> know of no way to delete a single file out of a backup pool. Is there a way?

I have purged files by creating a management class (ZERO):

dsmadmc> qu copygroup standard active zero

Policy        Policy        Mgmt          Copy          Versions     Versions   
    Retain      Retain
Domain        Set Name      Class         Group             Data         Data   
     Extra        Only
Name                        Name          Name            Exists      Deleted   
  Versions     Version
---------     ---------     ---------     ---------     --------     --------   
  --------     -------
STANDARD      ACTIVE        ZERO          STANDARD             1            0   
         0           0
STANDARD      ACTIVE        ZERO          STANDARD             1            0   
         0           0


Using "query backup /path/ -inactive" on the client, then awk/sed/perl
to create a list of files to be expunged.

Create all those files --- just zero length stubs will do.  Change the
include-exclude file to bind the files to class ZERO.  Run an
incremental on them to rebind them.  Then deleted all the spurious
files.  Run another incremental with them gone so the *SM server sees
them as deleted.

As far as the client is concerned the files will not be available.
Their entries will be purged from the *SM database during the next
expiry inventory run.

Provided you do not roll your database back to the previous backup,
the files will be unrecoverable.


> Is there a way through the SQL interface?

Not really.  Using "query backup" on the client side will give you a
definitive list of the files held in the sensitive directories.



> And in the future is the best solution to this to bind these sensitive files 
> to
> a separate management class so that when the files need to be expunged all 
> that
> needs to be done is set the delete file retention to zero and let the users
> delete them?

This will work if all the files still exist.  For deleted files, they
will not be rebound and will still exist in the *SM server with their
original lifetime.  If someone is being "helpful" and deletes the
files before your *SM administrator changes the management class you
will have the same problem.


Russell