> From: Thomas A. La Porte [mailto:tlaporte AT ANIM.DREAMWORKS DOT COM]
> Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 6:42 PM

> Is anybody else a little bit distressed that Tivoli's TSM
> administrator needs to seek this advice from the list, rather
> than from the developers of the product?

No, not really. Tivoli is large enough, they may have many TSM
administrators in different areas and roles with varying levels of
expertise. Back when I worked in the VM development lab within IBM, there
were dozens or even hundreds of internal VM systems, and they were just like
external customers as far as the developers were concerned. Some of them
were valued beta test sites, just like some externals were, and there were
varying levels of expertise among the internal customers. Once you have
enough internal customers of a product, developers can't favor internal
customers just because they're internal. I hope TSM is long past that
penetration level within Tivoli. :-)

> This is an issue that has been one that has generated much
> discussion on and off with regards to the benefits and costs of
> attempting to reorganize a TSM database, and one on which we have
> never had much of a substantive response from anyone within
> Tivoli, either in this forum or in the documentation of these
> commands in the manuals.

Which only implies that to Tivoli, this problem isn't severe enough yet to
justify the amount of effort it will take to come up with some conclusive
response. Maybe they fear that a conclusive response will elude them, or
maybe it's simply that our friends within Tivoli have two dozen issues that
are even more important for the financial success of the product(s) in
someone's judgment.

> I would have thought that the people at Tivoli would be the best
> source for information of this type. I'm a little bit concerned
> that our collective guessing and anecdotal evidence is all that
> any of us as administrators have to go on.

Just like "the people" at Dreamworks are the best source about upcoming
cinema releases? :-)I'm sure there are some folks at Tivoli who have the
best resources and the best knowledge about TSM if someone decides this is
an issue that needs to be resolved. I hope they reach that decision quickly.
But to start panicking because a Tivoli person publicly asks a question that
other "real" customers have asked seems excessive.

>  -- Tom
>
> Thomas A. La Porte
> DreamWorks SKG
> tlaporte AT anim.dreamworks DOT com

Nick Laflamme
not speaking for any present or past employers.... :-)