Just wanted to double-check that our archives are actually being done
correctly (I wasn't the one who set it up). This is more conceptual
help that I need here.


We run TSM Server 4.1.2 (yes, I know, it's EOL, but we are upgrading
in next few weeks) on AIX 4.3.3.

We already have a nightly backup policy which basically retains
active data for 90 days and inactive data for 365 days. This is fine
for 95% of our servers.

However, we now have a few servers where we need to do point-in-time
restores for up to a year back.

So we created a management class which basically retains active data
for 365 days. For the servers that need it, we still do a nightly
backup to the 90-day class. But every Sunday, for these small handful
of servers, we also run an archive to the new 365-day management
class.

Then, every Sunday evening, the archive pool gets backed up to a
archive pool copy. Monday morning, we check out all the archive pool
copy volumes, EVEN if they say they're still "Filling." We then label
these tapes indicating the week they were for, and take these offsite.

So, this is not a "true" point-in-time restore. But it's good enough
for us. If we want to restore as of <any given date in past year>, we
simply restore from the weekly archive tape of that date, which will
put us to that Sunday before the date. Then we restore the database
journal files that are backed up in the normal way. Since these
journal files have a new file (and filename) each and every day, they
are retained for up to 365 days under the 90-day mgmt class even when
they are deleted/purged off the system (as stated above, inactive
data kept for up to a year under the 90-day class). And then we roll
these journals forward from Sunday to the day we need them.

Is this the correct way to be using archive? I guess my biggest
concern is that we are pulling out "Filling" tapes and storing them
away. For our normal nightly backups, we only pull out "Full" volumes.

johnn