Archive data for 5 years for audit purposes

[Rouen]

Hi there

I've been asked to ARCHIVE data, to be kept for 5 years (minimum) for AUDIT PURPOSES.

I am sure I heard about a utility / add-on to TSM that caters for this. Is it true?

Must I make a special backup of the TSM DB to be able to restore this data for 5 years?
As I understand, the TSM DB will know exactly where this data is stored, even in 5 years time, so there shouldn't be a need for a special DB backup.

The TSM & Client versions will obviously change between now and 5 years time.
Will this pose a restore / retrieve problem in 5 years time?

Will TSM be around in 5 years time?

I am sure that there are others who have ventured this path already and I could do with some concrete / constructive advice.

Thanking you in advance,

Rouen M. Oostewahl

[moon-buddy]

With all of my my experience with the various versions of TSM - yes it will be around for a long time and IBM will find a way to be able for you and us to read older databases and/or help you migrate to a newer one.

There are installations out there, and my old company is no exception, that has archives way more than 7 years old. D/R tests done on these files still enabled TSM to recover the files.

[heada]

I have archive data from 1999 that I can (and have) restore lately. The TSM database has been upgraded from 3.1 to 3.7 to 4.1 to 5.1 and 5.2

Create a proper management class and archive the data you want to keep. As long as the media is good, the data will be there.

-Aaron