Hi folks,
This is an update on the following issues I raised on Monday,
May15th. I have done additional testing and will update each point below.
I'm seeing a lot problems reported on TSM 3.7.2.0 and I thought I
would throw this one in the mix. I have the 3.7.2.0 client installed on my
workstation (IBM 365 PC running NT 4.0, service pack 6.0A) for testing. I
did a scheduled backup using the options file below. I have also included
the schedule and activity log extracts, the error log, the "show options",
and the "show inclexcl" output to illustrate my points.
My PC is a single processor system and is a few years old (like me,
it's getting slower). This will have some impact on the processing times,
so I'm not going to get into that one again. I will post new copies of the
options and log files but not the "show" results; I'm sure we can figure
those out by ourselves. The schedule log will be shortened to show the
stats and not the boring file by file blow of backup.
1. This produced the expected extra sessions for the new resource
option, but the extra sessions didn't terminate until the inactivity timer
popped on the server.
I still saw up to 10 sessions active but most were in the
idle state; they all successfully terminated at the end of the client backup
naturally nothing ever works the same twice. On a second test, I cut the
sessions back to 4 (number of "hard" drives + 1) with the same results.
2. The client backed up extensionless files that should have been
excluded - as best I can see.
3. The client failed to exclude files that are specifically excluded
(see netuser.dat entry) - I'm not that blind yet.
These two items were purely my misuse of the Include/Exclude
directives. I had directives ending in "*.*" which (as was properly pointed
out to me) means any file with a dot in its' name. Files without extensions
won't have them (duh!). Because I had "Included" a higher level directory,
the file ntuser.dat (maybe I am that blind already - I misspelled it before;
darn dyslexic computers) was a backup candidate but failed because it was
busy.
4. The backup registry options has been removed from the tool bar and
(apparently) placed under the System Object icon in the Backup/Restore
windows.
Thanks to Andy Raibeck (a darn good source in my book), this
is confirmed as being the case. Apparently I haven't read enough docs yet
or I missed the announcement somewhere.
5. The backup seemed to take longer than normal. I first deleted all
my backup files and started as effectively a new client. The negotiation
time seemed excessive and some of the client sessions seemed to stay in an
"idle waiting" state for the duration.
I think this may be attributed to the age of the client host
to some extent. I still noticed most of the client sessions were in idle
states however.
6. There seem to be an unusual number of lost/reconnect session errors
in the log file.
While there were not as many session lost/reconnect errors
in my last test, I did experience one test session where the out of sequence
verb and protocol errors (yes, they are still there) became a problem and I
had to terminate the backup test. I still see some errors about getting
stream info that may be (guessing here folks) NT related issues.
7. When using the GUI backup window to display file lists, I would see
the prior file list when requesting a new (large) directory file list. The
window would revert to the prior display list after completion of the new
file list - without displaying the new file list. When I re-selected the
new one I wanted to see, it would display correctly.
I think this one is also my ineptitude. What I was doing was
clicking on the folder for a tree branch (WINNT for example) instead of the
expansion icon (+). This would cause the client to go off and walk the
branch for its' structure and generate the list. When the list was
completed, since I hadn't selected the expansion icon, the files list pane
remained the same and the cursor returned to the proper point in the left
panes' tree display.
At least I didn't see the same behavior again and this was the only
explanation I could come up with.
These are just the "first glance" issues I have noticed on the
backup. On the restore side I have noticed:
1. There are now two version of the registry backed up - one for the
machine name (under Registry) and another one for the machine name (under
Registry.sav).
This is apparently due to a difference in client level
processing. If I remember correctly, the version 3 client used the
sub-directory with the ".sav" extension in the "adsm.sys" directory.
Apparently, the new version 7 clients dropped the extension and created a
new directory.
2. There appeared to be similar problem in the files display flashing
back to a previous display.
My fault again, see #7 above.
In short, I see a major problem with the processing of the
include/exclude directives and the file list displays. These issues make me
wonder, again, about the quality of the TSM vs. IBM products. I wonder if
we have made a mistake by jumping on the TSM bandwagon so early and I also
wonder more and more about the quality testing of the TSM product. I know
that the same group that was in ADSM is supposed to be behind the TSM
product, but I don't see the quality that was there - or I'm looking closer
than I used to.
I'll eat crow on most of these issues, but I still think that there
are some quality issues with the new product. For now, I'll attribute them
to the organizational change (even though that should have nothing to do
with them) and not scream too loudly when minor bugs walk out of the
woodwork. I understand from other sources that Tivoli is putting together a
kind of "quality assurance team" to address our concerns with product
quality. Hopefully, that will improve the product and boost our confidence
back to where it was with ADSM.
Thanks for taking the time to wade through this and for all the help
from those who replied (both users and Tivoli). I have to go find recipes
for crow now, so I'll see you guys around.
<<dsm.opt>> <<Sched-test-log.txt>> <<dsmerror.log>>
New versions of above logs/file.
<<dsm.opt>> <<DSMSCHED.LOG>> <<dsmerror.log>>
Gary L. Ison
Governor's Office for Technology
101 Cold Harbor Drive
Frankfort, Ky. 40601
Phone: (502) 564-8724
Fax: (502) 564-6856
E-mail: Gary.Ison AT mail.state.ky DOT us <mailto:Gary.Ison AT mail.state.ky
DOT us>
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