I hope I can also contribute somehow to the FAQ with few additions and
suggestions for correction.
01-08. What is the audience of the list?
A.: Many people related to ADSM/TSM/ITSM are actively participating on the
list - *SM administrators & users, *SM consultants & solution designers,
IBM/Tivoli developers & support people for both TSM and TDP, people from
Hardware (disk/tape storage) and Software (TSM add-ons, tools, etc.)
TSM-related vendors, IBM/Tivoli partners & competitors. All participate on
voluntary basis and no one is obliged to answer your post (look Question
02-03).
02-03. ...
+ Use subjects! Posts without subject or with non-descriptive subject
(like "Please Help!!!") have lower chance to get answered.
(Sorry, this actually is related to netiquette but many people will not
follow your links in 02-04 as do not read "how to unsubscribe" (IMO))
03-03. What means <some_unknown_to_me_TSM_term> ?
The whole ADSM/TSM/ITSM backup ideology from product creation is
completely different compared to other similar purpose products. Many
terms are TSM-specific and their explanation can be found in redbook
"Tivoli Storage Management Concepts" (SG24-4877-02). The book very quickly
and with enough detail can introduce you in the TSM world.
04-07. Latest stable versions are available at
http://www.tivoli.com/support/storage_mgr/adsercli.htm (I think it should be
better than
ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenance/
and you had a typo in "maintenenace" :). The latest possible versions which do
not undergo exhaustive testing
are available as patches and can be found at
ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/patches.
Client versions are installable and do not require previous version of the
client to be installed. TSM Server code and TSM for Applications (former
Tivoli Data Protection products) code are updates to already installed
base code. The latter is available on the media (CD) recived when the
correspoding product was purchased.
Zlatko Krastev
IT Consultant
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
cc:
Subject: Monthly FAQ posting
I've decided to create something that's been missing from the list.
I will be posting this FAQ on a monthly basis. There are a goodly number
of
questions and situations that crop up on a regular basis, and it would be
nice to have the answers gathered into one place. Hopefully, this will cut
down the number of repeated questions.
Naturally, I'm going to miss some questions that should appear. I would be
grateful for any requests to include additional material. (Please send
them
directly to me, rather than to the list; my address is at the bottom of
the
FAQ.)
updated
08/24/2002============================================================
QUESTIONS
01. About the list itself
01-01. How do I subscribe to ADSM-L?
01-02. How do I unsubscribe to ADSM-L?
01-03. Why don't I see my questions on this list?
01-04. How can I see my questions on the list?
01-05. Who decides what questions go on the list?
01-06. Is there a digest or archive of the list?
01-07. How do I get more information about the list?
02. Types of questions asked
02-01. What subjects are covered in this list?
02-02. What kinds of questions can be asked?
02-03. What kinds of questions can I expect answers to?
02-04. What levels of netiquette are expected?
03. Available ADSM/TSM/ITSM resources
03-01. What FAQs are already out there?
03-02. What other sources of help can I find?
04. Quick facts about questions asked on ADSM-L
04-01. Is it called ADSM, or TSM, or ITSM? What's the deal here?
04-02. What are backupsets? How can I use them?
04-03. How does TSM do full/incremental/differential backups, just like
my old backup software <fillintheblank> used to?
04-04. How do I unsubscribe to ADSM-L?
04-05. How do I do mailbox-level restores of Exchange using the Tivoli
Data
Protection Agent for Exchange?
04-06. How do I force TSM to do a full backup of a client?
04-07. Where can I download the latest version of TSM/TDP?
ANSWERS
01-01. Send an email to LISTSERV AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU with a blank subject line
and a message consisting only of the line SUBSCRIBE ADSM-L.
01-02. Send an email to LISTSERV AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU with a blank subject line
and a message consisting only of the line UNSUBSCRIBE ADSM-L. Do NOT try
to
unsubscribe by sending email to ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU. All that does is
annoy
the list members, and doesn't get you off the list.
01-03. That's the normal behavior of ADSM-L.
01-04. If you want to see your own questions, send an email to
LISTSERV AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU with a blank subject line and a message of the
line
SET ADSM-L REPRO.
01-05. The list members. There appears to be no active moderation of the
list. (No, that's not a license to abuse the list. Complaints from the
list
members do get listened to.)
01-06. Indeed. There is an indexed version of the mailing list at
http://adsm.org.
01-07. Send an email to LISTSERV AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU with a blank subject line
and a message consisting only of the line INFO. This will cause an email
to
be returned to you with a list of documents available about VM.MARIST.INFO
and instructions on how to get them.
02-01. Officially, only questions concerning the installation,
configuration, care, and feeding of ADSM/TSM/ITSM should appear. However,
since backup and recovery systems cover a wide range of IT and business
issues, there have been discussions about disaster recovery, tape and
other
storage systems, and other Tivoli products (such as Storage Network
Management and Decision Support). Keep it centered around TSM, and no one
fusses much.
02-02. You can ask pretty much any subject-related question you care to.
There's no guarantee you'll get an answer, though. Reposting an
already-asked question will sometimes get you an answer, but sometimes
it'll
get you nothing.
02-03. As with any other mailing list, the questions that lend themselves
to short, concise answers are the ones most likely to get answered. As an
example, you're much more likely to get an answer to "Does my new tape
library, model ZYX-666 made by Spelvin Corporation, work with TSM version
4.2?" than "I just got TSM. How do I use it?" Keep your questions focused
and narrow in scope.
02-04. The standard civility is expected. If you're unsure of netiquette
rules, go to http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html or
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/index.html.
03-01. There are a few (including this one), but the one that far
outshines
them all is Richard Sims' page at http://people.bu.edu/rbs/ADSM.QuickFacts.
It is organized by keyword, it is *exhaustive*, and it is updated
frequently. (Say, Richard, when are we going to see your shining face back
in the list?)
03-02. There are several sources of help for TSM problems.
--This list is a good resource, but, like most mailing lists, you must
separate the valid information from the invalid. The best way to do that
is
to read it frequently; you'll soon learn who hits the nail with the hammer
most often. Personal experience has shown that some of our brightest stars
are (but are not limited to)
--The same caution extends of course the ADSM-L online archive at
http://adsm.org. This archive is indexed and searchable, although personal
experience shows that the search function could use some work.
--Tivoli maintains extensive documentation on all TSM products. You can
find
Tivoli documents, in PDF and HTML format, at
http://www.tivoli.com/support/public/Prodman/public_manuals/td/TD_PROD_LIST.
html.
--Tivoli technical support, although not as fast to respond as in past
times, is still one of the best technical support lines in the market
today.
The number is 800.848.6548. You will need your customer number, which you
should have gotten when you purchased TSM, and the name of the 'official'
contact person designated when the order was placed; without both, they
will
not be able to help you.
--IBM maintains a documentation system they call Redbooks. Redbooks are
rather like O'Reilly's "missing manuals"; they contain information that
doesn't make it into the standard software manuals. There is a lot of good
TSM information in some of them. You can find redbooks in .PDF format at
http://redbooks.ibm.com.
04-01. The backup and restore software package we refer to today as
Tivoli
Storage Management was once known as Adstar Distributed Storage
Management;
the server was only available on IBM mainframes. IBM acquired the
software,
shortened the name of it to ADSM, and increased the number of OSs that
could
run the server. Later, Tivoli took over maintenance and changed the name
to
Tivoli Storage Management. The official name of the software is now IBM
Tivoli Storage Management (ITSM).
04-02. Backupsets are created from the latest (active) version of each
file
on a client's system. These files are copied from data already stored in
TSM
storage (disk, tape, or other media) to a single "file". Thus it is not
necessary to do an extra backup across your network to create a backupset.
Backupsets cannot be browsed like backups and archives; you can, however,
use wildcards to restore files, and you can look at the contents of a
backupset, provided you know the backupset's name, from Q
BACKUPSETCONTENTS.
04-03. You're not using your old backup software anymore. TSM uses a
backup/restore philosophy unlike other backup software. Once the initial
full backup of a client is finished, TSM then only backs up files that are
new or have modified. This sort of backup used to be called "incrementals
forever", but is more accurately described as "progressive backups". There
is not a way to perform differentials.
04-04. (This question is answered twice in this FAQ because it needs to
be.) Send an email to LISTSERV AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU with a blank subject line
and
a
message consisting only of the line UNSUBSCRIBE ADSM-L. Do NOT try to
unsubscribe by sending email to ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU. All that does is
annoy
the list members, and doesn't get you off the list.
04-05. Not in a straightforward way. Microsoft does not support
mailbox-level Exchange backups or restores. In a nutshell, the only way to
do mailbox-level restores is to restore the entire Exchange information
store and directory to a staging Exchange server, and then use the
Exchange
administative software to move the desired mailbox from the staging server
to the production server.
04-06. From the command line, run
dsmc selective <drive_letter>:\* -subdir=yes (Windows)
dsmc selective /<filespace>/* -subdir=yes (UNIX)
to backup the entire drive/filespace. From the GUI, press the BACKUP
button,
select the desired data to backup, use the pulldown menu to change from
"Incremental (complete)" to "Always backup", and press the "Backup"
button.
04-07. The latest full versions of TSM backup/archive clients are
available
from the ftp site
ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenenace
. You cannot download the (required) base level of TSM server code, but
you
*can* download the latest version of the server patches at the above ftp
address. Similarly, you cannot download the (required) base code for
Tivoli
Data Protection software, but you can download their patches at the above
ftp address.
--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
Certified TSM consultant
Certified AIX system engineer
MCSE
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