We run Tivoli 4.2 on AIX (4.3.3) with a primary emphasis on backing up
Informix databases using the Informix TDP.  We defined a "database"
management class for the database backups, with "retain extra versions" set
to 30 days.  All database servers (13) go to this same class.  This has
always proved quite adequate, as the requirement has been to provide
recovery capabilities, not archive historical copies of the data.

We now have a Law Enforcement organization interested in some "unusual
activities" that occurred in one of sixty databases that resides on one of
the servers.  The "request" they placed was to retain the oldest copy that
we had of this database until they were through with their investigation.

Restoring the database to a different server is not as simple an option as
it first might seem.  With an Informix database backup, you are backing up
the entire OLTP environment, not just a single database.  This entire
environment would need to be restored to a different server and as luck
would have it, the server in question happens to be the biggest and no other
server could handle the restore (space wise).  Saving the current
environment, restoring from the backup, extracting the database in question,
and then restoring the current environment I've estimated to take twelve
hours.  While it might be the only option, it's not a popular one.

To prevent the expiration I set retention to 365 days on the management
class.  That will hopefully provide the opportunity to sort things out.  The
problem now is that without expiring versions, I'm not recycling tapes (as
expected) and buying additional tapes during a budget crisis is a difficult
and long process.

Here's the questions:

Since I know what tapes (2) the current backup is located on, is there a way
to "freeze" those tapes so that the files contained on the tapes do not
expire?

If I set up a new management class for this one server, can I force existing
files from this server into this class?