Hi Guillaume,

We have been running the Oracle TDP for several years, and this has ALWAYS
been a problem.  The backup objects are described by metadata BOTH in the
RMAN backup catalog and the TSM DB.  Several things can cause the two DB's
to get out of sync, and then you have backup pieces left in TSM that take up
space.

We have used 3 different ways to deal with it:

1) If you are running a recent version of the TDP, there is the TDPOSYNC
utility.  This is new (in the 2.2 version, I think) and addresses the
problem where the RMAN catalog and the TSM DB are out of sync.  The
description of the utility:  "This utility checks for items on the TSM
server that are not in the RMAN catalog and allows you to repair such
discrepancies. By thus removing unwanted objects in TSM storage, you can
reclaim space on the server."  It is described in the TDP manual, search on
TDPOSYNC.  Try this first, as it is the supported method for cleaning up.

2) There is the unsupported DELETE OBJECT command:  delete object 0 nnnnnn


where nnnnnn is the object id of the backup you want deleted from the TSM
DB.

You can get the objectid from the BACKUPS table:  select * from backups
where node_name='WHATEVER'

The DELETE OBJECT command is unsupported; but I have used it on more than
one TSM server, and have never heard of anyone having a problem with it.
(Have never used it on a 4.2 system, though.)

3) Rename the FILESPACE on the TSM end.  The next time the TDP does a
backup, a new clean filespace will be created, and future backups will go
there.  Keep the old filespace around for 10 days or 30 days, or however
long you want to retain those backups.  Then delete the old filespace.  (Now
if you want to do a restore from the old filespace, you will need to rename
it back to its original name temporarily.)

We have used all 3 methods successfully at different times.



Wanda