The successful backups do NOT say all files were sent during backup; following
thoughts may help you discover the true reason for the missing files:
- C$ on WinNT (esp. Win2K) has lots of system-protected files that get skipped;
they are rolled into the system state "blob", so could be all is a-okay.
- if you were using the scheduler, your dsmsched.log file contains a line for
every file processed; search that log for the signs the files were (ever)
sent... to learn the date and full-path to the source.
- if a drive failure occurs, even if just files/dirs trashed, followed by INCR
backup, your retention policy for deleted files may be too short.
- with the client installed, query inclexcl might reveal the files were
excluded?!?
- scan the activity log (and dsmerror.log) for messages re. the files in
question; maybe the files were skipped (or inactivated) due to copy-mode or
open-file contention.
I agree that the user's data might have really been on a network share, not the
locally-failing drive, in which case, they might still be there;
alternatively, the possibility of slowly-dying drive causing a huge bunch of
files to "disappear" is not very likely to go undetected more than a day or
3... but, if that did really happen, you'd better "fix" the RetainOnly value
(to protect for this situation).
Hope this helps.
Don France
Technical Architect -- Tivoli Certified Consultant
Tivoli Storage Manager, WinNT/2K, AIX/Unix, OS/390
San Jose, Ca
(408) 257-3037
mailto:don_france AT ayett DOT net (change aye to a for replies)
Professional Association of Contract Employees
(P.A.C.E. -- www.pacepros.com)
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf Of
Fred Johanson
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 5:30 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Missing files
I have a client with a missing files problem.
Around midnight Jan 25/26, TSM did an incremental on a WinNT box. All three
file systems show as completed in "q fi f=d". Some time thereafter, but
before 1/28, the harddrive went south. On 1/29 directories from c$ were
restored on a new machine. "Thousands" of ifles are missing.
Where did they go? "Select" on ll_name for the appropriate hl_name and
node_name from backups finds nothing. "Select" on hl_name for the appropriate
ll_name and node_name from backups finds nothing. Combine these queries with
the completed backup from 1/26 and what can we believe but that the files were
not there to backup. Moreover, the sysadmin says there were file-shares on
another machine(s), which have yet to be identified.
However, the owner says the missing files were on his harddrive before and
after the last sucessful backup. As he is adamant that the missing files
cannot be on a share somewhere, I have suggested that his hardware problem
crept up on him, making the directory gradually and increasingly unreliable
during backup. I know this is clutching at straws, but in almost a decade,
this is the first instance of "missing files".
Can anyone suggest a better explanation, or ste of possible explanations, than
I have offered?
Fred Johanson
|
