Measured Results
VTA Performance
Several factors determine VTA’s performance in any environment. Below are actual results reported from a production installation, including the system profile and backup windows.
Environment Profile
| Mainframe | 9672 |
| Operating System | VSE/ESA v2.6 |
| DASD | Shark 100+ 3390-3 |
| Tape Manager | BIM EPIC |
| Primary Backup Software | Dr. D. |
| Real Tape | Virtual Tape Appliance (VTA) |
|---|---|
| 24 × 3490E w/ ACL, 2 ESCON channels | USI VTA, 128 virtual drives, 2 ESCON channels |
| ~10,000 cartridges on 10 racks | 2 TB SATA RAID |
| ~600 sq. ft. of raised floor space | 6U on a 19″ rack |
Nightly Backups
| 70 jobs, 24 partitions | 70 jobs, 32 partitions |
| Duration: 4.5 hours | Duration: 1.3 hours |
| 135 cartridges | 70 virtual tape files, 67 GB |
| Largest file: 30 cartridges | Largest file: 22 GB |
Weekly Backups
| 84 jobs, 24 partitions | 84 jobs, 32 partitions |
| Duration: 5.5 hours (incl. restore/reorgs) | Duration: 1 hour |
| 150 cartridges | 84 virtual tape files, 60 GB |
What Drives These Gains
- Fewer physical mounts and faster virtual mounts
- Higher concurrency with virtual drives
- Reduced operator handling and media logistics