This Frequently Asked Question list for the ADSM-L mailing list is
posted on the first day of each month. It was created to cut down on
the number of questions that are repeated regularly in the ADSM-L
mailing list from vm.marist.edu. I would be grateful for any requests to
include additional material. (Please send them directly to me, rather
than to the list.)
updated 4/1/2005
====================================================
Questions marked with $ are new or improved since the last posting.
QUESTIONS Sections 01, 02, and 03
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 the questions I post to ADSM-L?
01-04. How can I see the questions I post to ADSM-L?
01-05. Who decides what questions go on ADSM-L?
01-06. Is there a digest or archive of ADSM-L?
01-07. How do I get more information about ADSM-L?
01-08. Does IBM/Tivoli participate in ADSM-L?
01-09 How can I get just a digest of ADSM-L, instead of all the
postings?
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?
02-05. What's the first thing to do when I have a question about TSM?
02-06. What's the second thing to do when I have a question about TSM?
02-07. What's the third thing to do when I still have a question about
TSM?
02-08. What's the fourth thing to do when I STILL have a question
about TSM?
02-09. What's the fifth thing to do when I *STILL* have a question
about TSM?
02-10. What's the last thing to do when I *STILL* have a question
about TSM?
02-11. What are those "out of office" messages I keep seeing in the
list?
02-12. What's the single best thing I can do to improve the list?
02-13. Why don't I get answers to my "I need comparisons between TSM
and <brandX> backup software" questions?
02-14. What kinds of things shouldn't I post on ADSM-L?
02-15. Is there some sort of acronym list?
02-16. Whatever happened to Richard Sims?
03. Available TSM resources
03-01. What FAQs are already out there?
03-02. What other sources of help can I find?
03-03. How do I get "official" TSM support?
ANSWERS to section 01, 02, and 03
01-01. How do I subscribe to ADSM-L?
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. How do I unsubscribe to ADSM-L?
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 it doesn't get you unsubscribed.
01-03. Why don't I see the questions I post to ADSM-L?
That's the normal behavior of ADSM-L.
01-04. How can I see the questions I post to ADSM-L?
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 that
consists only of the line SET ADSM-L REPRO.
01-05. Who decides what questions go on ADSM-L?
The list members. There appears to be no active moderation of the list.
(That's not a license to abuse the list. Complaints from the list
members are heeded by the list administrator.)
01-06. Is there a digest or archive of ADSM-L?
Indeed. There are two indexed versions of the mailing list. The first is
at http://search.adsm.org; the other one is
http://www.mail-archive.com/adsm-l AT vm.marist DOT edu/. (Thanks, Richard!)
Personally, I prefer the latter; the former's indexing leaves a lot to
be desired, and its message threading is practically non-existent.
01-07. How do I get more information about ADSM-L?
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 the
listserver and instructions on how to get them.
01-08. Does IBM/Tivoli participate in or post to ADSM-L?
>From Andy Raibeck, of the TSM client development group: "This list
server is owned and operated by Marist College, and is not in any way
affiliated with IBM. While some IBMers do participate on ADSM-L, they
do so on an unofficial, voluntary basis, and thus are not *required* to
answer your questions. If you require an answer from IBM, or if your
situation is of an urgent nature, then you should (also) go through
IBM's official support channels for assistance."
01-09 How can I get just a digest of ADSM-L, instead of all the
postings?
(from Andy Raibeck) Send an email to: listserv AT vm.marist DOT edu
In the body of the email, put *only* the following:
info refcard
You do not need a subject line. You will get reference information back
from the list server that tells you, among other things, how to
configure your subscription to receive the daily digest.
02-01. What subjects are covered in this list?
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
Manager and Storage Resource Manager). Keep it centered around TSM, and
no one fusses much.
02-02. What kinds of questions can be asked?
You can ask pretty much any TSM-related question you care to. There's no
guarantee you'll get an answer, though. Reposting an already-asked
question (because of initial lack of response) will sometimes get you
an answer, but often it'll get you nothing.
02-03. What kinds of questions can I expect answers to?
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. (You can always ask more
questions later.) See answers to questions 02-05, 02-06, and 02-07.
02-04. What levels of netiquette are expected?
The standard civility is expected. If you're unsure of netiquette rules,
go to http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html and
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/index.html.
02-05. What's the first thing to do when I have a question about TSM?
Read this FAQ, particular section 4.
02-06. What's the second thing to do when I have a question about TSM?
The second thing to do is to go to Richard Sims' exhaustive TSM FAQ at
http://people.bu.edu/rbs/ADSM.QuickFacts. More about online FAQs in
answer 03-01.
02-07. What's the third thing to do when I still have a question about
TSM?
The third thing to do is to look for similar questions in the ADSM-L
archives found at http://search.adsm.org. Chances are that your
question has been asked before by someone else. Using the proper
keywords to find relevant responses is a bit of an art, but it is a rich
source of information.
02-08 What's the fourth thing to do when I STILL have a question
about TSM?
[Thanks to Taz for this one.]
Check the Knowledge Base. If you haven't registered before, go to:
http://www-120.ibm.com/software/support/ecare/login?action=register
You can then log into the knowledge base at:
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageM
anager.html
02-09. What's the fifth thing to do when I STILL have a question about
TSM?
Research the Administrator's Guide, the Administrator's Reference, the
client guides, or the relevant IBM Redbooks. Yeah, I know, it's not
easy reading. Search the .PDF version of the relevant manual (see
answer 03-02 for the download locations); the answer's probably in there
somewhere.
(last one, I promise)
02-10. What's the last thing to do when I *STILL* have a question
about TSM?
Post it to the list, and always include all key information.
Such information should always include server level (found in the top
banner of the login administrative web page), client level (from the
Help-->About TSM splash screen in the client GUI), TSM server OS and OS
level (include service pack/maintenance level data), an *exact*
description of the problem, an extract of the server activity log, and
the error messages verbatim. Please cut and paste text from messages;
this makes typos much less likely. Confusion reigns when you commit a
typo in your question; you'll get a flood of "you've misspelled your
command" answers, which is probably not what you're looking for.
02-11. What are those "out of office" messages I keep seeing in the
list?
Some email clients have a clever little feature that can be set to tell
those who send email to a recipient that the recipient will be out (and
will thus not be immediately responsive). Unfortunately, some people
don't know how to configure these clients not to send such messages to
mailing lists. What is most annoying about these messages is that they
can appear in multiple languages, which makes filtering them out a
frustrating task.
02-12. What's the single best thing everyone can do to improve the
list?
Trim your replies! Trim back what you quote from the previous poster to
the essential information only. Get rid of the greetings, the .sigs,
and the chatty stuff. (This measure alone could cut half the length of
a download.)
02-13. Why don't I get answers to my "I need comparisons between TSM
and <brandX> backup software" questions?
While there are occasional responses to these questions, they are
ignored for the most part. The ADSM-L list concerns itself with TSM
only. Most of the list members don't know <brandX> well enough to do
good comparisons; a lot of us don't care. There is one clue, however, to
what backup application to use: we see *lots* of sites/customers moving
from <brandX> to TSM; we see very few of them moving in the other
direction.
02-14. What kinds of things shouldn't I post on ADSM-L?
a. Questions about subjects other than TSM or TSM-related issues. There
are lots of mailing lists out there; start looking for the one you need
at http://www.lsoft.com/catalist.html.
b. Advertisements. (Testimonials are okay as long as they're
disinterested testimonials. IOW, if you are the chief architect for
spammo.com, don't sing the praises of Spammo.) Let your product speak
for itself.
c. "Send it to me, too!" responses. (There should be a special level of
Hell for people who do this.) For pity's sake, if you want something
from someone, email them directly. Please review the answer 02-04
above.
02-15. $Is there some sort of acronym list?
ADSM = Adstar Distributed Storage Manager
DR = disaster recovery
ITSM = IBM/Tivoli Storage Manager
TDP = Tivoli Data Protection
TSM = Tivoli Storage Manager
ITSMOR = IBM/Tivoli Storage Manager Operational Reporter
ISC = Integrated Solutions Center
WAD = working as designed
AFAIK = as far as I know
AFAIR = as far as I recall
02-16. Whatever happened to Richard Sims?
Richard is back! The gods of ADSM-L have smiled upon him again.
03-01. What FAQs are already out there?
There are a few (including this one), but the brightest star in the
firmament 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.
03-02. What other sources of help can I find?
There are several sources of valuable help for TSM problems.
1) The ADSM-L mailing list is a good resource; however, like most
mailing lists, you must separate the answers from those who know from
the answers of those who don't. The best way to do that is to read it
frequently; you'll soon learn who hits the nail with the hammer most
often.
2) The same caution extends the ADSM-L online archive at
http://search.adsm.org. This archive is indexed and searchable,
although personal experience shows that the search function could use
some work.
3) Tivoli maintains extensive official documentation on all TSM
products. You can find Tivoli documents, in PDF and HTML format, at
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/tividd/td/tdprodlist.html.
4) If it's a server command you're having problems with, run the command
with the word "help" (without the quotes) in front of it (such as HELP
UPDATE STGPOOL) at the administrative command-line. TSM will echo back
a help file with syntax, flag definitions, examples, and similar
command lists. Neat!
5) 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 telephone number is 800.848.6548. You will need your Tivoli
customer number, which you should have gotten when you purchased TSM,
and the name of the 'official' contact person designated when the order
for TSM was placed; without both, they will not be able to help you.
6) Check the Knowledge Base. If you haven't registered before, go to:
http://www-120.ibm.com/software/support/ecare/login?action=register
You can then log into the knowledge base at:
http://www-3.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageM
anager.html
7) IBM maintains a documentation system called Redbooks. Redbooks are
rather like O'Reilly Publishing'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://www.redbooks.ibm.com. WARNING:
Redbook information is not "official" IBM documentation, and official
support is not predicated upon them.
8) You can access a lot of information about TSM problems by going to
www.ibm.com, typing relevant text strings in the "Search" text box at
the top of the page, and pressing the "GO" button. This is a
particularly easy way to find relevant APAR information about fixes to
TSM code. (Tip o' the hat to Mr. Sims for this one.)
03-03. How do I get "official" TSM support?
As I understand it, those who buy TSM receive support and maintenance
from Tivoli for one year from date of purchase. After that, support
must be purchased. Contact your Tivoli reseller for details.
--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
IBM Certified Advanced Deployment Professional
Tivoli Storage Management Solutions 2005
Office 262.521.5627
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