From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU]On Behalf Of
Joshua Bassi
> I am looking for feedback on using locked canisters for offsite
> vaulting.  I have setup DRM for several accounts who used open
> containers and I have setup poor man's tape rotation without DRM with
> open canisters, but I have never implemented a locked canister solution.
>
> The problem as I see it is that not all the data on the tapes will
> expire at the same time.  So what will happen is that some of the tapes
> in the canister are available for reclamation and then return to the
> data center, but other tapes will not be available at the same time,
> this will cause the tapes in the canister to be out of sync.
>
> I have thought of 2 ways to potentially deal with this problem:
>
> 1) Every week we can create a brand new copy storage pool and backup the
> primary pools to the offsite pool.  After 3 weeks all the data in the
> pool can be deleted and the tapes brought back onsite.  This is not
> utilizing TSM's incremental backup storage pool feature, but would
> guarantee that a complete set of data was taken offsite each week.
>
> 2) Use either import/export or generate backupset to create fresh tapes
> every week.

You're trying to fit a round peg in a square hole. Why do you want to
implement locked cannister mode? Security?

A backupset *can* be read without a db backup, as long as you're dealing
with like OS platforms. They're much less secure than an offsite pool.
Exports are similarly insecure.

Data from TSM's offsite tape pools cannot be read without a current database
backup and other required TSM server metadata.

--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
Certified TSM consultant
Certified AIX system engineer
MCSE