Experience with Networker

[Jack Trachtman]

We have multiple VMS systems and some fairly
large files to back up each night. I'm looking for other's experience using the latest version of Networker (V7.x?) and the VMS Storage Node client to see what their experiences are with the product (throughput, convienence, restore times, etc.) as we have to move off an older tape-management/robot management VMS-specific product. I tested the product a few years ago (befoe the Storage Node was available) and was very disappointed with throughtput and manageabilty (in the VMS environment). Thank you

[Anton van Ruitenbeek]

Jack,

Why using Networker ? Can't you use VMS-backup ?

AvR

[Jack Trachtman]

Anton,

We have multiple VMS hosts on a SAN with a shared MSL5026 tape library. We run multiple backups each night (presently using BACKUP & a tape-management product) but have a number of problems:

1) the tape robot software product we use is no longer supported

2) coordinating the use of the tape-drives among multiple hosts is difficult (see next)

3) our present tape-management system doesn't understand drive sharing and we have had jobs abort because of multiple hosts trying to access the same drives when one job runs longer than expected

4) we presently use Networker for our Unix/Windows environment and management would like to see a single tape-management systems used across all systems (for ease of training, DR, etc.)

I haven't looked into ABS or SLS, but these would not meet criteria #4 above.

[Jan van den Ende]

Jack,

"I haven't looked into ABS or SLS, but these would not meet criteria #4 above. "

They WOULD, however, meet your DR requirements a LOT better!

For those used to VMS Backup (which ABS & SLS are under the hood), your only problem is locating the corect tape, ans ABS & SLS are great helps even in THAT.

ANYthing else I ever came about has 'some more' complexity when you need to restore, and in the event of DR, that is what you need least of all!!

I agree with Anton.
But your hardest task of course will be convincing management...

Proost.

Have one on me.

Seasonal greetings to all!

Jan

[Jack Trachtman]

Jan,

I recently reread the ABS & SLS SPDs and it seems that they have no capabilities to work in a shared tape-drive environment (i.e. coordinating the use of the tape-drives between separate systems). Am I wrong about this?

I'm looking thought the EBS documentation now and it seems that this consists of 1) helpful SAN backup setup doc, and 2) a "shell" of some sort to use either Networker or Veritas. Any comments on EBS?

Thanks