Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

[GLS400]

Hi All:

For a while now I've been reserching how to do an offsite encryption of our data files. I've looked at field level encryption, backup encryptions, sans solutions, nas solutions but nothing seemed to fit.

I stumbeled upon Virtual Tape. This feature is available at V5R4 (not sure about V5R3).

Basically this feature allows you to create a tape drive and tape image catalog. All of the tape commands (savlib, rstlib inztap.....) work on the virtual tape.

Now for the cool part.....

The tape image file can be ftp'd to the local network. The network crew already had tape encryption software.

We encrypted/decrypted/ftp'd to the I5 and restored without any problems at all.


Hope this helps someone else

GLS

[Billw]

Re: Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

Nice solution. I know several clients were always concerned with backup tape security.
Thnx GLS
Have a good day

[FreeParis]

Re: Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

Looks like you can save off the data in *ASCII or *EBCDIC

To get to virtual tape menu:

go imgclg 

see menu image attached

Task required
Create a virtual tape device
Vary on the tape device
Create the tape image dialog
Add virtual tape image to the tape image catalog
Load the image catalog in the virtual device

Create a virtual tape device
If you do not have a virtual tape device (type 63B0), then create one. Check your
devices through IBM^ iSeries Navigator by selecting Configuration and
Service → Hardware → Tape Devices → Stand-Alone Devices. Your devices

To view your tape devices from a 5250 emulation session, enter the following
command:
WRKDEVD DEVD(*TAP)
To the right of the device description name, there is a field called Type. If your
device description is Type 63B0, it means that it is a virtual device and you can
proceed to the next step.

Currently, you cannot create a virtual device through IBM^ iSeries
Navigator directly. However, from IBM^ iSeries Navigator, you can
change an existing device description to be a virtual device.

1. Select Configuration and Service → Hardware → Tape Devices →
Stand-Alone Devices, right-click your device description and select
Properties.
2. For Hardware resource, scroll the down arrow and select Generate virtual
resource.
3. Click the Options tab and ensure that Make available when system restarts
is checked, then click OK.

If using a 5250 emulation session, you can prompt on the Create Device
Description (Tape) (CRTDEVTAP) command and enter the values for the
parameters.
The DEVD parameter is the name of your device; RSRCNAME should be *VRT
for virtual; and ONLINE should be set to *YES. To create your virtual device, enter
the following command:
CRTDEVTAP DEVD(TAPVRT01) RSRCNAME(*VRT) ONLINE(*YES)


Vary on the tape device
Vary on your virtual tape device by selecting Configuration and Service →
Hardware → Tape Devices → Stand-Alone Devices, right-clicking your device
description, and selecting Make Available;

This seems to be important
*****Do not issue a Reset on a virtual device.*****

If using a 5250 emulation session, you can vary on your virtual tape device by
issuing the Vary Configuration (VRYCFG) command:
VRYCFG CFGOBJ(TAPVRT01) CFGTYPE(*DEV) STATUS(*ON)

Again: Important

*****Avoid using the VRYCFG command with STATUS(*RESET) for a
virtual device.*****

If you have already created a virtual device, but do not remember its name, issue
the following command and press Enter:
WRKDEVD DEVD(*TAP)
This brings up a list of all your tape devices.

In the Work with Device Descriptions window, select option 8=Work with Status,
and then select option 1=Vary On.
If your Assistance level is Basic, the option will be Make Available, which is the
same as Vary on. To change your assistance level, press F21 or Shift+F9 and
choose 2=Intermediate or 3=Advanced).

After you select option 1 to vary on and press Enter, the tape device should have
a status of VARIED ON or AVAILABLE.

Create the tape image catalog
From IBM^ iSeries Navigator, create an image catalog by selecting
Configuration and Service → Hardware → Tape Devices, right-clicking Tape
Image Catalogs, and selecting Create Image Catalog,

You will see a window where you should choose you Catalog name (opt for a
name that helps describes the volumes inside the image catalog, such as
Nightly).

Then type in a short Catalog description (use a description to better describe
what this catalog is used for, such as Nightly backup of Databases), and select
a Directory path in the IFS where you want your image catalog to store its
images.

Select Create directory if the directory does not exist already, and select an
appropriate Authority level.

Authority level specifies the authority you are giving users who do not have
specific authority for the object, who are not on an authorization list, and whose
group profile or supplemental group profiles do not have specific authority for the
object.

Following are the choices for Authority Level:
Exclude: This is the default Authority Level. The user cannot access the
image catalog unless the user:
– Has *ALLOBJ special authority
– Is the owner of the object
– Is granted authority later
Library create: The authority for the object is the same as the create authority
for QUSRSYS. The create authority for QUSRSYS can be displayed by using
the Display Library Description (DSPLIBD) command.
If the create authority for QUSRSYS is set to *SYSVAL, then display the
QCRTAUT system value. If the create authority is changed with the Change
Library (CHGLIB) command, the new authority does not affect existing
objects.

Change: The user can perform all operations on the object except those
limited to the owner or controlled by object existence authority and object
management authority. The user can change and perform basic functions on
the object. Change authority provides object operational authority and all data
authority. If the object is an authorization list, the user cannot add, change, or
remove user IDs.

All: The user can perform all operations except those limited to the owner or
controlled by authorization list management authority. The user can control
the object's existence, specify the security for the object, change the object,
and perform basic functions on the object. The user also can change
ownership of the image catalog.

Use: The user can perform basic operations on the image catalog, such as
displaying properties. However, the user cannot change the image catalog,
and Use authority provides object operational authority, read authority, and
execute authority.

Name: Specify the name of an authorization list to be used for granting
authority to the object. Users included in the authorization list are granted
authority to the object, as specified in the list. The authorization list must exist
when the object is created.

In the example provided here, *EXCLUDE was selected for Authority Level. This
means that no user can access the object or see the image catalog, if working
with image catalogs, unless they have specific authority to the image catalog or
*ALLOBJ special authority.

Note: The directory or subdirectories do not have to exist prior to selecting
Create directory. V5R4M0 and above have the capability to create the entire
directory path.

To create a tape image catalog from a 5250 emulation session, enter the
following command:

CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(NIGHTLY) DIR('/images/tape/nightly') TYPE(*TAP) TEXT('Nightly
backup of Databases') 

In this command, NIGHTLY is the name of the image catalog,

/images/tape/nightly is the IFS directory for the image catalog to place its
images, ‘Nightly backup of Databases’ is a short description of the image
catalog. You can also change the Authority Level (AUT) default value of
*EXCLUDE.

[big]Add the virtual tape image to the tape image catalog[/big]
Add the virtual tape volume by performing the following tasks:
Create a new virtual tape volume
Add an existing virtual tape file

Create a new virtual tape volume

To create a new virtual tape volume through IBM^ iSeries Navigator,
select Configuration and Service → Hardware → Tape Devices, right-click
Tape Image Catalogs, then right-click the image catalog and select Add
Volume. The window that appears will have two tabs: General and Optional.

The General tab contains the following parameters:

The From tape image file (FROMFILE) should have New Image selected.
This tells the system to create a new virtual tape file and add it to the image
catalog. The image file will be created in the same directory path as the
image catalog.

The To tape image file (TOFILE) option allows you to specify a unique name
for the tape image file that will be created in the Image Catalog’s directory.
(This is not to be mistaken with a volume name.)

You can also specify a Volume Index (IMGVOLIDX), which is similar to the slot
position in a physical tape cartridge loader. The Volume Index is the position
where the virtual volume is positioned in the image catalog. Image catalogs
have a maximum of 256 indexes per image catalog.
The Volume Index parameter has a default of First Available, which
automatically assigns the lowest index number that is not already being used.

Replace volume if index already exists (REPLACE) specifies the action to
take if a volume with the same index number as that specified in the Volume
Index field already exists in the tape image catalog. The default value for
Volume Index is No.
The values are described here:
- Yes: This specifies that the existing image volume will be replaced.

- No: This specifies that the existing volume will not be replaced and an error
message will be issued.

- Insert: This specifies that the volume will be added or inserted if an existing
index number already exists. If the image volume is inserted, the remaining
volumes will be incremented by one up to the next available index number.
Volume size in MB (IMGSIZ) specifies the size of the new image file that is to
be created. For tape type image catalogs, this parameter indicates the
maximum size allowed for this tape image file.
If Allocate Storage ALCSTG(*MIN) is specified, only the amount of storage
required to initialize the image file will be allocated (4 k) until the volume is
auto-initialized the first time it is mounted. As data is written to the volume,
additional storage is allocated as needed until the specified maximum volume
size is reached.
If Allocate Storage ALCSTG(*IMGSIZ) is specified, the amount of storage
allocated will be the value specified on the Volume size (IMGSIZ) parameter.

The Options tab has the following parameters:
Volume name (VOLNAM): This specifies the volume name for this virtual tape
volume. You can enter your own volume name or use the special value of
*GEN, which means the volume name will be generated by the system.
Allocate storage (ALCSTG) specifies whether to allocate the entire amount of
storage specified on the Image size (IMGSIZ) parameter, for the tape image
files. This parameter is only allowed for Tape Type image catalogs (it is not
allowed for Reference or Dependent Image catalogs).

- *MIN: This specifies changing the storage allocation to match the storage
required to contain the existing image file data. If performing a save, the
image file size is increased dynamically.
However, the image file size will no longer increase once the system reaches
5% or 5 GB storage remaining, whichever is less. This value is not valid for
dependent catalogs or catalog shadowing.

- IMGSIZ: This specifies changing the storage allocation to match the entire
size of storage for a given image file. This is the value specified on the image
size (IMGSIZ) parameter of the ADDIMGCLGE command.

Volume type (VOLTYP): This specifies the type of volume for this virtual tape
volume.
- *SL: This specifies the that type of volume is a standard labeled tape
volume.
- *NL: This specifies that the type of volume is a non-labeled tape volume.

Tape density (DENSITY): This specifies the density for this virtual tape
volume.
- *VRT256K: The format of the volume is *VRT256K. It is used to write data to
a virtual volume using a maximum data block size of 256 KB. Volumes written
using this format can only be duplicated to tape devices that support a
maximum block size of 256 KB or greater.

- *VRT240K: The format of the volume is *VRT240K. It is used to write data to
a virtual volume using a maximum data block size of 240 KB. Volumes written
using this format can only be duplicated to tape devices that support a
maximum block size of 240 KB or greater.

- *VRT64K: The format of the volume is *VRT64K. It is used to write data to a
virtual volume using a maximum data block size of 64 KB. Volumes written
using this format can only be duplicated to tape devices that support a
maximum block size of 64 KB or greater.

- *VRT32K: The format of the volume is *VRT32K. It is used to write data to a
virtual volume using a maximum data block size of 32 KB. Volumes written
using this format can be duplicated to all supported tape devices.

Character code (CODE): This specifies the character code in which the
volume label is written. All data that is not save data written
after the label must be in the same code. Codes cannot be
intermixed on a tape that is not a save tape. This parameter
is only used for a volume type of *SL.

- *EBCDIC: The volume label is written in EBCDIC and is an IBM standard
label. All additional data must also be written in EBCDIC.

- *ASCII: The volume label is written in ASCII and is an ANSI standard label.
All additional data must also be written in ASCII.


New owner (NEWOWNID): This specifies the identifier of the tape owner for
this virtual tape volume. This parameter is only used
for a volume type of *SL.

- *BLANK: No identifier will be specified.

- name: Specify no more than 14 characters that identify the owner of the
virtual tape volume. If fewer than 14 characters are specified,
the field is left-justified and padded on the right with blanks.

You can add enough volumes to your image catalog, as needed, for your
backup. However, if your backup runs out of available volumes, additional
volumes can be created on the fly.

To add a new volume through a 5250 emulation session, enter the following
command:

ADDIMGCLGE IMGCLG(Nightly) FROMFILE(*NEW) TOFILE(vol001) VOLNAME(VOL1001)
TEXT('Sunday nightly backups Vol001') VOLNAM(VOL001) DENSITY(*VRT256K) 

More detail can be found here

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg247164.pdf

[gcraill]

Re: Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

Hi All:
I stumbeled upon Virtual Tape. This feature is available at V5R4 (not sure about V5R3).

GLS

Yep - available at V5R3.

? - Can the virtual device and associated IFS structure be on a remote system ?
? - Does BRMS support virtual devices ?
? - If so can you save to parallel virtual devices ?
? - And also if so can you save to a mix of virtual and real devices ?
? - What is the speed like saving to this as opposed to saving to physical tape ?

I will try to look at this later if I get time ... but if anyone already has answers would appreciate a heads up on them.

GC

[Pete]

Re: Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=nas1a370fba852b0d20f862571240067973e

Just started using this last month. Still trying to figure it out myself. Seems cool though, if you have the disk.

Pete

[GLS400]

Re: Virtual Tape...I thought this was cool

Hi GC:

? - Can the virtual device and associated IFS structure be on a remote system ?
? - Does BRMS support virtual devices ?
? - If so can you save to parallel virtual devices ?
? - And also if so can you save to a mix of virtual and real devices ?
? - What is the speed like saving to this as opposed to saving to physical tape ?

There is a large section in this redbook on brms.
The virtual device is an extra device not a replacement device
The speed of the backup itself is about the same as tape but you save time because tape streaming in not done

Don't know the answers to the rest of your questions but can probably be found here:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247164.html

<edit>by the way pete is right this does suck up disk space</edit>