At 14:04 15-03-96 EST, you wrote:
>  -> ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU     MAIL TO EXTERNAL MAIL SYSTEM   IO50C3
>
>           We have an ADSM client for which we're trying to get a
>successful backup...we never have...to date. The problem is: the directory
>has some 31,000 FILES in addition to 35 subdirectories (each subdirectory
>has from 3-100 files).  When trying to do the backup, ADSM is trying to
>generate his list of all these files BUT then that node's session TIMES
>OUT (currently our IDLETIMEOUT parameter is set to 30 minutes, and this
>coming weekend it will be increased to 60 minutes because of this node).
>*** Does anyone have a similar problem with many many files and how do
>you handle it? ***
>
>We've had a similar problem. Some nodes with over 400.000 files to be
backed up.
problem is that your database explodes and it will take forever to backup
these nodes.
we came up with 2 solutions (it are AIX nodes by the way)
1. first make a tarfile of the directory with all subdirs and backup this
tarfile.
   Not so elegant but it works fine and save databasespace. 1 entry instead
of 400.000.
2. In our situation we also have a filesystem with many,many subdirs and
some files.
   we do something like the following :
   find /dir_to_be_backed_up -type d -print > /wherever_you_put_output/.....
   for dir in `cat /wherever_you_put_output/......`
   do
     dsmc sel/inc/ar $dir and_your_desired_options
   done

now there is no need for subdir (-su=yes) processing. The backup will be
faster and you probably won't have timeouts anymore.


bye, peter