Tivoli Storage Manager for Sun Solaris Administrator's Guide


Planning for Server Storage

Businesses often back up data to a variety of storage devices ranging from high-performance disk devices to slower and less expensive tape devices. Administrators must balance the data availability requirements of users with the costs of storage devices.

This section discusses how to evaluate your current environment to determine the device classes and storage pools for your server storage.

Evaluating Your Storage Environment

Before configuring devices, evaluate the hardware available to the server.

  1. Determine the storage devices that are available to the server. For example, determine how many tape drives you have that you will allow the server to use.

    The server expects to have exclusive use of the drives defined to it. If another application tries to use a drive defined to the server while the server is running, some server functions may fail.

  2. Determine the TSM device type and class for each of the available devices. Group together similar devices and identify their device classes. For example, create separate categories for 4mm and 8mm devices.
    Note:For sequential access devices, categorize the type of removable media based on capacity. For example, standard length cartridge tapes and longer length cartridge tapes require different device classes.
  3. Determine how the mounting of volumes is accomplished for the devices:
  4. If you are considering storing data for one TSM server using the storage of another TSM server (SERVER device type), consider network bandwidth and network traffic. If your network resources constrain your environment, you may have problems using the SERVER device type efficiently.

    Also consider the storage resources available on the target server. Ensure that the target server has enough storage space and drives to handle the load from the source server.

  5. Determine the storage pools to set up, based on the devices you have and on user requirements. Gather users' requirements for data availability. Determine which data needs quick access and which does not.
  6. Be prepared to label removable media to be used by TSM. You may want to create a new labeling convention for TSM media so that you can distinguish them from media used for other purposes.

Mapping Devices to Device Classes

As an example of mapping devices to device classes, assume you have the following devices to use for server storage:

You can map storage devices to device classes as shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Mapping Storage Devices to Device Classes

Device Class Description
DISK Storage volumes that reside on the internal disk drive

TSM provides one DISK device class that is already defined. You do not need and cannot define another device class for disk storage.

8MM_CLASS Storage volumes that are 8mm tapes, used with the drives in the automated library
DLT_CLASS Storage volumes that are DLT tapes, used on the DLT drive

You must define any device classes that you need for your removable media devices such as tape drives. See Chapter 7, Defining Device Classes for information on defining device classes to support your physical storage environment.

Mapping Storage Pools to Device Classes and Devices

After you have categorized your storage devices, identify availability, space, and performance requirements for client data that is stored in server storage. These requirements help you determine where to store data for different groups of clients and different types of data. You can then create storage pools that are storage destinations for backed-up, archived, or space-managed files to match requirements.

For example, you determine that users in the business department have three requirements:

To match user requirements to storage devices, you define storage pools, device classes, and, for device types that require them, libraries and drives. To set up the storage hierarchy so that data migrates from the BACKUPPOOL to 8mm tapes, you specify BACKTAPE1 as the next storage pool for BACKUPPOOL. See Table 3.

Table 3. Mapping Storage Pools to Device Classes, Libraries, and Drives

Storage Pool Device Class Library (Hardware) Drives Volume Type Storage Destination
BACKUPPOOL DISK -- -- Storage volumes on the internal disk drive For a backup copy group for files requiring immediate access
BACKTAPE1 8MM_CLASS AUTO_8MM (Exabyte EXB-210) DRIVE01, DRIVE02 8mm tapes For overflow from the BACKUPPOOL and for archived data that is periodically accessed
BACKTAPE2 DLT_CLASS MANUAL_LIB (Manually mounted) DRIVE03 DLT tapes For backup copy groups for files that are occasionally accessed
Note:TSM has default disk storage pools named BACKUPPOOL, ARCHIVEPOOL, and SPACEMGPOOL. For more information, see Configuring Random Access Volumes on Disk Devices.

Configuring Devices

Before a device can be used by TSM, the device must be configured to the operating system as well as to TSM. Table 4 summarizes the TSM definitions that are required for different device types. For information on configuring devices, see the following sections:


Table 4. Required TSM Definitions for Storage Devices

Device Device Types Required TSM Definitions
Library Drive Device Class
Magnetic Disk DISK -- -- Yes 1
FILE -- -- Yes
Tape
3570
3590
4MM
8MM
CARTRIDGE 2
DLT
ECARTRIDGE 3
GENERICTAPE

Yes Yes Yes
Optical
OPTICAL
WORM

Yes Yes Yes
Removable Media (File System) REMOVABLEMEDIA Yes Yes Yes
Virtual volumes SERVER -- -- Yes

1
The DISK device class exists at installation and cannot be changed.

2
The CARTRIDGE device type is for IBM 3490 tape drives.

3
The ECARTRIDGE device type is for cartridge tape drives such as the StorageTek SD-3 and 9490 drives.

Library Types

For devices that use removable media, you must choose a library type when you configure the devices. TSM uses the library type to determine how volume mount operations are controlled on the drives in that library. The TSM library types are:

MANUAL
Volumes are mounted by an operator (a manual library)

SCSI
Volumes are mounted automatically (by robotics, for example)

349X
Volumes are mounted automatically within an IBM 3494 library

ACSLS
Volumes are mounted automatically within a tape library controlled by the StorageTek software called ACSLS.

EXTERNAL
Volumes are mounted under the control of an external media management system

SHARED
Volumes are mounted under the control of another TSM server that acts as the library manager for the drives on behalf of other TSM servers

MANUAL Libraries

In a MANUAL library, an operator mounts the volumes. Define a MANUAL library if you have one or more drives for which operators must mount volumes (drives that are not part of an automated library). You can combine drives with different device types, such as DLT and 8MM, in a single MANUAL library.

When the TSM server determines that a volume needs to be mounted in a drive that is part of a MANUAL library, the server issues mount request messages that prompt an operator to mount the volume. The server sends these messages to the server console and to administrative clients that were started by using the special mount mode or console mode parameter.

For help on configuring a MANUAL library, see Chapter 4, Using Removable Media Devices with Tivoli Storage Manager. For information on how to monitor mount messages for a MANUAL library, see Mount Operations for Manual Libraries.

SCSI Libraries

A SCSI library is a collection of drives for which volume mounts and demounts are handled automatically by a robot or other mechanism. This type applies to automated libraries that are attached via a SCSI interface (other than the IBM 3494). Some examples of SCSI libraries are:

When you define a SCSI library to the TSM server, you must specify the library device name. To mount and dismount a volume in a drive that resides in the SCSI library, TSM uses the library name.

For help on configuring a SCSI library, see Chapter 4, Using Removable Media Devices with Tivoli Storage Manager. For an example of how to add volumes to a SCSI library, see Label and Check In a Library Volume.

349X Libraries

A 349X library is a collection of drives in an IBM 3494 Tape Library Dataserver. Volume mounts and demounts are handled automatically by the automation in the library.

Note:For each 3494, you can define only one TSM library.

For help on configuring a 349X library, see Chapter 4, Using Removable Media Devices with Tivoli Storage Manager. For an example of how to add volumes to a 349X library, see Preparing Removable Media for Tivoli Storage Manager.

ACSLS Libraries

An ACSLS library is a collection of drives in an automated library that is controlled by the StorageTek software, Automated Cartridge System Library Software (ACSLS). TSM can act as a client application to the ACSLS software to use the drives.

External Libraries

An EXTERNAL library is a collection of drives managed by a media management system that is not part of TSM. TSM provides an interface that allows external media management systems to operate in conjunction with the TSM server. To use the interface for one or more devices, you must define a library with library type EXTERNAL.

For EXTERNAL libraries, TSM uses the external media management system to perform the following functions:

The external media manager selects the appropriate drive for media access operations. You do not define the drives in an EXTERNAL library to TSM.

When you issue the MOVE MEDIA or MOVE DRMEDIA command for media in EXTERNAL libraries, TSM uses the external media management system to perform the following functions:

The EXTERNAL library type allows flexibility in grouping drives into libraries and storage pools. An EXTERNAL library may be one drive, a collection of drives, or even a part of an automated library.

For a definition of the interface that TSM provides to the external media management system, see Appendix A, External Media Management Interface Description.

SHARED Libraries

A SHARED library is a collection of drives in a library that is attached via a storage area network (SAN). TSM servers can share the drives in the library. One TSM server acts as the library manager to control media mounts and other operations. Other servers that share the drives are called library clients. For details, see Configuring TSM Servers to Share SAN-Connected Devices.


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