My background is in MVS/DFHSM storage management.
Now I am the ADSM administrator for 3 AIX ADSM servers on 3 networks.

We bought the first 2 ADSM servers, each with its own tape library,
about a year ago.
Each one backs up 20-25 AIX and WinNT servers, moving around 2 GB a day.
I estimate it took 2-3 months full-time equivalent work to get all the
servers, clients, and tape libraries installed and working.  Now that
everything is set up, it just hums along on its own, and doesn't require
much support at all.
I check those servers about every other day; the only time required is
when I have to put on PTF code, or one of the clients gets reconfigured
or replaced.  Probably average 1 day per week on each server.
You will find that ADSM works so much like DFHSM that it is a very easy
transition for your DFHSM administrator to manage the ADSM server.  The
biggest difference is learning how the client pieces install and
operate.
One thing you should plan on is involving the administrators of the
servers you are backing up.
Getting the servers to back up requires their involvement, especially in
getting the right permissions, exclude lists, etc. for each server set
up.

Now we have starting doing desktop backups for Win95 and WinNT PCs on
the third server & tape library.  That system is moving about 20 GB per
day.  We are supporting about 140 clients, planned to grow to 300-400 in
the next 6 months.  This has become almost a full-time job because of
the work required to support the clients.   We have found that when you
install ADSM on a Windows PC, it tends to uncover any sneaky problems in
the PC file system and/or TCP/IP stack.  You have to go dig around in
the client machine and run chkdsk, or clean up the file system, mess
with the permissions on NT systems, etc.  It's not ADSM's fault, and our
PC's are healthier as a result, but it is time-consuming.  And there is
some user-training needed to help people live with the ADSM scheduler.
But the support effort required is for the client end, not the server
end.


 =======================================================================
Wanda Prather
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
301-953-6000 X8769
wanda_prather AT jhuapl DOT edu

"Intelligence has much less practical application than you'd think."
              - Scott Adams/Dilbert
 =======================================================================





        ----------
        From:   Bryce McLaughlin[SMTP:sbm AT bullhead.adp.unc DOT edu]
        Sent:   Thursday, November 06, 1997 7:53 AM
        To:     ADSM-L AT vm.marist DOT edu
        Subject:        Personnel required to support ADSM?

        We are thinking about implementing ADSM to back up our
        RS/6000, NT and Netware servers. We currently use HSM
        with RMM to back up data from our 9672 to a 3494 tape
        library dataserver. Aside from the technical merits of
        ADSM, we'd very much like to hear from others who have
        implemented ADSM regarding the level of staffing needed
        to support ADSM on an ongoing basis. Does it take one
        person pretty much full time? Any brief summaries of
        your experience with ADSM regarding personnel requirements,
        volume of data and number/type of machines backed up will
        be very much appreciated.