Geoff,
I would like to answer both of your postings. I apologize for not
responding on your first inquiry, but I have been out of the office.
In regard to your first posting, I will attempt to provide an objective
comparison of Mainstar:MonitorPlus for Tivoli Storage Manager and Tivoli(r)
Decision Support for Storage Management Analysis. I should disclose that I
am the product architect for Mainstar: MonitorPlus.
Tivoli(r) Decision Support for Storage Management Analysis that provides
additional reporting and analysis to Tivoli Storage Manager installations.
Information is presented in a variety of text and graphical formats,
allowing a user to drill down to get details of a particular aspect of an
environment. Beginning in Tivoli Storage Manager 4.1, it is integrated into
the base Tivoli Storage Manager product. In order to use Tivoli(r) Decision
Support for Storage Management Analysis, you must also have Tivoli Decision
Support which is a separately orderable and chargeable product. It also
requires a separate relational database management system. Supported
databases are DB2, MS SQL, and Oracle.
Mainstar: MonitorPlus for Tivoli Storage Manager has three primary focuses.
First, MonitorPlus monitors the Tivoli Storage Manager server activity
log(s) for identified servers on a periodic basis and provides the ability
to alert defined contacts via email or pager. MonitorPlus has facilities to
exclude selected messages or to modify the severity associated with that
message. Second, it provides the ability to collect and access all of you
TSM related information from one source. Client option files and logs can
be collected by the MonitorPlus server so that they are readily available
and eliminate the need for you to have to log in to each server. Third, it
provides predefined reports that allow you to graphically to quickly review
server, client, tape media and contact information. Historical information
is kept to allow for trending of strategic data points. MonitorPlus is a
wholly contained product and does not require any additional chargeable
software or databases.
Here is how I view the positioning of both products. Tivoli(r) Decision
Support for Storage Management Analysis is a reporting and analysis product
that will provide you information in a non-realtime manner. If your primary
requirement is for analysis and capacity planning and you have or in the
position to purchase the additional required products, this product may work
well for you.
If you have requirements for "real-time" error identification and alerting,
are looking for the ability to access all of your TSM information from a
single source or are not in the position to acquire the additional
components for Tivoli(r) Decision Support for Storage Management Analysis,
Mainstar: MonitorPlus for Tivoli Storage Manager may be the right choice
for you.
In addition to being a software developer, Mainstar is also a Tivoli Storage
Management solution provider. I can envision scenarios, especially in
larger more complex environments where a customer may have a need for and
choose to use both products.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In regard to your second posting, I would suggest the following more
conservative policy options:
Versions Data Exists 9999
Versions Data Deleted 9999
Retain Extra Versions 2555
Retain Only Version 2555
These settings may seem excessive, but would provide the greatest protection
in meeting your objectives. This will insure that every revision of any
file that resides in the directories assigned to this management class will
be kept for 7 years. This would protect you from a scenario in which one of
the files was modified (either deliberately or by accident). In your
scenario, the original file would no longer be available for recovery in 60
days.
I hope that this was helpful.
DanC
==============================================================
Daniel G. Crouse
Tivoli Certified Consultant - Tivoli Storage Manager V3.7
Tivoli Certified Consultant - ADSM
IBM Certified Specialist - ADSM
Mainstar Software Corporation
Storage and Recovery Solutions
URL: www.mainstar.com
Email: Dan.Crouse AT mainstar DOT com
Voice: 888-459-2605
Fax: 770-682-7739
Find out how Mainstar: MonitorPlus for Tivoli Storage Manager
can help you manage your TSM installation at www.mainstar.com.
==============================================================
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 14:58:20 -0700
From: "Gill, Geoffrey L." <GEOFFREY.L.GILL AT SAIC DOT COM>
Subject: Repost
I posted both of these yesterday but saw no responses so I'm going to try
this again:
Is anyone using MonitorPlus?
Is anyone using Tivoli(r) Decision Support for Storage Management Analysis?
Is this software similar to MonitorPlus or something much different?
Opinions on both or other comparable software????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This may seem like a dumb question but I've got to ask it anyway. I'm
trying to decide if I need to perform "archives" of some data on certain
computers.
Some contracts require us to keep data up to 7 years. Unfortunately the
amount of data we've got makes it almost impossible to archive even once a
month. So here is the question: If I use the include option for those
specific directories where the data is, can I bind it to a management class
that has a 7 year retention period? If the file is deleted on the client
will it is in the ADSM database for 7 years as long as I specify retonly
2555?
Would this setup do the trick????
Versions Data Exists 3
Versions Data Deleted 1
Retain Extra Versions 60
Retain Only Version 2555
Has anyone verified, on a smaller scale probably, that this works well?
Thanks for the help....
> Geoff Gill
> NT Systems Support Engineer
> Computer Systems Group
> E-Mail: gillg AT saic DOT com
> Phone: (858) 826-4062
> Pager: (888) 997-9614
>
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