Hi Ben,

we faced a simular problem to you, How to backup lots of little files
without killing the TSM Server.

we wrote a script to "tar up" all of the little files to a few large files
this saves the TSM database and the time to backup and restore the files.

we went from backing up 27,000 files which used to run for 2H 10M
to backing up 381 files that takes around 40M.

This solution may work for you depending on the type of hardware used to
control the manufacturing machines.

I wish you well in your problem resolution.


> Regards
>
> Stephen Mackereth
> Senior UNIX Consultant / Senior Storage Administrator (TSM)
> ITS Unix Systems Support
> Coles Myer Ltd.