Well, I just heard from the big guys... (IBM)

     Yeah, I had to open a problem...

     END RESULTS : ADSM DOES NOT ALTER FILE PERMISSIONS !

     APPROPRIATE ACTION : 1) reset files to "rw  r r"
                          2) change the root password (:-O

     In the mean time I had gone to my test environment, AIX 4.2 with ADSM
     2.1.5.12  (so it was radically different) and pumped a 3 GB backup to
     it, set the DB & LOG (turns out the logs were that way also) to
     "r r r" and pumped another 3 GB to it.  There was really no difference
     that I saw.  Then I set things back to "rw r r" and nothing blew up
     so...  production is now reset (and still running).

     Sorry to have to bother you'all with what turned out to be very
     trivial BUT I would have looked worse than 'possum road kill had I
     just flipped it back and things blew up!

     later
          Dwight