Page 1 of 8 V5R4 Virtual Tape on System i By Nancy Roper, IBM Americas Advanced Technical Support – System i Article Abstract : "Virtual Tape was introduced to i5/OS starting at V5R4. Read on to learn about the features and benefits of this function, along with hints and tips to use it to your advantage" About the Author : Nancy Roper is a Consulting IT Specialist. She currently works in the IBM Americas Advanced Technical Support group, assisting the largest System i customers with their availability strategies. Nancy is a seasoned technical expert on System i tape, SAN, and BRMS, and is co-author of the redbook “iSeries in a Storage Area Network” (SG24-6220). As the pace of the world quickens, more and more companies need to keep their systems available for as many hours as possible each day. Since backups typically account for a major portion of the time that a system is not available, companies are very interested in tools and techniques to shorten the backup window as much as possible. At V5R4, a new function became available in i5/OS to assist in this task. Virtual Tape allows cus- tomers to write their saves to virtual volumes that are stored on disk, and later duplicate these vol- umes to physical tapes. For saves with large file data, and for companies who are using older tape technology, this may offer a dramatic performance improvement, thus shortening the time when the system is unavailable to the users. In addition, concurrent or parallel saves can be implemented us- ing virtual tape, thus shortening the backup window without needing to purchase additional physical drives. If this function seems interesting to you, then read on! This article will explain how virtual tape works, and describe the scenarios where this function can be helpful. It will also warn of situations where virtual tape may not be the best fit. This article will then outline the planning steps required to prepare for virtual tape, and list the steps required to implement it. Benefits offered by Virtual Tape Virtual tape provides the following potential benefits: - Possible Backup Performance Increase - Run Concurrent or Parallel Backups, without buying more drives - Overcome Save File Restrictions - Reduce Impact of Media Errors - Reduce Impact of Tape Hardware Failures - Backup Strategy for Quick Restores Details regarding these advantages are as follow: Possible Backup Performance Increase: Virtual tape saves typically run at speeds comparable to save files when they are on a system with adequate resources. Depending on the type of physical drive currently in use, this may provide a performance benefit, thus helping to shorten the backup
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Page 1 of 8
V5R4 Virtual Tape on System i By Nancy Roper, IBM Americas Advanced Technical Support – System i
Article Abstract : "Virtual Tape was introduced to i5/OS starting at V5R4. Read on to
learn about the features and benefits of this function, along with hints and tips to use it to
your advantage"
About the Author: Nancy Roper is a Consulting IT Specialist. She currently works in the
IBM Americas Advanced Technical Support group, assisting the largest System i
customers with their availability strategies. Nancy is a seasoned technical expert on
System i tape, SAN, and BRMS, and is co-author of the redbook “iSeries in a Storage
Area Network” (SG24-6220).
As the pace of the world quickens, more and more companies need to keep their systems available
for as many hours as possible each day. Since backups typically account for a major portion of the
time that a system is not available, companies are very interested in tools and techniques to shorten
the backup window as much as possible.
At V5R4, a new function became available in i5/OS to assist in this task. Virtual Tape allows cus-
tomers to write their saves to virtual volumes that are stored on disk, and later duplicate these vol-
umes to physical tapes. For saves with large file data, and for companies who are using older tape
technology, this may offer a dramatic performance improvement, thus shortening the time when the
system is unavailable to the users. In addition, concurrent or parallel saves can be implemented us-
ing virtual tape, thus shortening the backup window without needing to purchase additional physical
drives.
If this function seems interesting to you, then read on! This article will explain how virtual tape
works, and describe the scenarios where this function can be helpful. It will also warn of situations
where virtual tape may not be the best fit. This article will then outline the planning steps required to
prepare for virtual tape, and list the steps required to implement it.
Benefits offered by Virtual Tape
Virtual tape provides the following potential benefits:
- Possible Backup Performance Increase
- Run Concurrent or Parallel Backups, without buying more drives
- Overcome Save File Restrictions
- Reduce Impact of Media Errors
- Reduce Impact of Tape Hardware Failures
- Backup Strategy for Quick Restores
Details regarding these advantages are as follow:
Possible Backup Performance Increase: Virtual tape saves typically run at speeds comparable to
save files when they are on a system with adequate resources. Depending on the type of physical
drive currently in use, this may provide a performance benefit, thus helping to shorten the backup
Page 2 of 8
window. For details, see the benchmarks in the Save/Restore chapter of the V5R4 Performance Ca-
pabilities Guide, which is available on the web at the following url: