Kevin:  This is what we were just talking about.  My thinking is like
     Trevor's.  I will research this in manuals I don't have right now and
     also track this on the list server.

     Jim:   got to borrow your ADSM admin manual to research these issues.
     We are looking for the minimum retention on each version regardless of
     the number of verstions for Bobby Burrow and Michael Grecko for
     Autocad drawings.  They want to be able to go back a given amount of
     time no matter how many times the file has changed.  Do you have the
     manual that talks about management classes opions or should I go to
     Annette?  tks.  erl


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Backup File Versioning
Author:  "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> at IPNET
Date:    2/26/97 6:37 PM


Trevor Foley
27/02/97 11:17
From:
On:

Hi,

Am I missing something here. I have my backup copygroup set to VERExist=9
RETExtra=38. According to what I have read here, and my understanding of
what is in the documentation, at least 3 versions of each file should be
retained, and all versions backed up in the last 38 days should be
retained. Is my understanding correct?

Because what I am seeing on my machine doesn't tie up with that. My ADSM
server is AIX, ADSM version 2.1.5.12 and the client that I am looking at at
the moment is WindowsNT, version 2.1.0.6. If I look at all versions of a
file that I know gets backed up every day (dsmsched.log as an example), I
only see 3 versions, one active and 2 inactive. These have modification
dates of the last 3 nights, as I would expect. But what happened to all of
the other versions of the files that were backed up over the last 38 days?


regards,

Trevor





araibeck @ VNET.IBM.COM
26/02/97 23:18


Please respond to ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU

To:   ADSM-L @ VM.MARIST.EDU
cc:    (bcc: Trevor Foley)
Subject:  Re: Backup File Versioning




> > Can ADSM do the following for us!
> >       1. backup changed user files up to 10 Versions
> >          keep the versions up to 30 days
> Yes, define in the copygroup definition VERExist=10 and RETExtra=30

It is important to note that the RETExtra "clock" for a particular backup
version does not start ticking until the next backup version is created.
That is, if you back up a file on January 15, 1997, but don't back it up
again until March 1, 1997, the first backup version (created on January 15)
is eligible for expiration on March 31 (30 days after the March 1 backup
version was taken).

> >       2. if user file doesn't change keep the last two backup
> >          versions ?
> I don't think so, as far as I know only the active copy (most recent
> backup) is retained permanently, all other backup versions expire
> according to the RETExtra parameter value. Maybe Archiving can be
> used for this? We don't use Archiving so I can't fill you in on this.
> Maybe someone else can?

You can set VERExists=2 and RETExtra=NOLIMIT. These settings will cause two
versions to be kept: the ACTIVE (i.e. most recent) backup version and the
next-most recent backup version. The ACTIVE version is kept indefinitely as
long as the file exists on the client. The RETExtra=NOLIMIT setting will
cause the next-most recent copy to also be kept indefinitely (until the
next backup version is created, in which case it is expired due to the
VERExists setting).

Andy Raibeck
ADSM Level 2 Support