Not RECLAMATION, but EXPIRATION processing where the management class
retention policies are applied to all the version of a file and extra or old
versions are expired.  TSM keeps track of how much data remains on a tape
volume after expiration and reports this my the "Pct. Reclaimable Space" is
a Q VOL xxx F=D output. When you set the storage pool to RECLAIM=<something
less than 100%> TSM compares each tape volume in the storage pool with this
value. Volumes that have a "Pct. reclaimable Space" >= this value are
reclaimed. Expiration processing is done automatically by setting the
EXPINTERVAL in the server options file, or setting it to "0" and running it
manually with the "EXPIRE INVENTORY" command.

Offsite reclamation takes "so long" because TSM is recreating the offsite
volume from onsite copies of the files. SO you may end up with several tape
mounts, tape prositioning just to read a single file. Onsite reclamation
takes the volume to be reclaimed as input, copies all the "good" data from
it to another onsite tape volume.

Bill Boyer
DSS, Inc.