==> On Fri, 8 Jul 2005 23:01:26 -0500, Tab Trepagnier <Tab.Trepagnier AT 
LAITRAM DOT COM> said:


> Thanks.  That much I understand.  What I don't understand is "what does one
> DO with an image backup?"  The manuals are crystal clear on how to create an
> image backup, but very vague on how to use them after they've been created.

> In other words, lets say I'm recoverying my TSM system somewhere else and I
> have a/some DB image backups available.  HOW do I recover using one/them?

The procedure is identical to a DB restore from other media; to wit, you do a
dsmserv restore db, naming the volumes.

In this case, the volumes happen to be paths to disk files.



I'll take this opportunity to refer again to backing up TSM databases to
another TSM instance.  If you have a small TSM instance which mostly holds TSM
DB backups, you can refer to it easily from your DR site with just the
DEVCONFIG and VOLHISTs.

I had occasion to test this just today on my 'TEST' TSM server:

I took down the running server (the 'production' test server?  My brain hurts)
and copied the DSM_DIR that had the devconfig and volhist, dsmserv.opt,
etc. over to a new box.

Format the DB and log volumes, set the environment variables so that the
dsmserv process can find the optfiles, and then

DSMSERV restore database tod=today tot=now

Hey presto, it contacted the remote TSM server whence the DB backups were
stored, and the DB came back.

Total turnaround time measured in minutes, most time spent spinning tapes.




So, for your case you could have a TSM server at your DR site to which you
habitually send your DB backups, and you could habitually copy VOLHIST and
DEVCONFIG and so on to the system images where you'd do DR in-the-event-of.

And if you've got a test TSM instance, you could even practice the process on
a regular basis.  Whee!


Additionally, if you backup your TSM DB to another TSM server, you can do all
the nice copy stgpools, stack volumes, and other fun games that are otherwise
impossible to do with DBBACKUP volumes.



Oh, good luck there in LA.  Prayers are with you.


- Allen S. Rout