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Sizing and ordering a Virtual Dynamic Solutions International Virtiual Tape Library ( DSI RESTORE VTL)

How To


Summary

This document discusses the sizing of a virtual DSI VTL
RESTORE is is DSI's virtualized storage appliance that is built upon VMware technology. It is scalable from 2-100 Terabytes of deduplicated data
This document covers the sizing of the VM server when the VTL will run on and the sizing of the VTL capacity

Environment

What is DSI Restore
 
This is a virtualized DSI VTL that can run on a VM server in the cloud running one of the following:
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    • OEL 7u6
  • Microsoft Azure
    • OEL 7u6
  • IBM Power Virtual Server
    • Red Hat 7u6
This allows users to create a VTL in the cloud and have the ability to replicate data from/to a local VTL , or to another RESTORE  VTL in the cloud.
Note that it will not be possible to do restores to on-prem systems from the VTL in the cloud as the host system will have to be connect via iSCSI or Fiber Channel (FC). Data will need to be replicated to a local VTL and then the data can be restored.
PowerVS RESTORE VTL
 
When using a VTL in a PowerVS environment, IBM i hosts need to connect via iSCSI.  Currently only IBMi 7.2 and IBMi 7.3 are supported. (When IBMi 7.4 is available, this doc will be updated).
  • Note that D-mode IPLs are not available when using a iSCSI connected DSI VTL. NFS network restore will need to be set up.

Steps

Sizing for DSI RESTORE
There are 2 parts when sizing for DSI Restore. The first part is sizing for the VTL capacity. The second part is the VM server. This is dependent on the size of the VTL capacity and will be provided as part of the VTL capacity results. The VM server sizing information will be provided together with the capacity sizing.
Sizing for DSI RESTORE Capacity

If requiring sizing for Dynamic Solutions International (DSI) Restore Virtual Tape Library (VTL), send the following information to powervssizing@dynamicsolutions.com

  1. Customer Name

  2. What VTL/Tape drives are used today

  3. If using a VTL please provide the following information:

    1. What is the current deduplication ratio

    2. What LPARs are been saved at what location if there are multiple sites

    3. Average size of virtual volumes

    4. Using 10Gb adapters for replication (Yes/No)

    5. Using Fibre Channel cards for replication (Yes/No)

    6. Will you be using DSI Conductor for migration of media (Yes/No)

  4. If using a mixture of VTL and physical and you are planning on continuing the same practices, list control groups that will use physical media

  5. Data collected from one of the actions below

Collecting information if using BRMS

The PRTRPTBRM EXPDATE(*ACTIVE) parameter was introduced in 7.2 and later and requires one of the following PTFs: 7.4 SI72867, 7.3 SI72866  7.2 SI72865

If using BRMS backup control groups, run the following commands on each LPAR and send the spooled file. The spooled file can be zipped to transfer easier. These commands need to run in the same job stream.

  • CRTDTAARA DTAARA(QTEMP/Q1ARPTRETN) TYPE(*CHAR)

  • PRTRPTBRM TYPE(*CTLGRPSTAT) EXPDATE(*ACTIVE)

If using BRMS backup control groups without PTFs 7.4 SI72867, 7.3 SI72866 or 7.2 SI72865 then run the following commands on each LPAR and send the spooled file. The spooled file can be zipped to transfer easier. These commands need to run in the same job stream.

  • CRTDTAARA DTAARA(QTEMP/Q1ARPTRETN) TYPE(*CHAR)

  • PRTRPTBRM TYPE(*CTLGRPSTAT)

Send the spooled file in text (.txt) format. (The files need to be downloaded as .txt files, not as .pdf and converted.)

If you have multiple systems in a BRMS network, you can use the following command on one of the systems to run the reports for each the other systems. These commands need to run in the same job stream.

  • CRTDTAARA DTAARA(QTEMP/Q1ARPTRETN) TYPE(*CHAR)

  • PRTRPTBRM TYPE(*CTLGRPSTAT) FROMSYS(xxxxxxxxx) EXPDATE(*ACTIVE)  CAUTION: Do not use *NETGRP or list multiple systems

Send the spooled file in text (.txt) format. (The files need to be downloaded as .txt files, not as .pdf and converted. )

Collecting data when not using BRMS or BRMS control groups

If not using BRMS control groups or not using BRMS, send in the following for each LPAR . You can use RTVDSKINF and PRTDSKINF to get library and IFS sizes.

  • Type of backup -  Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly etc

  • Size of each backup

  • How often each backup is done - Example : Daily 6 days a week, Weekly once a week,

  • Retention of each backup - Example : Daily 14 days, Weekly 35 days

  • Start time of each backup

Example

image 7540

How to order a DSI VTL

Currently all orders are placed directly with DSI. This document will be updated once IBM Cloud solutions allow orders directly from the Cloud catalog.

Using object storage to store data
 
 This option allows users to have the object storage instead of local cloud disk.  The following are some considerations when using this option:
  • Local disk (block storage) will still be required for landing space and index space. Only the SIR repository will be in the cloud.
  • Restore times may be affected
  • Data in the cloud will be deduplicated

Document Location

Worldwide

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Document Information

Modified date:
28 June 2021

UID

ibm16409564

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