Multiple Offsite Retention

[madamson]

We would like to offer our customers 4 different offsite retention periods.



60 Day

90 Day

365 Day

7 Year



Currently we have everything set up for 7 year offsite using DRM. I have no clue how to go about setting this environment up. I just took over this a few months ago and was asked to look into this. Can someone point me in the right direction?



Thanks

 

[chad_small]

Unless the 7 year period is for long term archive data ONLY you should look for a new job. The problem is people don't realize that just because you were doing it a certain way BEFORE TSM that that is how it has to be done with TSM. As for long term offsite storage you have to factor in changes in format/hardware/software. Also make sure you stipulate a conversion 5 years down the road if you want to follow the tape manufacturors warranty. IBM guarrantees data integrity, I believe, for 5 years, so anything beyond that and your on your own. They all claim signal integrity for 10+ years but does the company want to take that chance? To setup the different retention times you need to create multiple management classes each stipulating a specific retention time. Then you can use includes to tell TSM which management class to use for different types of data, thereby have specific types kept for different periods as needed. For archiving two suggestions:



1. Make the customer identify their data. Too many times I've seen them archive a whole system because it's easier or they don't know where all the data really is (wont take the time to identify the areas data is located).



2. Use backupsets as much as possible to keep the TSM db from growing out of control. They are also TSM server independent so they are great in case you later move away from TSM or do not have a TSM server available (Portability comes in handy).



Chad Small

Certified TSM Consultant

IBM Global Services

[email protected]

 

[dalwatski]

We also have a client with the same demands and have faced the same issues that Chad has identified. This is normally not a hard discussion point to explain. The seven year policy will make things very difficult down the road for Disaster Recovery as the database, among other things, will grow very large. Time to recover will become elongated perhaps to a point of missing the SLA.



Both archive and backupsets work well in this situation but only provide active data at a point in time. This translates to the traditional monthly offsite forever paradigm. The issue still boils down to identification of critical servers and data retention requirements. It may be wise to identify critical servers and data, use management classes wisely and not use backupsets for everything except where the requirements are the most stringent.



Chad brings out several good points that we have been very successful with for years but sometimes the client simply does not know the requirements and therefore is sceptical with the TSM philosophy.



Dave Lonsinger

Certified TSM Consultant

PSC