How To Del Individual VOLHIST DBB entries.

[peterEy]

Hi,



Looking for a method to remove individual DB Backup Tape entries, from within TSM, rather than just blowing away every DBB entry older than a certain date.

(ie del volhist type=dbb todate=today-7).



Does anyone know of a way to achieve this ?



Our Config consists of TSM 5.1.1 on Aix 4.3.3.



Thanks and Best Regards, Peter.

 

[heada]

I don't know if this is the right way to do it or not...but I got this really cool tool called vi. It lets me delete any line within a text file that I want. :grin:



-Aaron

 

[peterEy]

Thanks Aaron,



Next time I'm editing a file I'll remember that ....



This time however I need direct interaction with the TSM DB.



The VolHist backup file (which I could edit) is of no use in this instance.

ie. I can remove an entry from this file but will still be unable to checkin an Old DBBackup tape till the offending VolHist entry (in the TSM Database) is removed.



I need a method of removing individual DBBackup entries from within the VolHist Table, so allowing the checkin of those individual tapes to be successful.



I dont however want to indescriminately remove all entries older than a certain date (eg older than 7 days).



Any Ideas ???

 

[heada]

I know you can do select SQL statements, can you do an update SQL statement?



Why not let the DBB expire normally?



-Aaron

 

[peterEy]

As far as I've been able to find, the DB is read only as far as SQL is concerned.



This means that the select statement is the only available SQL command, and there is no SQL based facility to do a direct SQL Update ... Someone please tell me I'm wrong here



This means that updates can only be performed via TSM commands, which in this case dont seem to be able to foot the bill :sad:



I'm putting in place a facility to automate the DBB checkout/checkin/request sent Offsite/request returned Onsite processes (which are currently manual, and the operators are getting wrong all the time).



This facility uses the VOLHIST DBB entries (in TSM DB) to keep track of everything, and is responsible for removing the respective DBB entries as part of the checkin process.



This is why I cant use an auto delete of VolHist entries older than 7 days.



Current code will recognise that an old DBB tape has not been returned, and only allow entries older than the oldest DBB (yet to be returned) to be removed from VolHist.



This is not a clean way of doing things though as its then posible for all scratch tapes to be consumed due to one missing tape blocking the deletion of old expired VolHist DBB entries.



What I really want is a method for deleting one individual DBB VolHist entry, and then include that method as part of that individual tapes checkin as scratch process.



That way any issues getting a tape back cannot affect anything else.



So ..... What do you think ?

 

[heada]

So, if I understand correctly, you are having issues where a tape can be deleted from the TSM DB and VolHist but kinda slips through the scripted collection of tapes that need to come back from the vault.



Try this... Set DRMDBBACKUPEXPIREDAYS to a number (mine is 35....a month plus a few)

then when you do a del volhist, do it like this: del volhistory todate=today-40 type=all



when you generate your lists, use the DRM commands q drmedia wherestate=vaultr to find all the tapes to be returned and q drmedia wherestate=mountable to find all the tapes that will be sent offsite.



to actually move the tapes, use:

move drmedia wherestate=mountable tostate=vault remove=yes

move drmedia wherestate=vaultretrieve tostate=onsiteretrieve



Let DRM do all your work for you. If you want, I have all this scripted already and can provide you with a copy, but it's too big to post here.



-Aaron

 

[peterEy]

Thats it exactly.



There is no TSM validation of the return of DBB Tapes, so making it a manual process which relies on the Operators.



Thanks for the DRM info.



Unfortunately the company is not in a position to purchase/licence DRM (at present).



Even so, I'm still very interested in your DRM script implementation though.



Could come in handy when/if management decide to spend some more money



I'll PM you my email address.



Still interested in hearing if there are any other non-DRM related methods to achive individual VolHist entry removal, or the kind of control I'm after. If you find something let me know.



Thanks and Best Regards, Peter.