Hi ADSMers,
over the last months I've read through a few threads concerning the need
of doing point-in-time-restores with ADSM.
We have the same requirement to restore a file structure in a way as if
a fulldump had been made on a fixed date.

At the moment I don't know of a possibility to make ADSM (NT-Client)
perform exactly this task.
When you use the option -TODATE, you don't get files that were changed
or deleted after the "todate", as they are not active on restore date.
When you add the option -INACTIVE or -LATEST, you do get the missing
files, but also those deleted before the "todate". In case you have a
small directory with less than 100 files the user may select the files
he needs, but forget about trying to restore a structure with a few
thousand files with this method
When you add the option -FROMDATE, you can be a lucky winner, when the
lost structure is not a historically grown one. There are cases where it
seems to work, but we also found some, where you won't get what you
needed.

As all information that is necessary to determine which files to restore
is in ADSM's database, there should be a possibility to do this kind of
restore, so it depends on IBMs developers...

The most prefered solution would be a command or option in the dsmc
client. For best case ADSM should print out warning messages when a file
is not available in the required version and a newer one gets restored.

As this option does not seem to be available right now we have to find a
workaround solution. I'd like to put the following thoughts into
discussion:

-> I don't know how to access and process the ADSM database directly,
but I probably can analyse the dsmsched.log file of the server to keep
but I probably can analyse the dsmsched.log file of the server to keep
track of the changes in the database. Does someone have experiences in
creating a list of files for a point-in-time-restore using this method
yet?
-> Another way - with some overhead - to get a list: I could run a "dir
/s >date.dir" or a similar tool every time we do a backup. To restore I
/s >date.dir" or a similar tool every time we do a backup. To restore I
create a restore list from the dir output and selectively bring back
only the files contained in the list. Someone tried this?
-> Can I make dsmc restore only files from a list provided in a file?
When I create a restore command for every file, the complete restore
When I create a restore command for every file, the complete restore
will take a veeery looong time. If I can't use a file as input, how
about restoring first, using the option "-todate=... -inactive", which
means getting lots of unneeded files. Then I could set up a copy batch
to select only the needed files. I copy them into a new structure and
hope for happy users... Someone tried this?

Are there other workaround solutions, that I did not cover?

Greetings from Munich,
Michael Bartl
--
Michael H. Bartl, ADAC e.V. (IDL/PPO)
Michael H. Bartl, ADAC e.V. (IDL/PPO)
Tel.: (089) 7676-4063, Fax: (089) 7676-8161
EMail: Michael.Bartl AT Zentrale.ADAC DOT de