>...ANS1870E NDS transport failure FFFDFEAF has occurred. ...

>Novell Tsm client version  5.2.2
>Netware OS 5.1 SP6

Tim - The IBM site has an indicative entry on that message number.

I'm no Novell person, but from the years of postings I've seen, Novell
environment backup problems are often due to Novell software problems
(as further suggested by the IBM site item on that message).
That may well also be the case for the ANS1228E and ANS4005E messages you also
uncovered in the dsmerror.log.  (In the past, at least, the ANS4005E message has
been caused by downlevel TSANDS and/or TSA600 NLM's.)
It looks like your best avenue is to seek some Novell patches.
Netware 5.1 is also at the low end of what the 5.2.2 TSM client supports, so
you may alternately have Netware upgrade possibilities.

   Richard Sims