Just be careful of the RECONCILE VOLUMES command and the level of TSM server. 
I'm not sure what server version of even if it's been "fixed", but in earlier 
versions a backupset volume was not a valid type of virtual volume and the 
RECONCILE VOLUME command would delete the virtual volume, but not the backupset 
reference in the source TSM server.

So, you can send a backupset to virtual volumes, but don't run the RECONCILE 
command without first checking the documentation for your server level!

Bill Boyer
DSS, Inc.


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf Of
Steven Pemberton
Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2003 6:45 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Create more then one backupset to one tape


On Friday 16 May 2003 00:46, Christian Svensson wrote:
> Hi Everyone!
> Do anyone know if is possible to create more then one backupset to one
> tape.
> Becuse each backupset is only 5 GB large and I only have AIT-3 tapes to
> send the backupset data to.
> And I going to use this backupset to send offsite.

Actually TSM uses a new *volume* per backupset. Normally this is equal to a 
new tape, but by using server-to-server virtual volumes you can effectively 
consolidate multiple backupsets onto a single physical volume.

This is best done between two TSM servers, where the on-site TSM server sends 
the backupset (virtual volume) to the off-site TSM server electronically via 
the server-to-server communucations. Of course this requires that you have a 
sufficiently fast WAN...

Alternatively you could define a "loopback" TSM server-to-server definition. 
The TSM server then sends the backupset (virtual volume) to itself via the 
server-to-server definition. The TSM server can then consolidate the 
backupset (virtual volume) onto a single physical volume. Finally, if you 
want to send this data off-site, you would need to either create a copypool 
of the storage pool containing the backupset volumes, or simply checkout the 
primary storage pool volumes and send them offsite.

One problem with this approach is that the backupsets are no longer "external" 
to TSM, and are actually stored in the normal storage pools.

Whether this is useful to you depends on why you need to create backupsets in 
the first place. If you are just creating backupsets for "monthly archival" 
purposes, then it's probably acceptable. But, if you want the ability to 
restore the backupsets via a locally attached tape drive on a client, then 
you should not use this method.

Regards,
Steven P.

-- 
Steven Pemberton                                      Mobile: +61 4 1833 5136
Innovative Business Knowledge                   Office: +61 3 9820 5811
Senior Enterprise Management Consultant    Fax: +61 3 9820 9907