Jerry,

this would turn TSM into "always full backup" destroying nearly all of its
benefits (and will not resolve the problem). I would recommend to both you
and Angelos to read the nice redbook "Tivoli Storage Management Concepts"
(SG24-4877-02 from http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/). This would allow to
understand TSM tape management policies as well as data retension
mechanism.

Angelos,

the answer to your question is not so simple but let me give you at least
two hints:
1. Expiration is not well tuned or does not run - check EXPINterval option
in dsmserv.opt, if 0 check for administrative schedule running "EXPIre
Inventory" command, verify aren't copygroups having too long expiration
and/or too many versions to be kept.
or
2. Your TSM installation is not well designed or sized - either business
demands are too high or the autoloader is not enough. Calculate the volume
of all data (both active and inactive copies) to be kept + TSM database
backups + (optional but highly recommended) all the data again (in copy
storage pool) + al least one scratch tape for reclamation + (optional) a
slot for the cleaning cartridge. If this is more than your library has and
the space for inactive copies cannot be reduced lowering the business
requirements go to the management and ask for larger library. Another great
redbook ("Getting Started with Tivoli Storage Manager: Implementation
Guide", SG24-5416-01) can help you there.


Zlatko Krastev
IT Consultant






"Slag, Jerry B." <jslag AT STATE.ND DOT US> on 27.12.2001 19:14:00
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:

Subject:        Re: Reusing Old Tapes

"delete vol xxxxxx discarddata=yes"
This will delete references to the data on a tape and return the tape to
scratch. I hope you are running full backups on a regular basis if you are
going to delete backups after less than 2 weeks. P.S. Check your versions
and retention settings too.