Mainframe Appliance for Storage (MAS) is a virtual tape controller for IBM System/390 compatible and Unisys 2200 mainframes, which uses open-system storage devices to store and retrieve mainframe tape data sets.
The MAS uses two FICON or ESCON adapters to connect to System/390. Each adapter can emulate up to 256 IBM 3480/3490/3590 tapes drives. Jobs/tasks running under z/OS, OS/390, or VSE can allocate tape volumes on emulated tape drives in the same fashion they would allocate a real tape drive. Tape management systems operate transparently with MAS to control tape volume allocation and expiration just as with real tape volumes. The MAS also supports IDRC compression, AES 256 FIPS 140-2 encryption, tape import/export and 3590 large block support.
The MAS stores tape data received from the Mainframe on externally attached disk sub-systems. These can be NAS devices attached via gigabit Ethernet, a SAN environment via fibre channel or direct attached storage via ultraSCSI. The MAS can support a dedicated storage sub-system or a segment of a larger disk subsystem such as IBM's Enterprise Storage Server (Shark) or EMC's Symmetrix.
The MAS is a 2U (3.5inch) high rack mount controller designed for high reliability and redundancy. The unit features hot swappable power supplies and fans and internal, mirrored disks, which house the MAS embedded Linux operating system and virtual tape software.
The latest release of the MAS offers a number of new features; 3590 large block tape protocol, tape ejection and AES-256 FIPS 140-2 encryption. Other features have been added to enhance availability and performance: Alternate Pathing provides load-balancing and automatic failover between the two FICON or ESCON adapters, IDRC initiated compression reduces the amount of storage required for your virtual tape library.
