Management here wants to backup desktops (all drives on a users PC). Please
share your reasons why you believe that is not a good idea.

TIA

Orin Rehorst
Port of Houston Authority
(Largest U.S. Port in foreign tonnage)
e-mail:  rehorst AT poha DOT com <mailto:rehorst AT poha DOT com>
Phone:  (713)670-2443
Fax:      (713)670-2457


                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Robinson, Cris
[mailto:Cris.Robinson AT LIBERTYMUTUAL DOT COM]
                Sent:   Friday, July 09, 1999 12:04 PM
                To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                Subject:        FW: Win95/NT Desktop Backups

                Anthony -

                Here are some thoughts on desktop backup:
                Don't. If you can convince your manangement have them
institute Home
                Directories on file servers and back up the file servers
only. If it's too
                late for that try to restrict the users to keeping
everything in the "my
                Documents" directory or a standard "Data" directory of your
choosing and
                backup only that directory. If that doesn't work then you
will come to the
                same fate we have and create a large include/exclude client
option set list
                on the ADSM server.

                Other considerations:
                We retain 3 versions. each version for 60 days and if
deleted 90 days
                Use Windows NT instead of 95, NT allows ADSM to run as a
service and  95
                does not. This means users tend to close it and don't back
up. We,
                unfortunately, have Win 95.
                Use a good software distribution system like Tivoli, no plug
for Tivoli but
                it has a good reputation from what I've heard. It probably
works better than
                Seagates Wininstall product which we suffer with.

                Final thoughts:
                We have 26,000 Win95 clients in our operation and we had to
make some
                "special" enhancements to rollout this many clients. Our
first hurdle was
                coming up with a naming convention. We settled on a nodename
consisting of
                the users lastname_firstinitial-officenumber. In other words
if your name is
                John Doe and you work in office # 0001 ( we have offices
which range from
                0001 to 0999 ) your node name is Doe_J-0001. Now, in order
to accomplish
                this systematically we wrote an applet in C++ which the user
enters his/her
                information, the applet checks a DAT file with the office
numbers and the
                corresponding ADSM server, and edits the OPT file. It has
worked pretty
                well. We have had a few issues with duplicate user names in
the same office
                but we have them append an "A" to their office number.

                good luck!

                CR

                __________________________________________________
                Cris Robinson
                Sr. Technical Analyst
                Enterprise Storage Management / ADSM
                Liberty Mutual Insurance
                Portsmouth, New Hampshire
                603.431.8400.54837
                mailto:cris.robinson AT libertymutual DOT com

                        -----Original Message-----
                        From:   Kelly J. Lipp [SMTP:lipp AT STORSOL DOT COM]
                        Sent:   Thursday, July 08, 1999 12:23 PM
                        To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                        Subject:        Re: Win95/NT Desktop Backups

                        The first thing to decide is how much of the local
disks are you
                going to
                        backup?  What is your current procedure for handling
the death of a
                desktop?
                        Do you simply replace it and it gets its personality
from a server
                        somewhere?  If this is the case, you probably can
get by with
                backing up
                        certain directories, like c:\my documents\*.  If
your death of
                desktop
                        restoration plan involves replacing a dead disk and
then restoring
                it from
                        someplace, then you'll want to back up the entire
disk to ADSM.
                This is
                        much harder and with 3-4000 desktops, lots of data.

                        You can use a client option set to control what is
backed up.
                Ensure that
                        the client option set option overrides the dsm.opt
file on the
                individual
                        PCs.

                        You might want to use open registration to register
all of these
                clients.
                        Easy for you, unless you have some standard naming
scheme you want
                to
                        employ.  Be a little careful here as you can have a
mess on your
                hands.
                        Open registration places all nodes registered this
way in the
                STANDARD
                        policy domain.

                        Limit your data, maximize your control and plan,
plan, plan and you
                should
                        be ok.

                        Kelly J. Lipp
                        Storage Solutions Specialists, Inc.
                        PO Box 51313
                        Colorado Springs CO 80949
                        719-531-5926
                        www.storsol.com
                        lipp AT storsol DOT com

                        -----Original Message-----
                        From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager
[mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf
                Of
                        Jones, Anthony
                        Sent: Thursday, July 08, 1999 10:02 AM
                        To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
                        Subject: Win95/NT Desktop Backups


                        Hello ADSM Guru's,

                        We are currently not backing up our desktops to TSM
(a.k.a. ADSM),
                but would
                        like to in the very near future.  The client base
would be about
                3000 to
                        4000 desktops.

                        What are some of the standards used in the desktop
backup arena?
                (i.e.
                        VerExist, VerDeleted...)
                        Pros & cons of the 95/NT client on the desktop?

                        What are some of the nightmare's that you have run
into with large
                client
                        bases?

                        Thanks in advance.
                        Anthony A. Jones
                        316-828-2432
                        Business Continuity & Data Storage Management
                        Koch Industries, Inc.