The IBM® Virtualization Engine TS7700 provides tape virtualization for the IBM System z® environment. The IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 offers improved performance and capacity to help lower the total cost of ownership for tape processing. It introduces a modular, scalable, and high-performing architecture for mainframe tape virtualization. The TS7700 Virtualization Engine is available as the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7740 R1.7, which brings significant enhancements over its previous release.

The TS7700 Virtualization Engine integrates the advanced performance, capacity, and data integrity design of the 3592 Tape Drives, the IBM industry-leading tape technology, with high-performance disks and an advanced IBM System p® server to form a storage hierarchy, managed by robust storage management firmware with extensive self-management capability. It includes functions, such as advanced policy management to control physical volume pooling, cache management, dual copy, dual copy across a Grid network, and copy mode control. The TS7700 Virtualization Engine offers enhanced statistical reporting and a single, standards-based management interface for TS7700 Virtualization Engine management.

This IBM Redbooks® publication covers the TS7740 Virtualization Engine Release 1.7 and the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7720, includes information about supported tape drives and libraries. and discusses tasks involved with planning, implementing, and operating the TS7700 Virtualization Engine, and also migration considerations.

Part 1. Architecture and planning

Chapter 1. Introducing the IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700

Chapter 2. Architecture, components, and functional characteristics

Chapter 3. Preinstallation planning and sizing

Part 2. Implementation and migration

Chapter 4. Hardware implementation

Chapter 5. Software implementation

Chapter 6. Upgrade considerations

Chapter 7. Migration scenarios

Part 3. Operation

Chapter 8. Operation

Chapter 9. Performance and monitoring

Chapter 10. Failover and disaster recovery scenarios

Appendix A. Feature codes

Appendix B. IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 implementation steps

Appendix C. TS3500 and TS7700 checklists

Appendix D. JES3 examples and information

Appendix E. IBM Virtualization Engine TS7700 statistical record format

Appendix F. Sample JCLs

Appendix G. Library Manager volume categories

Appendix H. DEVSERV QLIB command