I would like to backup Richard's comments here in the Second Paragraph.

I've lost count of the Tivoli teleconferences and meetings that I've
attended lately where I've been bombarded with high level marketing type
information.
I'm just not going to bother attending another until I get some sort of
reassurance that I'm going to get some real information rather than some
executive overview.

Although management makes the decisions they rely upon their techies to
provide them with the information to make these decisions. If the techies
aren't informed then they're not going to persuade management to invest in
this product.

Nathan




        -----Original Message-----
        From:   Richard Sims [SMTP:rbs AT BU DOT EDU]
        Sent:   Tuesday, October 12, 1999 11:44 AM
        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        Subject:        Re: Tivoli Storage Manager 3.7

        >Tivoli is claiming that the Raw Volume Dump and Restore feature
will
        >provide 6 times faster backup and 5 times faster restore.

        It's FDR, redux: fast, but problematic, as has been pointed out.
        A disk volume which is in use is a far greater transitional source
of
        data than a single file, which is problematic enough for ADSM today.
        Certainly, raw volumes can be imaged far faster than can be its file
        system contents - but you have to likewise restore the volume image
        as a whole...unless TSM intends to somehow provide a variety of file
        system emulators at the server which would allow selection by file
        from that volume image.  Otherwise you would have to restore that
        image to some spare disk, mount that, and go after files.  RVD may
be
        quite good for disaster recovery, but otherwise the much faster
times
        mean nothing to our current incremental backup needs.

        A note to Tivoli management:  Tivoli annoucement material is
habitually
        aimed at customer executives (those who call for things to be
purchased).
        For technicians, the material is numbingly devoid of substantive
detail.
        When you publish annoucements, would you please provide links to
real
        information which is sorely needed by system administrators and
systems
        programmers in assessing the methodologies and value of the new
features
        and products?  It's an area greatly neglected by Tivoli, but sorely
        needed by those who have to actually manage and use the products.

            thanks, Richard Sims, Boston University OIT