have the CPU to compress anything, and
have a small pool of 3592 tapes, thus
cannot allow jobs to write directly to the tapes.

Virtual Tape products seem to have the same inherent issues as using
HSM L2 processing.

Does any one have a better idea?

Thanks...Rob

[Vernooij, CP - SPLXM]

"rr14" <rr14...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:<9cc3bbe7-a4df-4b1d...@w19g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>
...

Rob,

First: this newsgroup is a mirror of a listserver and that is where the
majority of the IBM-MAIN population resides and reads the posts. See the
information attached automagically at the bottom how to subscribe.

Second, I don't do DB2 here, but I know a little how what they do.
If I understand you correctly, your main problem is the HSM tape
recycles.

We have DMS (as HSM replacement) and also migrate image copies to ML2
tape, but don't ever recycle them. Our DB2 group has set up a
mechanisme/scheme for imagecopies, that runs periodically and at
regularl intervals also runs whether the data has changed or not. The
main reason is to limit the number of logtapes that must be processed
when recovering from very old imagecopies. For most tablespaces image
copies are taken at least every 2 or 3 weeks and those imagecopies are
given a retention period of 3 or 4 weeks. This means that they all
expire and free up the ML2 tapes automatically within 2 or 3 weeks,
without any need for consolidation/recycle.

Is this mechanisme usable for you?

Kees.
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[Schumacher, Otto]

Yes, image copies are resistered in the DB2 bootstrap datasets. DB2 calls for these datasets when a database recovery is requested.

Regards

HP Enterprise Services
Infrastructure Specialist
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[Joel C. Ewing]

I can't speak for other virtual tape implementations, but for CA-Vtape
you can define by tape data set name which of a fairly large number of
aggregation groups should be used for the virtual volume. If you can
correctly categorize the virtual volumes into aggregation groups by how
many days or weeks before they expire, then it is possible to have
aggregation groups where no recycle is needed because all virtual
volumes on a physical tape expire within a few days of each other,
freeing the physical volume.

Like HSM though, you can get so much on a single cartridge that
duplexing should always be used. If Vtape externalization could occur
at the same time as HSM writing to ML2 or performing backup to tape,
then you are immediately at a requirement for 4 drives, even without
anyone needing to read HSM or virtual tape data.
J C Ewing

--
Joel C. Ewing, Fort Smith, AR jREMOVEc...@acm.org