This IBM® Redbooks® publication highlights TS7700 Virtualization Engine Release 3.1. It is intended for system architects who want to integrate their storage systems for smoother operation. The IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 offers a modular, scalable, and high-performing architecture for mainframe tape virtualization for the IBM System z® environment. It integrates 3592 Tape Drives, high-performance disks, and a new disk cache subsystem into a storage hierarchy. This storage hierarchy is managed by robust storage management firmware with extensive self-management capability. It includes the following advanced functions:

The TS7700 Virtualization Engine offers enhanced statistical reporting. It also includes a standards-based management interface for TS7700 Virtualization Engine management.

The new IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 Release 3.1 continues the next generation of TS7700 Virtualization Engine servers for System z tape:

These Virtualization Engines are based on IBM POWER7® technology. They offer improved performance for most System z tape workloads compared to the first generation of TS7700 Virtualization Engine servers.

TS7700 Virtualization Engine Release 3.1 builds on the existing capabilities of the TS7700 family. It also introduces the following capabilities:

This book contains valuable information about the TS7700 Virtualization Engine for anyone interested in this product. The following summary helps you understand the structure of this book and to decide which of the chapters are of the most interest.

In addition to the material in this book, other IBM publications are available to help you better understand the TS7700 Virtualization Engine. This information is part of this book.

If you have limited knowledge of the TS7700 Virtualization Engine, see the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 Customer Information Center:

If you have more knowledge, a series of technical documents and white papers describing many aspects of the TS7700 Virtualization Engine are available. Although the basics of the product are described in this book, more detailed descriptions are provided in these documents. For that reason, most of these detailed record descriptions are not in this book, although you are directed to the appropriate technical document. For these additional technical documents, go to IBM Techdocs and search for TS7700:

For a short description of all available technical documents, see “Technical documents on the IBM Techdocs website” on page 916.

Familiarize yourself with the contents of Chapter 1, “Introducing the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700” on page 3, Chapter 2, “Architecture, components, and functional characteristics” on page 13, and Chapter 3, “TS7700 usage considerations” on page 89. These chapters provide a functional description of all major features of the product, and they are a prerequisite for understanding the other chapters.

If you are planning for the TS7700 Virtualization Engine, see Chapter 4, “Preinstallation planning and sizing” on page 105. If you already have a TS7700 Virtualization Engine or even a 3494 Virtual Tape Server (VTS) installed, see Chapter 6, “Hardware configurations and upgrade considerations” on page 187. Chapter 5, “TS7700 implementation” on page 171 describes the hardware implementation.

Chapter 5, “TS7700 implementation” on page 171 describes the major software considerations for the TS7700 Virtualization Engine. For more information about software, see Chapter 4, “Preinstallation planning and sizing” on page 105, and Chapter 7, “Migration” on page 239.

Chapter 8, “Operation” on page 277 provides the operational aspects of the TS7700 Virtualization Engine. This information includes the layout of the Management Information windows to help with daily operational tasks.

If you have a special interest in the performance and monitoring tasks as part of your operational responsibilities, see Chapter 9, “Performance and monitoring” on page 589. Although this chapter gives a good overview, more information is available in the technical documents on the Techdocs website.

For availability and disaster recovery specialists, and those individuals who are involved in the planning and operation related to availability and disaster recovery, see Chapter 10, “Disaster recovery” on page 685.

In addition, the following appendixes conclude this book:

This book was produced by a team working at the International Technical Support Organization, Tucson Center.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

Norbert Schlumberger
IBM SO Delivery, Server Systems Operations

Felipe Barajas
Wayne Carlson
Erika Dawson
Lawrence M. (Larry) Fuss
Charles House
Katsuyoshi Katori
Harold Koeppel
Khanh Ly
Takeshi Nohta
Sam Smith
Joe Swingler
IBM System and Technology Group

Randy Hensley
IBM Sales and Distribution, Technical Sales Support

Thanks to the authors of the previous editions of this book.

Larry Coyne
Katja Denefleh
Joe Hew
Rex Newton
Aderson Pacini
David Reich
Chen Zhu

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