I have just been tasked with coming up with a TSM solution to the
following problem.  We currently have two OS/390-based TSM servers and
a 3494 with 10 magstar drives backing up 200+ AIX/Solaris/NT clients.

Our management has finally become disillusioned with the backup/restore
problems on some of our LANs.  Our LAN people have been allowed to do
use whatever they pleased for this function, meaning ARCSERVE since
that's all most of them know.  They recently deployed a Compaq SAN and
were tasked with consolidating several, God help us, Groupwise post-
offices.

Apparently, Netware uses some proprietary file system (NSS?) which
prevents the post office from being backed up directly, so they make
some sort of 'snapshot' like copy which can then be backed up.
Problems with ARCSERVE have stopped this consolidation in it's tracks
until some other, more reliable backup system can be implemented.  They
need to restore these GW post offices (20-30GB) in a relatively short
period of time, not the 6+ hours currently seen.

We are looking to eventually replace most or all of their existing
Arcserve systems and have an alternative to increasing the load on
our OS/390 servers.  I have tentatively suggested using their existing
Win/NT machine as a server with their SAN-attached DLT ATL to be
replaced eventually with an RS/6000 with connection to fibre-attached
3590s in our existing 3494.  However, I see that LAN-free backup in TSM
does not support a Netware client.

I know that this is an incomplete list of facts/requirements, but would
appreciate any comments/suggestions based on what I have been given so
far, particularly if anyone has heard of plans for further Netware
support (Lan-free) in Version 5.

Sam Sheppard
San Diego Data Processing Corp.
(858)-581-9668