The "Getting Started" RedBook is the very best starting point; also, SHARE
has excellent sessions, usually with usable hand-outs, so there's much info
out there, and for a (very modest?) small fee... there are folks who would
visit for awhile and make pointed recommendations, some even in writing. I
would strongly advise SHARE at Long Beach, next month... see
http://www.shareinlongbeach.org, look for the "hot tracks", you'll find a
dozen sessions dedicated to TSM (including performance and a free-for-all).
Did you see the performance guidelines document on the web??? Although
dated, it is a great start.
For NT, there are numerous issues, so it depends on your goal - are you
trying to get some basic guidance, or are you trying to solve some specific
problems or questions??? NT, in general, is a "weak" platform for i/o or
CPU intensive activity (read "TSM server"), so the general (read "street
smart") approach (as well as Microsoft's) is to dedicate each machine to a
single job. SP6a is a good level, named-pipes is good for local client, I
would not use it for a networked client, etc.
Your environment sounds like it's not very large, yet; you don't mention how
much daily backup load (think "incremental forever"), or the type of media
you're using; ArcServe historically had problems if its database grew much
beyond 750 MB, TSM is pretty happy up to 25+ GB (large AIX machines are good
for even more).
This isn't really rocket-science; mostly, it's diligent commitment to the
task of design-deploy-monitor-adjust in response to business requirements
and available hardware/money resources (unencumbered by all the other
infrastructure/admin. tasks most shops demand). There are plenty of war
stories on this list server, to help you avoid being a pioneer (with arrows
in your back!); there are, also, success stories, and help with specific
issues.
The main difficulty we've seen is reconciling the large number of choices
down to something a business-minded manager can handle. Once you fully
realize what problem the business needs handled, the rest is very scalable;
the main problem to solve is defining the nature of the business needs.
Some folks think they need to backup everything, every day/week/month/year -
that's usually not true; it does take serious, sometimes hard, work to
reach a reasonable consensus on the business requirements... and what the
business is willing to pay, to get the problem solved!
In our case, the clients are mostly unaware of the number of choices
available, or the impact of choosing the backup solution before deciding
retention and recovery SLA's. Mostly, they just want their data backed up
every day, including some provision for off-site vault storage (in case of
site disaster). Last year, I led a team researching the sizing/cost/speed
components, to reach a consensus for one large client (10 backup servers in
5 cities, a mix of Unix and NT clients - typically, 30+ clients per server).
I now approach each new client with a recommended solution that covers 3
kinds of data; file data, mail-server data, and other database data. I
still ask for speed requirements for recovery (SLA), but only rarely get
coherent response; your dba's will know, but the managers and decision
makers won't - until they experience an outage (or have the good sense to
insist on a yearly trial to verify critical server recovery). So far, the
customers I've dealt with are very happy with 14-day point-in-time restore
of flat-file backup data, plus a monthly "snapshot" for servers, with
3-month retention (to consolidate the active backup data), plus 2-weeks
worth of database backups (typically with weekly/monthly backups that get
saved for 6 weeks & 6 months, respectively), plus a yearly snapshot with 7
year retention.
There are many good folks on this list that have shared much info, and
continue to participate in user groups. A good source of info is Kelly
Lipp; ask for his white paper on backup vs. archive. Another is Richard
Sims, who has a public-access web site of his many notes on TSM... look for
it in the archives. And, come to SHARE; you won't be sorry - and it'll be
much cheaper than just hiring another consultant... if that's not possible,
look for SHARE, GUIDE or *SM user groups in Europe (you might find some info
in the archives about the Oxford conference on storage management that
IBM/Tivoli held there a couple years ago). Hope some of this helps!
Regards,
Don France
Technical Architect - Unix Engineering/P.A.C.E.
San Jose, CA
mailto:dfrance AT pacbell DOT net
PACE - http://www.pacepros.com
Bus-Ph: (408) 257-3037
-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Cabanas [mailto:CABANL AT MAIL.MODOT.STATE.MO DOT US]
Sent: Monday, January 22, 2001 7:13 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Tivoli 4.1 Best Practises
Tony, unfortunately, I have never been able to find one, and when I ask my
IBM/Tivoli consultants, they tell me no too. Unfortunately also, when
asking
for "expert" opinions on how to do things, each IBM/Tivoli "expert" will
give
you his/her own answer-- there is no IBM way, like there is a "Micro$oft
Way"
But, if you find one, please pass that info on!!
thanks
lisa
|--------+---------------------------->
| | MORGAN TONY |
| | <TONY.MORGAN@FORTI|
| | SBANK.COM> |
| | |
| | 01/22/2001 07:35 |
| | AM |
| | Please respond to |
| | "ADSM: Dist Stor |
| | Manager" |
| | |
|--------+---------------------------->
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-|
|
|
|
| To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
|
| cc: (bcc: Lisa Cabanas/SC/MODOT)
|
| Subject: Tivoli 4.1 Best Practises
|
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-|
Hello,
Hello,
As a new Tivoli convert (ex-Arcserve), I need to gain TSM 4.1 knowledge
rapidly.
Does anyone know of a paper, or similar, that describes TSM Best Working
Practises that usually come from years of experience, or more often painful
mistakes. (Have you written one?) The Technical Guide is great, but not
"real world" enough.
The kind of info I'm thinking of is; pro's/con's of using Named Pipes for
Tivoli backups, Network tuning for backups (window sizes, etc), adding
quality to DSM.OPT and DSMSERV.OPT files, known gotcha's, etc...
... Anyone who knows "Tapesys" (VMS) will be aware of how useful this
information can be.
I have tried Redbooks, ADSM, Tivoli manuals and even paid for a consultant
(who has gone missing!!!), but still I feel that I should be doing more.
My Tivoli "family" comprises of 2 servers and 32 clients at present, all
running NT4.0 mainly SP6a.
Rgds
Tony Morgan
Technical Analyst
Fortis Bank UK
London, England
|
