I want to thank everyone who responded to my question(s).  It seems that
*EVERYONE* goes faster than us, some by a big margin.

I just finished upgrading the OS/390 server from ADSM 3.1.2.50 to TSM
4.1.3.  I was hoping the DB backup would be faster. Unfortunately, there is
"no joy in Mudville".

The first full DB backup performed after the upgrade took 4h 43m.

I am still looking for suggestions on how to improve these numbers.

Changing the backup to 3590 drives/tapes only shaved about 20 minutes off
the time. That mostly accounts for rewind and mount times (1-3590 vs
9-3490).

I have bumped the BUFPOOLSIZE value to 80M but still cant achieve the
elusive 98+% "Cache Hit Pct.".

I've thought about trying SELFTUNEBUFPOOLSIZE but am a little concerned
since we are currently somewhat real-storage constrained and TSM is
currently at over 120M WSS, already.

Anyone have any experience with this new option ?   Any suggestions/tips to
improve the DB backup performance ?

f adsm,q db f=d
  ANR5965I Console command:  Q DB F=D

            Available Space (MB): 17,496
          Assigned Capacity (MB): 17,496
          Maximum Extension (MB): 0
          Maximum Reduction (MB): 3,020
               Page Size (bytes): 4,096
              Total Usable Pages: 4,478,976
                      Used Pages: 3,700,667
                        Pct Util: 82.6
                   Max. Pct Util: 82.6
                Physical Volumes: 8
               Buffer Pool Pages: 20,480
           Total Buffer Requests: 63,986,411
                  Cache Hit Pct.: 95.31
                 Cache Wait Pct.: 0.00
             Backup in Progress?: No
      Type of Backup In Progress:
    Incrementals Since Last Full: 0
  Changed Since Last Backup (MB): 376.67