Hi Brenda,

I'm not certain what the thrust of your question is. If you mean, "can TSM
read the tapes", the answer is "no", at least not unless you restore the
database to a point in time where those tapes were known to the server.

If the server database is completely destroyed and you have no backups,
then TSM cannot read the tapes. You would need to contact IBM technical
support for assistance with rescuing the data from the tapes; that process
is outside the scope of what is formally supported, and requires a special
contract and fees beyond the standard support contract (with no guarantee
of success).

On the other hand, if you are asking whether someone could use some kind
of other tool to read the tapes and get data off of them... the answer is
"yes", though we do not document any process for doing this. TSM does
nothing to overwrite, erase, or otherwise protect the data on the tapes,
so it's still there. You can search the ADSM-L archives using criteria

   raibeck tape security

for prior discussion along these lines. See
http://msgs.adsm.org/cgi-bin/get/adsm0502/323/3.html for a specific post
that discusses this in some detail.

Regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager support web page:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManager.html

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.

"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 2006-05-31
13:32:37:

> Does anyone know whether data can be read from tapes that are expired
and
> brought back from off-site?  Is there any documentation stating how this
> data is protected?
>
>
> Brenda Collins
> Storage Management
> IBM Global Services
>
> Phone: 763-390-5627
> E-Mail: collinbr AT us.ibm DOT com