Running out of Library Slots - Need an Archive Strategy?

[Slicster]

Hi Guys,
I've recently noticed that we're running out of space in our TS3310 library and I believe this is because of our current backup policies which in some cases retain data up to 5 years behind. As we do not have any Archive policies set yet, all the live data is kept in our Vault and in the Library. I'd like to be sure before I go ahead and start setting up Archive policies that this will actually help our situation by only storing older data in our Vault rather than in the library? I'd also like to know if there is a way to transfer existing older data from the backup policies to archive policies so that we can already free up some space? (Hope that makes sense?)

Nick.

[moon-buddy]

Yes - the archive will help since your retention for the Backup pool will not be 5 years anymore.

However, you cannot move backup to archive.

[Slicster]

Thanks moon-dubby! I will proceed with my Archive strategy.

Is there anything someone can recommend that would help free some space in our library?

[moon-buddy]

Thanks moon-dubby! I will proceed with my Archive strategy.

Is there anything someone can recommend that would help free some space in our library?

Is collocation turned ON? If it is, and you collocate by node, try collocating by group.

[Slicster]

Nevermind, I looked into it and it is off on all pools.

[tsmdumber]

Mind the databases size before going to archive!!

miillions of objects will grow the Database big time.

[nabildz]

if you are struggling with free library slots, you can always free up some slots by taking the oldest tapes which have not been using:

q media * stg=STGPOOLNAME days=XX

this will give you the list of tapes not used for XX days

then use

move media * stg=STGPOOLNAME days=XX

[Slicster]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "millions of objects will grow". ?

[moon-buddy]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "millions of objects will grow". ?

Doing archive generally grows the database size - that is what is meant by "millions of objects will grow" or, the database will grow by the corresponding number of objects archived.

[etchingsj]

You can also search for media that is marked full and only has 60% occupancy.

SELECT 'MARKER', volume_name stgpool_name,pct_utilized from volumes
WHERE PCT_UTILIZED < 10

will output something like :

MARKER VOLUME_NAME STGPOOL_NAME PCT_UTILIZED
---------- ------------------ ------------------
MARKER A40012 pool_name 8.1
MARKER A40015 pool_name 2.0

Then simply do a move media or move data and if like said below collocation by group is on TSM will attempt to reorganize the data into its proper group.
And build out your TS3310 with another E9U cabinet if possible or change your retention before its too late....

Here is a shell script to automate if you have a ton of tapes and are on a Unix based system.

Use the grep command to extract lines we want

grep 'MARKER'

gives

MARKER A40012
MARKER A40015

use cut to extract the tape volsers

cut -b 12-

gives

A40012
A40015

---------------------------
Script:

for volume in
$(dsmadmc -id=adminname -pass=adminpass -outfile
"select 'MARKER', volume_name from volumes
where pct_utilized >20 "
| grep '^MARKER' | cut -b 12-) ;
do dsmadmc -id=adminname -pass=adminpass -outfile
'move data ${volume} options..' ; done

------------------
Good luck!