A few questions have arrisen about how long the data/backups/archives are
retained for nodes that go inactive.

1. If a node stops performing any backups or does not contact the TSM
server any more, what happens to its backups/archives?  Do the backups
continue to age/expire and roll off (with each Expire Inventory), except
for the ACTIVE copy?  Is this indefinite ?

2.  Do the archives age in the same fashion?, except only based on
date/time ?

3.  What if the management class is removed?  Does everything just drop
back to "standard" and thus purge everything faster, if the "standard" is
a lot shorter duration/retention/versions than the original?

4.  What if the node is exported to another TSM server and it does not
have a matching MC?  Back to "standard"?

5.  How about if a node is EXPORTed to tape and then 2-years later,
someone needs something from it and the original server is long gone and
the new server doesn't have any matching MC ?

6.  How about on an import and the target server does have a matching MC
but the values are different (e.g. 3-years vs 5-years) ?

7.  How about changing a node to a different, longer retention MC ?  Are
the existing backups/archives rebound to the new longer (or shorter) MC ?

Inquiring users want to know !

----------------------------------------------------
Zoltan Forray
Virginia Commonwealth University
Office of Technology Services
University Computing Center
e-mail: zforray AT vcu DOT edu
voice: 804-828-4807