I have been working with TSM for about a year now but have no experience
with archiving.

Recently I have been asked to look into archiving for long term storage of
our Exchange, SQL  and Oracle database backups. We are currently using TDP
for our normally backup schedules and would like to retain an annual\monthly
copy of those databases.
I know this list has an overwhelming amount of information about how TSM is
not designed for retention settings of this type, but they can be achieved
with copy group retention settings and second management classes.
My particular server has an archivepool but it doesn't have any space
allocated to it, so I am unable to use the archive feature.

My question is, what benefits would I have setting up an archivepool
correctly to be able to use the archive feature over setting up new
management classes with the required retention settings. Even if my
archivepool was setup correctly, wouldn't it act like my existing diskpool,
as in migrations to an archivetape pool with reclamations and expirations.
Am I correct in assuming that we could not identify/remove a particular tape
volume with a particular archived database on it. My understanding is that
backupsets are the only way to accomplish that except for the fact that
backupsets do not work for databases.

I understand that archiving is used for backing up data with plans for
deletion, but we have no plans to delete any of these databases.

Please excuse my ignorance on this subject, I have done a lot of reading
(including the FAQ) on this list but could not really find a particular
answer on the benefits.

Server W2K TSM 4.2.2.13, clients (most) W2K TDP 2.2

Mark B.