Hello Bob, 

A different look at your comment about channel attached tape support for Linux. 
I have not worked with Linux on Z, but I assume from you comment that Linux on 
Z supports fibre tape drives. 
If so then the fix to sharing tape drives between z/os and Linux on z should be 
doable with a small change. 
It turns out that the channel attached tapes drives are really open system 
fibre tape drives attached to an AIX box which translates the channel data 
stream to a scsi data stream. 
The solution to the sharing is to allow the aix box to share the tape drives 
with other open systems. 

The hard part would be to convince IBM that they should do it and that it 
should be a simple elegant (not fool proof) solution that does not cost two 
arms and a leg to purchase. 
I say this as I think at one time IBM offered a pc to set the time on the 
mainframe from a external reference source that was on the order of $25,000, 
when any *nix or pc system could just use the network. 


If you count IBM VM as a z system then there was a worm in the 80's. There was 
the xmas worm. It was passed in email which when the recipient ran the code put 
up a Christmas tree with blinking lights on the 3270 screen. It also sent a 
copy of itself to all the entries in the recipient's names file

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
bob molerio
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 12:59 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] Alternative to TSM

If you already have a mainframe in house I'd look into FDR.
It integrates easliy with DFSMS.The combination of FDR/Upstream and FDR on z/OS 
are a pretty tough combination to beat if you have z/OS FDR investment. You 
need both to get file-level dumps.I just find it idiotic that TSM doesn’t have 
any channel attached tape support on Linux — I mean, look at what’s already 
paid for in that environment. Buying new tape infrastructure that z/OS can’t 
even SEE, let alone use.


Thank you,     Bob Molerio
IBM System z™ - Used by 90% of Fortune 1000 Companies / Handling 70% of the 
World’s Corporate Data
 99.999% Availability / No Virus in 42 Years / Application Compatibility from 
1964 to Today