Archival, from a user's point of view, is quite easy with TSM.  Archival,
from a technical point of view, is complicated when you start talking long
term retention. REALLY long term retention like 30 years. Two things come to
mind...  First: Media life. How long will any tape cartridge remain in good
condition?  Second: Media hardware reader: Will you still have the hardware
mechanism, 'DRIVE", to access the media thirty years from now?

For the first issue, be sure to copy the archival. In TSM this is simply
done by copying the storage pool. For the second issue, TSM provides
capabilities to move/migrate data from one storage pool to the other as new
storage technology becomes prevalent. If, however, you find that your
storage technology does not change, it will be prudent to recycle or reclaim
any archived data to ensure it can still be read and regenerated.

Or, am I paranoid about losing bits and bytes on my magnetic media over a
long period of time?

John G. Talafous              IS Technical Principal
The Timken Company            Global Software Support
P.O. Box 6927                 Data Management
1835 Dueber Ave. S.W.         Phone: (330)-471-3390
Canton, Ohio USA  44706-0927  Fax  : (330)-471-4034
talafous AT timken DOT com           http://www.timken.com