In my experience a backupset is more for server recovery than file
restoration and does not offer the ability to restore individual files, plus
the entire server would be included on the backupset, there is no way to
exclude certain directories from it unless there was a complex method they
were backed up. (i.e. different server names for specific data types or
directories) Archiving presents a similar problem and has it's own
deficiencies when running backups and archives at the same time.

 I have been in touch with Tivoli on a number of occasions trying to figure
out a way to get a "monthend". Yes there are many ways to do it, but my main
concern is the data already resides in the jukebox it would be ideal to be
able to copy all data for a specific server to a tape, based on a date and
time, that can be retained for "X" days, months or years and have the data
on that tape restorable on an individual file level. Two answers I have
received, "That functionality has been requested many times and is be
reviewed for a future release" or "That functionality is not what TSM was
ever intended to do and it is unlikely to be developed".

 The ability to do so would be more of a marriage between standard backups
daily, weekly, monthly and incremental always. If anybody knows of any
development in this area or has figured out a way to do this I would like to
know. I have some engineering servers that are in the 300 - 400 GB range and
a full backup is unfeasible, but would be ideal to have. These servers have
not been migrated from Veritas to TSM yet, specifically due to the inability
to provide this type of support.

Just my 2 cents worth.
Duane Ochs
Quad/Graphics Inc.
414.566.2375