Hello all...

We're migrating our NetWare servers, currently backed up with ArcServe, to
W2K servers which will be backed up with TSM.  These NetWare servers
contain programs, users' home directories, and shared directories.

The existing NetWare server backup is a full backup every day, all to one
DLT tape.  The number of tapes in rotation provides for going about six
weeks, or 30 backups, before a tape is reused.  Also, at the end of each
month the tape is removed from the rotation and held for two years.

My challenge is to provide a reasonable level of backup availability with
TSM.  All I've backed up with TSM thus far are application servers where
users (other than administrators) don't have access.  We keep 7 versions on
those servers.

Our NetWare users sometimes ask for restores of files more than a year old,
and their requests have been fulfilled.  I'm struggling to come up with a
version scheme which will provide a similar level of service.

It seems a bit extreme, but my first thought is to keep 30 versions and do
a monthly backupset of the W2K file server.  But that 30 versions is having
a nasty effect on calculations of the resulting TSM database size.

What kind of versioning do you set for user files, shared documents, etc.,
which are, in my mind, more volatile than application server files because
users are involved?  Any examples of the model you use would be
appreciated.

Thanks... Ken