I have no suggestions at the moment, except to pray the re-release of the
4.1.2 client works, and we can get it tested and distributed on an emergency
basis to over 100 clients in less than a month....


Sadly, after being a rabid fan of TSM for several years now, I have finally
started recommending to some people that they NOT install it.  One situation
in particular was an office environment that converted to all Win2K
machines.  We can't get reliable unattended backups there with the Win2K
client, and there is no point in paying the current TSM cost for a system
where somebody has to be trained to do manual backups every day, or manually
check each scheduler log every day.  And I can no longer use my primary
selling point for TSM - that i KNOW the backups WILL WORK if I'm not there
to watch them.  They may work, or they may not, and will still merrily
report success back to the server.

Tivoli Marketing is making it impossible to champion this product any more.
The current licensing scheme is so bizarre that you can't get the same quote
from any two Tivoli reps.  (I was given a quote of $465 for one desktop
Linux client running on a 130MZ pentium.  I don't think so, Joe.  And we got
another quote for system with 50 clients that was so absurdly wrong we just
threw it away and called somebody else.)   And Tivoli reps in the area have
made it clear they are interested only in Fortune 1000 customers.  And I
think that is what they will eventually get.

It's a shame, because I know how much good work has gone into the server end
of this product, and I think it is still the best of breed.  But I think
there may be a lot of sites, including this one, where there will be serious
consideration of an alternative product when the contract comes up for
renewal.


My opinions and nobody else's....

Wanda Prather