We are attempting to design a backup/restore solution that covers a few
different restore scenarios.  One of them has a low RTO (restore time
objective).  We are considering using a combination of image backups in
concert with file-level incrementals.  This would allow us to perform an
image restore, followed by a file-level incremental restore to bring the
restored image forward in time to the latest file-level incremental backup.

(e.g., Sunday:Image+Incr, Mon:Incr, Tue:Incr, Wed:Incr, Thu:Incr, etc etc)

In order to perform the image backups, we would have to use some sort of
instant image (i.e., Flash Copy) to quickly create a static copy of the
Unix filesystem that we could then create an image backup of.  We would do
this infrequently (weekly).  The question that I have is this:

If we keep the latest Flash Copy around (on disk, forget about TSM), could
we then bring that image forward in time using TSM's incremental
backups.  I.e., use the hardware-based image, instead of restoring it from
TSM.  It would be nice if this were possible, but I don't think TSM allows
this - I think it requires that the base-level image come from TSM.

Thanks in advance.

..Paul


--
Paul Zarnowski                         Ph: 607-255-4757
719 Rhodes Hall, Cornell University    Fx: 607-255-8521
Ithaca, NY 14853-3801                  Em: psz1 AT cornell DOT edu