Wanda, thanks for the info.

I was aware of this feature so I am staying on 4.1.1.16 where 'system objects'
is not in the default domain.  For each w2k machine I make an additional
schedule to back up 'system objects' every 4 weeks.

I wonder what is the difference between backing up these files thru the normal
backup of the C drive and backing them up as part of 'system objects'.  Put
another way, what necessary data or meta-data is added by using the system 
objects
path.  This is probably more a question about the win2k system than about tsm.

--
--------------------------
--------------------------
Bill Colwell
Bill Colwell
C. S. Draper Lab
Cambridge, Ma.
bcolwell AT draper DOT com
--------------------------
In <1D06C9567A6AD4119391000629D9009D975EFF AT central.jhuapl DOT edu>, on 
06/01/01
In <1D06C9567A6AD4119391000629D9009D975EFF AT central.jhuapl DOT edu>, on 
06/01/01
   at 04:56 PM, "Prather, Wanda" <Wanda.Prather AT JHUAPL DOT EDU> said:

>I have run into some ugly issues with the Win2K backup of the "SYSTEM
>OBJECT".

>I'm throwing the information out here to warn other people what to expect,
>and hopefully to get the developers to reconsider the current
>implementation.

>The SYSTEM FILES component of the "SYSTEM OBJECT"  on Win2K consists of over
>1500 .dll and .exe and .obj files from (mostly) the WinNT/system32
>directory.  These files are backed up EVERY TIME an incremental is run, even
>though THE DATA HAS NOT CHANGED.

>We have converted over 200 NT desktops to WIn2K PRO.  For each of our Win2K
>PRO systems, this adds 1586 files to the backup every night.

>This has had an enormous impact on the TSM server.  The additional data is
>only about 20 GB per night, and that's not a big problem.  But each of the
>SYSTEM FILES still has it's own entry in the TSM data base.

>You do the math:  That's over 300,000 additional objects that get added AND
>deactivated each day, which for me means an additional 2.5 HOURS of EXPIRE
>INVENTORY time is needed DAILY.  And all for data THAT HAS NOT CHANGED.

>TSM's strength has always been that it DOESN"T back up unchanged data.
>Well, at least it didn't used to...

>My problem here is we have another 250 machines to convert from NT to WIn2K.
>They aren't about to buy me a second TSM server to handle the load, when the
>current one worked fine for backing up the same number of NT systems with
>the same amount of user data.  Instead they are looking at some Windows-only
>software to back up the WIndows side of the house.

>It appears to me the current TSM implementation is flawed, and will inhibit
>other people's ability to support large Windows environments as well as
>ours.

>I put this information into the Requirements for the Oxford Symposium,
>hopefully it will give some additional visibility to the issue.

>Any suggestions welcome ....but don't suggest we give up our ability to do
>full bare-metal restores.
>Management will change the backup software first.

>************************************************************************
>Wanda Prather
>The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab
>443-778-8769
>wanda_prather AT jhuapl DOT edu

>"Intelligence has much less practical application than you'd think" -
>Scott Adams/Dilbert
>************************************************************************