> My expiration runs successfully daily but I believe what is happening is
> the majority of data being expired are the files that are overwritten
> daily.  It looks to me like the files that someone overwrites once or
> twice lives out in TSM forever, certainly beyond the 90 days I was
> expecting it to be there.

Have you tried to validate this theory by examining the backup inventory
for a node, and reconciling the management class to which its files are
bound with the number and age of backup versions?

> Here are my management classes.  Is the unlimited "retain extra
> versions" overriding my 90 days in the primary management class ?

The VER* settings say how many versions to keep, and the RET* settings say
how long to keep them. One does not "override" the other; rather, deletion
of versions is based on which criterion (with respect to when a version is
eligible for deletion) is met *first*. Think of the deletion decision as
being based on the following questions:

- Does the number of versions exceed the VER* setting? If yes, then the
extraneous version(s) are deleted. If not, then deletion based on this
criterion does not occur.

- Are any versions older than the RET* setting? If yes, then the
extraneous version(s) are deleted. If not, then deletion based on this
criterion does not occur.

So for files that still exist on the client machine, the first question is
always moot when VEREXISTS=NOLIMIT: the criterion is never met, so files
are not deleted based on number of versions.

On the other hand, the second question is still in play. Any inactive
versions older than the RETEXTRA criterion will be deleted. So basically
your current primary management class guarantees restore of any backup
version created within the past 90 days. Inactive versions older than 90
days are deleted. Also see my post on a related topic from a few minutes
ago.

> versions data exist: unlimited
> versions data deleted: unlimited
> retain extra versions: unlimited
> retain only version: unlimited

This is suspicious... do you use DIRMC?

Regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager support web page:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManager.html

The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.

"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 08/02/2006
06:00:08 AM:

> I am still working understanding why my TSM DB continues to grow and
> think I may have come upon something.  I have many retention policies in
> the management class for all my file servers.  The goal was to keep most
> data for only 90 days after it was deleted and to keep 90 versions if it
> was a file that would be updated daily.
> Incremental backups are run nightly.  TSM is AIX 5.3 and TSM 4.2.7.  The
> file servers are mostly W2K with backup-restore client 5.1.x - 5.3.x.
>
> My expiration runs successfully daily but I believe what is happening is
> the majority of data being expired are the files that are overwritten
> daily.  It looks to me like the files that someone overwrites once or
> twice lives out in TSM forever, certainly beyond the 90 days I was
> expecting it to be there.
>
> Here are my management classes.  Is the unlimited "retain extra
> versions" overriding my 90 days in the primary management class ?
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
> Thanks,
> Ralph
>
>
> The default management class is defined as:
>
> versions data exist: unlimited
> versions data deleted: 9
> retain extra versions: 9
> retain only version: 9
>
> The primary management class used (95% of all data)
>
> versions data exist: unlimited
> versions data deleted: 90
> retain extra versions: 90
> retain only version: 90
>
> The 2 long retention management classes are:
>
> versions data exist: unlimited
> versions data deleted: 366
> retain extra versions: 366
> retain only version: 366
>
> versions data exist: unlimited
> versions data deleted: unlimited
> retain extra versions: unlimited
> retain only version: unlimited