It is kind of hard doing a full of a 43gb TSM database when your recovery
log is sitting at 80+%  We perform a full daily and several other
incrementals on each of our 6 TSM servers.  This works best for our
environment.  This is something that you will have to decide based upon your
requirements and daily activity.  Good luck.

T

 -----Original Message-----
From:   Miles Purdy [mailto:PURDYM AT FIPD.GC DOT CA]
Sent:   Monday, April 09, 2001 11:49 AM
To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject:        Re: DATABASE backup question FULL or INCREMENTAL?

IMHO:
I never do incrementals. Not of my 2 GB ADSM database nor my 30 GB Sybase
database nor my 10 MB database that hardly changes. When you are under the
gun to get a database restored, incrementals can be hard to restore if you
are the administrator  and even harder if someone else is trying to do the
restore. How hard is it just to type when your boos in standing behind you?
Remember what KISS stands for?

If you use incrementals, then any error on any tape along the way will sink
you. You will still only be able to restore to your last full backup and
good incremental. You can never go wrong always doing a full backup. Yes, it
uses more resources. But don't forget whose ass is on the line when things
go south.

Every day I do full backup of my ADSM DB and 50-60 Sybase databases. All the
Sybase databases go to disk, then offsite, then to tape on site. With this
scheme there is little chance of not being able to do a restore.

(Of course I do an incremental ADSM backup daily, but this still backups
whole files, I never backup just the changes to an individual file.)

miles


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Miles Purdy
Miles Purdy
System Manager
Farm Income Programs Directorate
Winnipeg, MB, CA
purdym AT fipd.gc DOT ca
ph: (204) 984-1602 fax: (204) 983-7557
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>>> dbrowne AT HUMANA DOT COM 09-Apr-01 9:22:31 AM >>>
>>> dbrowne AT HUMANA DOT COM 09-Apr-01 9:22:31 AM >>>
I am doing a nightly database full backup with ADSM/TSM.  (TSM 3.7.4 on
OS390/2.10)
What is most commonly done a Full or Incremental?
What are the advantages/disadvantages of a full over an incremental backup
of the servers database?
The command we enter is as follows:
                      backup db type=full devclass=dboffsite
 Where dboffsite is the a tape device class.