ADSM-L

Re: Archiving

2001-01-16 11:44:35
Subject: Re: Archiving
From: "Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:46:12 -0500
THIRTY YEARS is a LOOOONG time.

One nice thing about archiving with TSM is that the TSM server makes it very
easy to rotate your media, make extra copies for vault storage (copy pools),
or just move the data to new media at any point.  So you can easily avoid
the probems associated with aging/obsolete media.

However, as much as I like the product, I might think twice about archiving
with it for THIRTY YEARS.  One disadvantage I see is that the ONLY thing
that can retrieve the archived data is the TSM client, and you have to
retrieve UNIX data to UNIX machines, and NT data to Wintel-type machines.

Assuming Tivoli/TSM are viable for the next 30 years, do you want to count
on your company having the same platforms and running the client code for
the next 30 years?

Another problem with TSM archiving is that the data is indexed/tied to the
host that archived it.  It's a real pain to deal with that when you go
through a server consolidation where multiple machines get merged into one.
Your archives are still split up and tied to the old host names (been there
done that one already.)

If I had your requirement, I think I would at least take a look around to
see if there is something that would leave the data in a form that would
provide an easier means to see what is archived, without the data being tied
so tightly to the machine that archived it originally and that machine's
directory structure.  And if possible, to leave the data machine readable
directly by multiple pieces of software, without depending on the specific
TSM client code.  Such a thing may not exist, but I would at least THINK
about it.

Or at the very least, make sure all your long-term archives are done by ONE
host.





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