IBM TotalStorage IBM TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server

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1 IBM TotalStorage IBM TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server A powerful tape storage system that helps address the demanding storage requirements of e-business

2 storag Storage for Improved How can you strategically meet today s storage priorities? The demand for storage and 24x7 access to data increases every day. Meeting this demand is critical, especially given the heightened importance of data backup and the role of storage technology in disaster recovery. And cost control is a key issue as enterprises try to operate more efficiently. To address these requirements, many corporations have turned to tape storage as a strategic tool. The IBM TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server (VTS) is an enterprise virtual tape system that can help you make sure all your data is available, manage that data as efficiently as possible and reduce the real expense of managing that data. Increase the efficiency of your IT operations The VTS combines the benefits of high-speed disk access with low-cost tape storage by virtualizing data in a disk cache buffer, which helps eliminate many of the physical delays associated with tape read/write activities. This approach allows the VTS to help boost system performance and reduce batch processing times and backup windows. The VTS also uses intelligent storage management routines to efficiently utilize tape cartridge capacity, which can significantly reduce the number of tape cartridges and related floor space required. The end result? Lower tape processing and management costs. The new IBM Peer-to-Peer VTS was a strategic choice for us because of its tape processing capabilities and attractive cost of ownership. Customers can confidently store their information on this storage subsystem with its excellent performance record in 24 7 e-business environments. Johann Bauermeister, Business Manager, T-Systems South Africa Fulfill the highest business continuity requirements The VTS can extend your current level of security and disaster tolerance. By installing the system at a remote site, you can back up servers across the network, eliminating the need to transport and manage cartridges off-site. Alternatively, a configuration of two VTS systems coupled by peer-to-peer controllers can automatically duplicate tape data and can further protect against data loss in case of failures. These coupled systems can also be installed at two geographically distant sites to minimize potential server downtime in case of a disaster.

3 e priorities E-Business Operations We try to make business decisions as opposed to just technology-based decisions, and with the cost-effectiveness of the package IBM offered as well as the advanced technology of the VTS solution, it was the best choice for us. Even a used-equipment solution from another vendor would have been more expensive. Gary Wade Associate Information Consultant Eli Lilly and Company

4 efficiency A Cost-Effective Approach That Boosts We had about 700,000 tape cartridges in total, with 300-plus tape drives. All the racks and tape drives were gobbling up floor space. Backing up our data required many people working 24x7 shifts to keep it all going they mounted tapes, filed tapes and packed tapes for shipment. Needless to say, we started looking for another way to manage that process. Before we brought in the 3494 Tape Library and the Virtual Tape Server, we relied heavily on manual operations. Now, with all the automation, we ve been able to free up operators to take on much more strategic tasks. In addition, our batch jobs are not constrained by tape performance like they were before. That makes us much more productive throughout the tape environment. Lisa Galindo, Systems Manager of Technology Deployment, DST Systems, Inc. The I/O-bound batch jobs have improved by 20 to 30 percent in wall-clock time. Manual mount times have been reduced by 73 percent. The number of cartridges has been reduced by 98 percent. The number of manual mounts is down 88 percent. Average scratch mount times have fallen from 27 to 5 seconds.

5 Business Efficiency How can you increase performance and productivity while reducing costs? Driven by business demands, your tape libraries are probably growing in size: the greater the demand for storage, the more tapes you will have. And although tape capacity has increased over time, conventional tape systems typically cannot take full advantage of the increase. This means that you need more people to manage the tapes, more space for storage and more power to run and cool the systems. The TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server can help meet your future storage demands while curbing this escalation in costs. It offers significant potential economic and productivity benefits, from increased overall system performance to lower tape processing and storage costs all of which can help lead to reduced operating costs related to media, real estate, environmental and personnel expenses. Reduce costs related to physical tape Most cartridges stored in conventional tape libraries contain one volume per tape, a poor use of space with the data often occupying less than half a physical tape. The VTS can fully utilize cartridge capacity so that a typical user may realize up to a 100-to-1 reduction in cartridges when moving workloads from a traditional tape system to the VTS. This efficient use of tape capacity can reduce the number of tapes in the library, the amount of floor space needed to store tapes, the work associated with transporting tapes off-site and the number of personnel required to manage tapes, all of which can lower tape processing and storage costs. Improve system performance The VTS combines advanced storage management routines and a RAID-5 disk cache to efficiently handle data. Because data written to tape is often reused shortly after it is stored, the VTS creates virtual volumes in a disk cache for later read access. Based on a Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm, these volumes are retained on disk even after the VTS has written a copy to tape. If the data requested from a host is not in the cache, the full virtual volume is retrieved from the cartridge, uploaded into the virtual cache and then transferred to the host from the cache. In practice, the VTS satisfies most mount requests by accessing the virtual volumes in the disk cache eliminating up to 90 percent of the physical mounts in the average commercial operation. So by removing much of the The Virtual Tape Server is a storage subsystem that integrates a fault-tolerant RAID-5 disk array (the Tape Volume Cache), the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape System 3590, the IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Library 3494, an IBM server and storage management software. To a host s operating system, the VTS appears as hundreds of automated tape drives and thousands of tape volumes. But unlike conventional tape drives, the VTS initially saves data sent by the host system in a disk-based cache. It then efficiently fills the tape cartridges with data from the cache, stacking multiple tape volumes on a single cartridge. Finally, the VTS files the cartridges into the automated tape library for easy access and retrieval, or sends the data off-site for archiving or disaster recovery F Virtual Drive 1 Tape Volume Cache Virtual Drive 2 High-capacity Cartridge Virtual Volume 1 Virtual Volume 2 Virtual Volume n Virtual Drive n Logical Volume 1 Logical Volume n

6 efficiency mechanical delays associated with tape drive and tape automation operations, the VTS can dramatically improve performance compared with traditional tape solutions. In addition, by continuously copying all virtual volumes from disk to tape, the VTS manages the cache efficiently. This process leads to more predictable system performance and helps to minimize the performance spikes that occur during batch processing. Increase IT productivity The VTS runs automated storage management software that optimizes the use of tape and the disk cache. Over time, some of the stacked volumes residing on the physical tapes become invalid, while other data must be retained for years. The VTS automatically copies the valid logical volumes to a new stacked tape and reclaims the free tape space for new data. The VTS also automates the migration of data to higher capacity volumes and the export of data to other VTS systems for disaster backup, workload balancing and archiving purposes. This automation helps to reduce the amount of time required by storage administrators to support the tape operation. Furthermore, the VTS provides operational flexibility by eliminating one bottleneck of a conventional tape environment: the number of physical tape drives available. Shortening batch windows and assuming more processing load usually requires that more jobs run in parallel, with each job requiring its own physical tape device a potentially impractical and expensive approach. In comparison, the VTS offers hundreds of logical tape devices that can be easily allocated to any host application. The availability of these logical drives can minimize the need for IT staff to meticulously plan the optimal number of physical devices required, and can even allow unplanned requests to be fulfilled without affecting production. Support open systems The VTS conforms to many open standards, permitting different types of servers to benefit from its features. A true enterprise data server, it supports IBM ^ zseries and other mainframes as well as open-systems servers. For us, the IBM Peer-to-Peer Virtual Tape Server is simply a totally redundant tape black box. That s the point which made our tape job very easy. Tape storage management has become automated in the background, and we have time to focus on other important things. Marcel Affolter, Head of Enterprise Storage Services, Swisscom

7 A Full Range of High Availability Approaches for Business Continuance How can you best protect your data and provide uninterrupted access to it? A tape storage system should support high data availability so that your employees, customers and partners can access data 24x7 through reliable, disaster-tolerant systems. Tape systems protect data, an important asset that you cannot repurchase if lost. And nowadays, many critical e-business applications require continuous operation and a high level of data protection. When disaster strikes, whether a major power outage or a system crash, the ability to continue operating can make the difference between success and failure. Choose from multiple options for data protection and disaster recovery A good backup and recovery strategy not only protects vital data, but it also reduces the backup window, provides more efficient storage utilization, reduces server cycles and provides faster, more effective recovery. To develop such a strategy, you need to first define your business objectives: How long can my business operate without my IT system? How much data can I afford to lose? How much of my company s network must be restored to continue operations? The amount of downtime and data loss tolerated have a direct relationship to the appropriate recovery strategy, as shown in the Seven Tiers of Recoverability pyramid. IBM offers virtual tape storage solutions that address all levels of recoverability, their required functionality determined by the service level and by your operational objectives.

8 isaster toler In a few cases, it is sufficient for tape data to be stored locally, which provides fast recovery of accidentally lost online data. However, without off-site backup (Tier 0), you cannot be sure of recovery at all. Tape data can be physically transported to a remote location for backup and disaster recovery purposes (Tiers 1 and 2). For better recoverability, corporations can install a Virtual Tape Server at a remote location. Critical data is then electronically vaulted backed up off-site over a network in this implementation (Tier 3). Electronic vaulting helps eliminate the security risks related to physically transporting tape cartridges. It also helps minimize the potential of data loss, because the electronically exported data is more concurrent with its active, online version. Data written to a remote VTS can be removed and used as a complete set at a recovery site, or the data can be accessed directly through a remote host. Improve disaster tolerance with a Peer-to-Peer configuration If you need continuous access to data or significantly improved disaster recovery operations, you can obtain higher levels of recoverability (Tiers 4, 5 and 6) through the IBM TotalStorage Peer-to-Peer Virtual Tape Server (PtP VTS). The PtP VTS is designed to automatically maintain identical copies of all tape data on two VTS systems. It is also designed to avoid single points of failure and provide automatic recovery and failover capabilities. The PtP VTS configuration consists of two similar VTS systems connected through a channel-attached or a channelextended IBM TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server Peer-to-Peer Controller. The PtP VTS allows physical separation of components in two sites to increase resiliency in the case of a disaster. It enables remote data vaulting between the two geographically separate sites to enhance disaster tolerance and to eliminate the need to transport and manage cartridges off-site. What separates the Peer-to-Peer VTS from other vendors solutions is the system s unique ability to create a copy of the volumes at the subsystem level with zero impact on host resources. With this new implementation we are prepared now for the unexpected outage as well as the planned outage, such as maintenance. Johann Bauermeister Business Manager T-Systems South Africa

9 ance Because the VTS systems reside in two locations, operations can typically continue even if one of the facilities becomes nonoperational during planned maintenance, service or system upgrade. For unplanned outages like a disaster or component failure at one site, the PtP VTS can provide service from the second site within hours, depending on the availability of all required elements in the IT infrastructure. Achieve increased availability with GDPS If you have an objective of zero data loss and less than one hour application downtime (Tier 6), even in the case of a disaster, consider an approach that integrates the PtP VTS into an IBM Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex (GDPS ) environment. GDPS manages application availability in and across two or more sites to minimize downtime in the event of an outage. It builds on the functions and features of the IBM ^ zseries and includes other IBM storage and communications devices. GDPS supports continuous availability, efficient workload management, system resource management and prompt data recovery for business-critical zseries applications and data. GDPS uses automation software to switch sites quickly, managing the complete switch of all resources from one site to another as required during a planned or unplanned failover. GDPS also uses automation to manage databases, processors, network resources and storage subsystem mirroring. Between the sites, it automatically mirrors critical data and efficiently balances workload. GDPS can manage the PtP VTS so that it can benefit from GDPS monitoring and automation capabilities. This GDPS-managed VTS PtP configuration is an IBM Business Continuity Solution provided by IBM Global Services. Our emphasis on ensuring the integrity and availability of the securities data we receive and deliver led us to choose IBM. We needed a technology supplier who could develop and build a mirrored data center that supports our commitment to providing high-quality, uninterrupted service to our customers. Our ability to provide consistent, reliable service to our customers and their clients has always been a primary focus and is an important measure of Pershing s success. Brian T. Shea Chief Operating Officer Pershing A Credit Suisse First Boston Company

10 A Proven Tape System from the Data Storage IBM provides comprehensive, strategic storage solutions Behind the TotalStorage Virtual Tape Server is a proven track record of innovation. IBM has been providing leading-edge storage technology for over half a century, introducing the first tape drive in 1952 and the first disk drive in In 1997, IBM introduced the industry s first virtual tape solution, transforming tape management by leveraging the most advanced storage technologies available from IBM. Today, there are more IBM virtual tape systems installed throughout the world than those from any other vendor. With the VTS, you are backed by a full range of IBM products, services and integrated solutions. Protect your investments For long-term investment protection and growth, the VTS is built on an architecture that exploits modular hardware and software building blocks that can stand alone or fit together to create complete, integrated storage solutions. This unique architecture allows you to take almost immediate advantage of new or enhanced products once they become available. For example, since its introduction, VTS performance has improved by a factor of 30, and the capacity of the attached enterprise tape library by a factor of 6 upgrades that were readily available and achievable for original owners of the VTS. And for current VTS systems, new FICON capabilities can boost performance even higher. Moreover, the VTS can be easily shared among multiple zseries and heterogeneous open-systems servers. As a result, you can leverage your investment in a leading-edge tape technology and bring its benefits to all your systems. solutions

11 Leader Obtain complete storage solutions IBM storage products span the entire storage hierarchy, including a full range of tape, disk, optical and storage networking products, storage media and storage management software. IBM s storage technologies reduce the number of components in storage systems, leverage the power of software and pack more data onto smaller devices than ever before. Whatever your requirement, IBM can match it with a complete storage system that includes the hardware, the software and the support services to plan, implement and maintain it. Through IBM Global Services, you can receive comprehensive storage assistance, including planning and design as well as implementation and migration support. And to see how an IBM storage system interoperates with your existing IBM or non-ibm IT systems, you can go to an IBM TotalStorage Solution Center for a hands-on test drive IBM is the only company with interoperability centers around the world. IBM works with IBM Business Partners and other leading technology companies to develop end-to-end solutions that help fulfill your IT requirements. With IBM as your technology provider, you can take advantage of the new and emerging technologies that have become critical to business success.

12 Copyright IBM Corporation 2002 IBM Storage Systems Group 9000 S. Rita Road Tucson, AZ U.S.A. Produced in the United States 07/02 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, FICON, TotalStorage, ^, zseries, Geographically Dispersed Parallel Sysplex and GDPS are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. IBM hardware products are manufactured from new parts, or new and used parts. In some cases, the hardware product may not be new and may have been previously installed. Regardless, our warranty terms apply. Product data is accurate as of initial publication date and is subject to change without prior notice. This preview contains forward-looking statements. Actual functions that IBM may deliver and planned availability dates are subject to change. General availability, prices, offering information and terms and conditions will be provided when the product(s) is (are) announced. All information in these materials is subject to change without notice. ALL INFORMATION IS PROVIDED ON AN AS IS BASIS, WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. All performance data contained in this publication was obtained in a specific environment and is presented as an illustration. The results obtained in other operating environments may vary. The performance data contained herein was obtained in a controlled environment based on the use of specific data. Actual results that may be obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. These values do not constitute a guarantee of performance. G