On Thu, Feb 22, 2001 at 05:30:43PM -0600, Caffey, Jeff L. wrote:
> Can somebody help me...?
>
> We are in the process of implementing TSM, an IBM Shark, and a SAN all at
> the same time (I'm swamped)!  We are replacing EMC's Data Manager, an EMC
> Symmetrix, and Veritas' Backup Exec with one brand new TSM server running on
> an IBM RS/6000 (H80, 1GB RAM, 500GB Internal SSA Disk for storage pools,
> Gigabit Ethernet to LAN, Fibre Channel to SAN, 5 LTO tape drives, and as
> much additional 'shark' disk as necessary) performing backups on the
> following server platforms:
>
> 12 AIX (will grow to 13 by mid-March, currently backed up with EDM)
> 43 Windows (will grow to about 130 by mid-March, currently backed up with
> Backup Exec)
>
> While I could think of hundreds of things to ask, I'll limit my request to
> these five TSM questions:
>
> 1.      When TSM performs incremental backups, does it backup the ENTIRE
> file (at a file level) or does it only backup the CHANGES to the file (at a
> binary level)?  EXAMPLE: When backing up our primary file server that
> contains users' home directories with MS Exchange *.pst and *.pab files that
> may be quite large, will it only backup the small changes to those large
> files?

file level.

byte-level backup (adaptive subfile backup) requires a client overhead which 
would
not be suitable for server situation. It was designed client machines with 
irregular
connections (eg. laptop on a dial-up)

Get users to archive their mail reasonably frequently.


> 2.      When backing up MS Exchange files such as *.pst and *.pab, does it
> require them to be closed so that it can have access, or will it back them
> up while they are opened?  EXAMPLE: When (using the above example) TSM runs
> it's backups, will the "Access Denied" message appear when it tries to
> backup "user123.pst" because the user stayed logged in over night.

If the file locks or is being written to, it will fail (it will retry a busy 
file
several times). If you open the exchange client then, successfully, copy the 
*.pst
file, it can back up.

> 3.      Is there a SAN agent for Windows 2000 that would allow us to backup
> the above environments without impacting the network?  EXAMPLE: Since the
> server above is on IBM ESS disk ("Shark") attached via a Fibre Channel SAN,
> can we stop using Ethernet to backup "user123.pst" and similar files?

There is supposed to be a DP module for the ESS, but I havent heard back from
Tivoli about "how it actually works" and "is it available".
    http://www.tivoli.com/products/index/data_protect_ess/index.html

Another angle could be IP over FC. Someone asked that question a few days ago.

We have put in the SAN/Shark topology. IBM marketing assured us that they will
have the tools to do LAN/Server free backup. If they actually deliver will
be another story.

Cheers, Suad
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