Thank you Don and Zlatko for all the information on management classes.  It
really helped.  I know what we are doing is against the TSM backup ideology.
The system was originally setup to do AFS backups only, which doesn't really
use the management class.  The type of backup and it's retention is handled
through AFS.  Now we have another group who wishes to use our TSM system for
their Win2k backups.  We currently do not do copypools as our resources are
limited and we didn't need them for the type of data we back up under AFS.  We
save a week old copy of the backups offsite and that was fine for us.  The
other users who are now testing their backups on our TSM server are taking
fulls once a week for purpose of offsite storage. We intend on changing this
once they have decided whether they are going to continue to use the TSM server
for backups.  They don't care for the copypool backup idea and prefer a
snapshot taken once a month by using instant archive.  We are still in
discussions with them on what their requirements are and how we want to
accomplish them and how much additional hardware will be required to meet their
requirements.

Thanks again for all your help.

Diana


Quoting Zlatko Krastev <acit AT ATTGLOBAL DOT NET>:

> Diana,
>
> The only "major flaw" I see is your intention to use "absolute". This is
> against the TSM backup ideology. I am interested what is the business
> reason to go this way.
> The rest is "as designed" but I personally am not happy with your design.
> If you change default class (be it through setting another one as default
> or by activating another policy set), on next backup all files will be
> re-bound to that class. But if in the new policyset you set retextra=4 on
> next expiration 26 versions would be deleted. Having two mgmt classes
> differing only by mode will not give you two times 30 versions. The number
> of versions kept will be min(30,30) - again 30.
> Do not overcomplicate your policy. Create one class (or more) and use it.
> If you still want to have "full" backup on Sundays - I would use selective
> backup in Sunday's schedule and leave policy/classes unchanged. Again - is
> there actual need to resend all the data over the LAN? It is on the server
> already. Lets manage it better. If you can define the requirements in
> *business* terms only and prevent full/incremental/differential ideology
> to predefine the solution - this list can help you.
> TSM is very different from other backup products. And sometimes its
> "traditional" usage looks to me as driving a jet fighter on a highway with
> 100 km/h instead of flying with 1500 km/h over shorter route.
>
> Zlatko Krastev
> IT Consultant
>
>
>
>
> Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> Sent by:        "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> To:     ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> cc:
>
> Subject:        Help Understanding Mgmt classes
>
> Hi All -
>
> I believe I have my management classes all defined with a major flaw.  We
> do scheduled modified backups during the week and scheduled absolute
> backups on Sundays.  I have two management classes defined.  Both have the
> same retentions coded but one has "absolute" for the copy mode and one has
> "modified" coded.  I have a script that swaps the default management class
> on Sundays.  After rereading the manual and looking at the archives of
> this
> list, it seems there's no guarantee that the backup will use the default
> Management class.  Also, if I've specified to keep 30 versions of the data
> in both management classes, does that mean I'm going to retain 30 versions
> from the "absolute" and 30 versions of the "modified"?  I really want 30
> versions all together.
>
> My thought is to create multiply policy sets, and activate the policy set
> that contains only the management class I want.  I would then specify a
> retention of 4 versions for my policy set that contains the management
> class for "absolute".  This won't delete any of my 30 versions that were
> saved using the policy set that contains the "modified" management class,
> will it?  Does this make sense, or am I still way off here?
>
> Diana
>