TSM for Sharepoint

[Jeff_Jeske]

Another follow up.... I've got the environment configured and backups are running smoothly into TSM on Sata. TSM version 5.4.3.2 with TSM for SharePoint V6.1.

The main thing I do not like about the software is data pruning. Apparently DocAve doesn't know the difference between an active or inactive file. They put a time to live on data based on the backup date. If you set pruning to 60 days it will get rid of anything 60 days old whether its active, inactive, or even the only existing version.

Therefore to expire/prune data in TSM/Sharepoint you need to schedule full backups. Here is a document that offers a bit more info on this:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21393627

 

[Jeff_Jeske]

Performed bare metal restore of the DocAve server today. A simple TSM Baclient backup doesn't provide recoverability. You have to run a built in "System Backup" feature then backup the files that the system-backup generates.

These files can then be used to recover the DocAve database after a BMR. Not a big deal but something I thought I would share.

... also tested out Data Coalescing which is known as a sythetic full backup. Data coalescing adds incremental backups to the index of the last full backup. This reduces load on the SharePoint DB server by not having to send every piece of data across the wire. It also reorganizes the data within TSM to speed recovery in the event of a full server DR. The process worked as designed but took longer than a normal full backup. The process freed up resources on the DB server and shifted it to the TSM and DocAve servers.

Our monthly full backup is transparent to end users. That combined with the fact that a full DR would happen at the SQL DB level I don’t plan to schedule any data coalescing jobs. We have ours configured for 60 day pruning with a last friday of the month full backup.