Do you use copypools?  How much do you want to spend?
How fast do you need to restore from a monthly?

How about this scenario; it is just an idea, I don't actually do it  -

make a 2nd copypool that stays on site.  Don't do any reclaims of it.
At the start of the month do a db snapshot backup and retain the tape for a 
year.
When you need to do a restore from a monthly backup, restore the
appropriate monthly db snapshot to a new instance of TSM.  See the admin
reference appendix for 'restore a db without a volumehistory file'.
In the restored instance, mark all the tapes in the primary pool destroyed and 
the diskpool too..
Also be sure all the tapes in the offsite copy pool are marked offsite or 
destroyed too.
Now a client file restore should access the onsite copypool.  The file should
be there since you have not done any reclaims of this pool.

A year into this process you can start doing 'move data recon=yes' on the
onsite copypool volumes, selecting volumes written more than a year ago.

The cost is mostly media if you have enough processor to make the 2nd copypool.
Your database will be bigger and you will need extra disk space for the db 
restore.

What do you think?

Hope this helps,

Bill Colwell

At 08:51 AM 4/4/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>A question was brought up while discussing retention policies.
>
>Currently we have the following retentions:
>
>Policy    Policy    Mgmt      Copy      Versions Versions   Retain  Retain
>Domain    Set Name  Class     Group         Data     Data    Extra    Only
>Name                Name      Name        Exists  Deleted Versions Version
>--------- --------- --------- --------- -------- -------- -------- -------
>COLD      ACTIVE    COLD      STANDARD         2        1        5      30
>
>NOVELL    ACTIVE    DIRMC     STANDARD        30        1      120     365
>NOVELL    ACTIVE    STANDARD  STANDARD        30        1      120     365
>
>RECON     ACTIVE    DIRMC     STANDARD        36        3       75     385
>RECON     ACTIVE    MC_RECON  STANDARD        26        1       60     365
>
>STANDARD  ACTIVE    DIRMC     STANDARD        26        1       60     365
>STANDARD  ACTIVE    STANDARD  STANDARD        26        1       60     365
>
>
>UNIX      ACTIVE    MC_UNIX   STANDARD        30        1       60      30
>
>
>I believe that this provides for daily backups for over a month.
>
>There was a request to have the following:
>1)   Daily backups for a week.
>2)   Weekly backups for a month.
>3)   Monthly backups for a year.
>
>I believe we are providing 1 & 2.  We are providing daily backups for a
>month.
>
>How can I provide monthly backups for a year?
>I know that I could take monthly archives, but this would exceed our backup
>windows and would increase our resources ( db, tapes, etc.)
>Also, I know we could lengthen our retention policies.
>Also we could create backup sets. (tons of tapes!)
>
>How are other people handling this?
>
>Thanks,
>
>
>Marc Levitan
>Storage Manager
>PFPC Global Fund Services

----------
Bill Colwell
Bill Colwell
C. S. Draper Lab
Cambridge Ma.