General explanation of database user instance?

[ldmwndletsm]

Can someone afford me a brief explanation of the TSM database instance? I'm completely confused about how the whole db2 creation, configuration, formatting, etc. works in conjunction with the TSM software itself.

Why does the database have to be configured separately from the install of the TSM software? Why not just make it all one install? Why not just have root own everything? Why do they break it down into this labyrinthine complexity?

 

[marclant]

I can`t explain all the why.

But the software install is just that, the software install.

There's a lot of thought that goes into how you setup an instance. Like putting the database on 4 or more dedicated LUNs, the active log on a dedicated LUN, the archive log on a decidated LUN, the storage pools on multiple dedicated LUNs. The install would not know this ahead of time.

As far as running the whole thing as root, a lot of entreprises and security experts frown on that. Root is for the OS, the instance owner is for the instance. Separation of duties, in small/medium businesses it's often the same person, in large organization with multiple servers, there's a team managing the OS, and another team managing Spectrum Protect. For that reason, the instance is usually owned by a dedicated user.

Since regular users can't install software and since root is not the preferred instance owner, the 2 tasks have to be separated.