Mark, Iain (and Rob),
I believe that we all found ourselves in Rob's situation one way or another.
It is always difficult to persuade the management about trainning needs -
especially if the training is abroad (management prefers to spent this money
on themselves...).
However, such a discussion helps the person needing training to realise it
more and more. It sure helped me in similar situations when I just printed a
reply from another list saying to my boss "hey just see what these guys are
telling me - you have to send me to a training course".
So I don't consider what Mark wrote to Rob as an insult.
Rob, you have to attend at least TM50 - the basic training course. And after
working for 6 months on TSM ask them to send you a TM52. I'm trying to do
the same just now.
Good luck.
Yiannakis
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf Of
Iain
Barnetson
Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 12:57 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: DELETing a volume from a DB backup
Mark,
I like what I read about training being a major part of the consultancy
services you provide. You are sooo right about enterprises getting
consultants in to install systems and then dumping them onto the Admins
without any trainig, etc. That's exactly what happened to me, not once
(TSM) but twice when they had a SAN installed with a pair of Cisco SAN /
iSCSI switches. Unfortunately once the consultants left the building so
did any kinda support, it took 4 months to get a document out of them
detailing the configuration!!
Hey Ho, has given me many "new challenges" which as we all know is good
;)
Iain
-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Mark D. Rodriguez
Sent: 26 March 2005 00:05
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] DELETing a volume from a DB backup
Iain,
I agree with you. I don't think this is a place where we should just
say RTFM. I hope my tone was not that at all. I was simply trying to
encourage him to get the skills needed. The real problem is management
doesn't always understand that tech people need training! I don't care
what Backup/Restore solution you are using today, none of them just work
right out of the box and they all need a degree of skill to effectively
manage them. And you are right I am glad for this list as well. It is
an excellent resource with many very talented people out here and for
the most part they are all trying to help.
While I am on my soap box, I'll mention another area that seems to be a
problem lately. This isn't just TSM now it applies to a large degree to
all enterprise level software. More and more companies are purchasing
software and then hiring consulting services to come in and set it up.
What I am finding is there are a number of consultants out there that do
what I call hit and run services. They come in they set it up and then
they are gone. They never did any training or even explanation of the
entire environment with the customer. And the one who winds up looking
the fool is the tech guy, because management says hey we just paid big
bucks to have this set up and now you can't keep it running. I have
come in behind a number of consultants and had to clean up after them.
When I do services part of the contract is training both the
administrators and the operators (if they are different). I provide
written documentation about their specific environment. I give them an
SLA describing the level of service they are providing their customers.
I give them a manual that describes the day to day operation of their
TSM environment and not only does it tell them what to do, but why they
are doing it. It is a lot more work and it cost a bit more money, but
in the long run I think I have happier customers as a result.
OK, I am done patting myself on the back. The real point of this is
that if your are going to administer a TSM environment you are going to
have to acquire the skills to do it. Now, you can get those skills in a
variety of ways, formal training, technology transfer from a consultant,
even read the manual, or you can get it from the "school of hard
knocks". If you are forced into the latter choice it can be quite an
expensive proposition!
--
Regards,
Mark D. Rodriguez
President MDR Consulting, Inc.
========================================================================
=======
MDR Consulting
The very best in Technical Training and Consulting.
IBM Advanced Business Partner
SAIR Linux and GNU Authorized Center for Education IBM Certified
Advanced Technical Expert, CATE AIX Support and Performance Tuning,
RS6000 SP, TSM/ADSM and Linux Red Hat Certified Engineer, RHCE
========================================================================
=======
Iain Barnetson wrote:
>Mark,
>I don't know Rob's situation, but I know that a year a go I had TSM
>'dumped' on me, having never had any dealings with the product
>previoulsy. It was 4 months before my company finally got me on the
>basic TSM course, after much tears & tantrums. During that 4 months I
>struggled severly - even having had RTFM. Unfortunately for me I didn't
>know about this email group back then, I wish I had, it's an invaluable
>source of information.
>Mostly people here are very understanding, but occaissionally, and I'm
>not referring to you, people simply say RTFM which is less than
helpful.
>
>Some need to understand that there are people out there for whom TSM is
>just one of their responsabilities and there are only so many hours in
>a day which means not always enough to read, digest and grasp the
>intricacies of TSM. Especially when the manuals can be at times, it's
>got to be said, less than clear and unequivocal. It's not usually a
>case of the person not having read the manuals, for some including
>myself, it's an uphill struggle to get to grips with TSM. After having
>worked with TSM for around a year now, I only consider myself beginning
>to fully understand it now. And I'd say that I'd picked up more from
>this email group than from any other avenue.
>Whilst DB backups and tape management maybe fundamental, it doesn't
>make it obvious.
>Regards,
>Iain
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf
>Of Mark D. Rodriguez
>Sent: 25 March 2005 20:50
>To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
>Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] DELETing a volume from a DB backup
>
>Rob,
>
>Please don't take this wrong, I certainly don't mind the question.
>However, I must say that this is such a fundamental part of TSM I am
>wondering about your basic level of training here. This product does
>require some basic training in order to operate it correctly. I
>recommend taking one or even two of the available TSM classes from IBM
>to get the basic skills needed. If you can't take the formal classes
>IBM has on line self paced classes as well. Or you can do it the old
>fashion way and cozy up to the TSM Administration Guide and give it a
>few hours of your time.
>
>Now in regards to your question, DB backup volumes regardless of
>whether they are full, incremental or snapshot do not expire on their
>own (with the exception of those managed by DRM, which is a whole
>separate chapter in the Admin Guide!) and therefore require you to take
>action. You must issue the DELete VOLHistory command in order to
>expire those tapes and have them become scratch tapes again. Please
>look in the documentation for the DELete VOLHistory command in order to
see the correct syntax.
>Also, please note you won't be able to delete your most recent DB
>backup set, nor should you, if that is what you are trying to do.
>
>Again, please don't take my comments at the beginning as an insult. I
>am merely trying to encourage you to develop the basic skill needed to
>run a TSM environment.
>
>--
>Regards,
>Mark D. Rodriguez
>President MDR Consulting, Inc.
>
>=======================================================================
>=
>=======
>MDR Consulting
>The very best in Technical Training and Consulting.
>IBM Advanced Business Partner
>SAIR Linux and GNU Authorized Center for Education IBM Certified
>Advanced Technical Expert, CATE AIX Support and Performance Tuning,
>RS6000 SP, TSM/ADSM and Linux Red Hat Certified Engineer, RHCE
>=======================================================================
>=
>=======
>
>
>
>Rob Berendt wrote:
>
>
>
>>When I use a tape volume to perform
>>backup db devclass=3581dev type=full scratch=yes wait=no How do I
>>prepare it for later reuse?
>>
>>Rob Berendt
>>--
>>Group Dekko Services, LLC
>>Dept 01.073
>>PO Box 2000
>>Dock 108
>>6928N 400E
>>Kendallville, IN 46755
>>http://www.dekko.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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