The main controller of expiration processing is the thresholds established for a
pool.  If you look at the reclaim threshold for a pool, it will tell you at what
% of utilization (default is 60% - meaning that 60% of a volume is reclaimable,
or 40% is still valid data).  You can adjust these numbers if they don't meet
your needs.

I suspect, however, that changing these values will not help you long term.  In
my experience, there always seems to be a number of tapes that are "hanging"
around the threshold, so any relief you get might be temporary.  Of course, you
could turn off reclamation, by making the reclaim threshold 100%.  The down side
of this, however, is that you may have tapes with only a few files on them......

As you hav
e
discovered, the primary way that reclaims get kicked off is from the expire inve
tory command.  When you issue this command, you need to be aware of a couple of
things, though.  First, the expire process itself will run for a while, depen
ding on the size of your Data Base.  Are you sure the process has completed?
Secondly, the number of reclaim processes that can run at one time is also cont
rolled - the default is one process at a time (per pool).  A reclaim is done on
 tape by tape basis, so you might see a reclaim end, a pause, and then another
 start up.

Lastly, a
re
claim CAN be the result of some other delete processing - such as the deletion
 of a backup or archive file.  Do you let your customers have the authority to
 delete their own backup and archive files?  If you do, when they do so, it can
ause a reclaim to take place if the tape falls below a limit.

I find tha
t
reclaim processing goes on Long after my expiration has ended.  Foe example, I e
xpire my inventory once a week, the expiration runs about 9 hours, but the
reclaims go on somewhere around 15 hours (depends on the week, etc..).  I run
this process only on weekends.

Jerry Lawson
jlawson AT thehartford DOT com

______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: Reclamation Process - What kicks it off?
Author:  INTERNET.OWNERAD at SNADGATE
Date:    10/14/97 9:15 AM


Hi, fellow ADSMers!

I'm trying to serialize my dialy processing.  This involves expiring
inventory, flushing my disk storage pool to tape, database backups, etc.

After I expire my inventory, I check for any reclamation process that
might have been invoked.  Finding none, I continue with my processing.
Then, magically, a reclamation process may start!  This really screws up
my job stream.

What is it that tells ADSM to invoke reclamation?  How can I check for
 this?  How can I manually start a reclamaition?

Thanks in advance,
David Wilshire, Systems Administrator
LensCrafters, Inc.
dwilshir AT lenscrafters DOT com
"Knowledge Is Support"