Curtis,
   I'm not sure if these fall into managing a system category, but they
are things that I have dealt with on a periodic basis.

Customer service
- Gary calls and leaves a voice message asking for a restore of the file
"veryimportant.txt" in his home directory because he accidently deleted
it.  A quick search of the files backed up do not show that file and a
voice mail to Gary asks him to confirm the file name.  He responds that
the file may have been deleted some time ago - not sure when, but he is
sure it was there last month and it may be called something else - If we
could just restore everything, that would be fine.


Working with Management
- Can you explain to management in 5 minutes the different data
retention settings and how they interact with each other?
- Can you explain why and how TSM may maintain two copies of data in
primary and copy pools and why you shouldn't just eject your primary
pool tapes to save library space rather than purchasing additional
library space?
- Demonstrate to management why the incremental-forever methodology of
TSM is superior to the Daily/Weekly/Monthly methodology of other data
recovery products.


Cheers,
Neil Strand
Storage Engineer - Legg Mason
Baltimore, MD.
(410) 580-7491
Whatever you can do or believe you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic.


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Curtis Preston
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 6:14 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] TSM Administrative Tasks

It's taking me forever, but I'm still developing the outline for my
latest book.



I have a question for you about managing a TSM system.  What are the
things you find yourself doing on a regular basis and how do you do
them?  Let me give you a few examples.



1.      Monitoring backup success/failure.

        a.      CLI
        b.      TSM web interface
        c.      third party product

2.      Rerunning failed/missed backups
3.      Putting tapes in a tape library, making them ready to use
4.      Getting tapes offsite

        a.      I send originals and don't make copies
        b.      I send copies and make them via scripting
        c.      I tell TSM how many copies and it manages everything

5.      Expiration

        a.      Run it every day/once a week, etc

6.      Reclamation

        a.      I set my threshold and forget it
        b.      I set my threshold to 100% during backups, then back to
my desired threshold after backups are done
        c.      I set my threshold to 100% during backups, then
gradually increase decrease my reclamation threshold

7.      Make backup sets/instant archives

        a.      If you use them, what do you use them for?

8.      Active data pool
9.      Monitoring for capacity/throughput issues

        a.      Splitting/migrating part of a TSM instance to another
instance

10.     Installing new clients



I'm not taking a survey of the different methods, here.  I don't need to
know how many people are doing what -- I'm just trying to make sure my
list of administrative tasks is complete.



Thanks in advance for any help.



________________________________________________________
Curtis Preston | VP Data Protection
GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.

T: +1 760 710 2004 | C: +1 760 419 5838 | F: +1 760 710 2009
cpreston AT glasshouse DOT com | www.glasshouse.com
<http://www.glasshouse.com/> Infrastructure :: Optimized










This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the
system manager. This message contains confidential information and is
intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named
addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail.

IMPORTANT:  E-mail sent through the Internet is not secure. Legg Mason 
therefore recommends that you do not send any confidential or sensitive 
information to us via electronic mail, including social security numbers, 
account numbers, or personal identification numbers. Delivery, and or timely 
delivery of Internet mail is not guaranteed. Legg Mason therefore recommends 
that you do not send time sensitive 
or action-oriented messages to us via electronic mail.

This message is intended for the addressee only and may contain privileged or 
confidential information. Unless you are the intended recipient, you may not 
use, copy or disclose to anyone any information contained in this message. If 
you have received this message in error, please notify the author by replying 
to this message and then kindly delete the message. Thank you.