Save Time and Data Backup with HP 3000 Network Backup

• 01/01/2000

As the 1990s have drawn to a close, HP 3000 users have found themselves frozen-out of the latest and the greatest in client-server backup and restore technologies. For example, LAN-based storage solutions like IBM’s ADSM —now Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) — offers nearly unattended management. By implementing the new MPE/iX client, users of Roadrunner for MPE can now backup multiple HP 3000 machines over a network to a centralized Tivoli Storage Manager server.

At the same time, network administrators can take advantage of Tivoli Storage Manager’s comprehensive scheduling and policy-based management capabilities to extend enterprise-wide archival policies to HP 3000 environments. Roc Software’s new client module, which is supported through its Roadrunner for MPE backup utility, is available with version 5.3 of the RoadRunner product.

HP 3000 users can take advantage of advanced TSM features such as volume set recovery and point-in-time restore. The MPE/iX client also enables HP 3000 systems to take advantage of the wide range of backup and archival devices supported by Tivoli Storage Manager, including automated tape libraries and other robotic devices. Using the MPE/iX client module for TSM in tandem with a company’s Roadrunner backup product, administrators can also define policies to automatically migrate, expire, duplicate or retain backup and archival information.

Donna Garverick, systems programmer and lead MPE administrator with Longs Drug Stores (Walnut Creek, Calif.; www.longs.com ) is currently evaluating the MPE/iX client module as a means to facilitate archival backup from several of her company’s HP 3000 systems. "We’re a multi-OS environment, we also have Unix, NT and MVS and these and all our other platforms use [Tivoli Storage Manager] to do their backup."

Garverick notes that the HP 3000’s lack of native support for automation creates additional problems in the backup process. "It’s labor intensive and it’s not very cost-effective because you’ve got operators mounting tape and you’ve got tapes to buy."

She says that the MPE/iX module for Roadrunner effectively solves this problem by providing near transparent interoperability with the Tivoli Storage Manager. "[TSM] gets this monkey off our back, so to speak. Our biggest MPE box has got 120GB hanging off of it. So, having the potential to backup over the network is very attractive."

According to Terry Tipton, storage development manager with Roc Software, "[Administrators] can incorporate HP 3000s into their overall enterprise backup and manage all of their data from under one package. Backup on the 3000 is different than in a lot of other environments because you’ve typically got separate devices, data. And you’ve got to manage the tapes manually because for the most part there’s not a lot of support for automation on the 3000."

Pricing varies by system configuration. For example, client software for a HP3000 Model 995/100, costs $3,450.