ADSM-L

Re: TSM best practices manual?

2004-01-29 12:56:08
Subject: Re: TSM best practices manual?
From: "Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU>
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:55:41 -0500
Still suggest you check auditocc for the Oracle systems to verify that the
amount of data in the backstore corresponds to what you think should be
there.  It's VERY easy for the Oracle TDP deletes to fail, leaving junk in
your TSM inventory.
Have fought that battle with at least 6 systems.  There is a cleanup utility
available with the TDP now, but you have to know you need to run it...


-----Original Message-----
From: Tab Trepagnier [mailto:Tab.Trepagnier AT LAITRAM DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 2:42 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: TSM best practices manual?


Wanda,

Thanks very much for the suggestions.  In answer to your questions:

1.  I know I have compression operating on the drives because our average
tape capacity is 1.6 X uncompressed capacity on all three media.
2. Most of what we back up is server data; a little bit is OS, etc, but
not much.  We're a Notes and Oracle shop and we have a LOT of data from
both systems.  We also design and manufacture our own products, and our
engineers routinely generate 100MB+ CAD files.
3. We keep five copies of user-created data, and two copies of everything
else.  Design data is also archived but that isn't relevant to this
discussion.
4. True, but I already have FIVE libraries; I am trying to avoid buying a
sixth.

This is what I think I'm going to do.  At present we keep everything
except permanent archives online fulltime since we don't really have an
"operator".  We have two parallel data paths: "small clients" going to a
3575, and "large clients" going to the 3583.  I'm going to recombine those
paths into a single path and make liberal use of the Migration Delay
feature.  The idea is for the incoming data to travel:  Disk --> 3575 -->
3583 --> MSL DLT --> shelf.
The idea is to have data 1-2 days old on disk (radical!), data 2-10 days
old on fast-access 3570, data 10-180 days old on LTO, and data older than
6-12 months on the shelf.  The little MSL retains nothing but is instead
just a portal.

As for a "best practices" guide, I've begun browsing the TSM 5.2
Implementation Guide to see if that provides the info I'm looking for. I'm
also browsing my training handout from the ADSM 3.1 Advanced
Implementation course.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Tab







"Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU>
Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
01/28/2004 12:44 PM
Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"


        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
        cc:
        Subject:        Re: TSM best practices manual?


Tab,

I'm not sure this is an issue of TSM design -  if your libraries are out
of
capacity in terms of SLOTS, rather than throughput, you just have "too
much"
data.

That either means you are

1) not compressing the data as much as you can, or
2) backing up things you don't need to
3) keeping data longer/more copies  than you need to
4) really in need of additional library space

For 1), it's a matter of checking to make sure that your drives do have
compression turned on.  If you can't compress at the drive level, turn it
on
at the client level.

For 2-4, I don't know any magic/automatic way of figuring it out.

Here's what I do:

dsmadmc -id=xxxxx -password=yyyyyyy -commadelimited  "select CURRENT_DATE
as
DATE,'SPACEAUDIT',node_name as node, backup_mb, backup_copy_mb,archive_mb,
archive_copy_mb  from auditocc"`;

Suck that into a spreadsheet and look to see which clients are taking up
the
most space on the server side.

Then go look in detail at the management classes and exclude lists
associated with the "hoggish" clients, and see what you can find out about
the copies they are keeping.

- Are you keeping copies of EVERYTHING on the client for a zillion
versions,
rather than just the important data files?
- for Windows 2000, are you keeping more copies of the SYSTEM OBJECT than
would likely be used?
- Look at their dsmsched.log files and see what is actually being backed
up.

- Be suspicious of TDP clients not deleteing copies they are supposed to.
(For example, if they are supposedly keeping 10 versions of a 10 GB data
base, but the SELECT shows 500 GB on the server, there's something wrong.)
- If it's user/group space, are there lots of .mp3 files?  (exclude 'em
with
a clientoptionset)
- Make sure you aren't backing up TEMP directories

etc..

I run the query monthly and save the data so that I can compare from one
month to the next.  That tells me which clients are GROWING the fastest.
Those are the ones to attack.

With luck, you will find some things that you can do that will extend your
library life a while.  Maybe not.  But at least you will be able to tell
your management WHY you are running out of space.


Hope that helps.
Wanda Prather
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
443-778-8769

"Intelligence has much less practical application than you'd think" -
Dilbert/Scott Adams



-----Original Message-----
From: Tab Trepagnier [mailto:Tab.Trepagnier AT LAITRAM DOT COM]
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 10:11 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: TSM best practices manual?


TSM 5.1.7 on AIX 4.3.3
9 TB online, total of 24 TB managed.

Our TSM tape libraries are nearing their capacity.  Currently we're
running a fairly simple TSM system, using little of the new functionality
introduced since V 3.1.  We backup to onsite tape and make copies to a
copypool whose tapes are vaulted offsite.  That's pretty much the entire
system.

Our current tape library fleet consists of a 3583-L72 (LTO-1), two 3575s
(and L12 and an L18), an HP SureStore 4/40 (DLT 8000), and an HPaq MSL5026
(DLT 8000).  Before we spend $60-80K  - or more - on another tape library,
I'd like to review the system's architecture to see if there is another
path we can go.

I've been through the TSM Admin Guide and Technical Guide, but what I'm
really looking for is a description of current best practices regarding
TSM system design.  Is there another document that would present that info
better?

TIA

Tab Trepagnier
TSM Administrator
Laitram, L.L.C.

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