First, thanks to David and all others for providing some answers and
information on operational reporting. Here is some more information.

Background

Operational reporting (TSMOR) was in beta with over 300 participants
during the first half of 2003. TSMOR beta driver 7 was made available
as a technology preview during the second half of 2003. A big thank
you goes out to these groups for all of their input. TSMOR ga'd with
TSM 5.2.2 in January 2004. The biggest difference between the beta
version and the ga version is that the beta version was only available
in English and the ga version supports the same set of languages as
the TSM server. The technology preview ftp site still exists and there
you can find a TSMOR beta-to-ga migration tool and sample TEC
integration files. Download information will be in part 2 of this
note. Here is an updated TSMOR description that has been available on
the technology preview site.

Abstract

Operational reporting uses automation and proactive notification to
reduce the amount of time and effort required to keep IBM Tivoli
Storage Manager running smoothly.

Description

Operational reporting views a TSM server as being in one of two
states; Running Smoothly or Needs Attention. Customizable rules
determine which state the TSM server is in. This information is
automatically determined and sent to you in the subject line of an
e-mail. The e-mail provides access to a customizable status report.
If a server needs attention the e-mail also describes any issues and
provides recommendations on how to get TSM running smoothly again.

Features:

* Reduces the amount of time needed to administer TSM
* Provides customizable daily operational summary reports
* Provides customizable hourly monitors with notification options
* Extensible using your own SQL select statements and queries
* Supports multiple TSM servers (5.1.8+ or 5.2.2+, any platform)
* Supports multiple reports and monitors per server
* Reports can be viewed interactively
* Reports can be viewed from a web site
* Reports can be automatically sent to multiple recipients via e-mail
* Color highlighting provides quick status identification
* Custom templates and extensions can be easily shared
* Issues are identified and recommendations are provided
* Administrator Notification
  - Reports can be automatically sent via e-mail
  - Subject says if running smoothly or needs attention
  - Monitors sends notification if there are user defined issues
* Client Notification of Failed or Missed Schedules
  - Automatically notify clients of missed or failed schedules
* Easy to use
  - Runs on Windows as a Windows Service
  - Integrated in the MMC based TSM management console
  - Defaults are provided out of the box
  - Small number of required settings with a simple and familiar user
    interface

What TSM operational reporting is:

TSM operational reporting is designed to automate some of the
activities that many TSM administrators perform manually on a daily
basis. For example, TSM operational reporting can be configured to
query your TSM servers at 5:00am, generate a report with the
information you select, and send the report to you as e-mail with a
subject line indicating whether the server is running smoothly or
whether it needs attention.  A server needs attention if it has
outstanding issues that you can specify. You may decide, for example,
that there is an issue if more than one client schedule has failed or
if there are fewer than 10 scratch volumes. You can also provide a
recommendation on what to do when there are issues.  The report will
be conveniently waiting for you in e-mail or on a web site when you
are ready to review it. Because you can generate multiple reports and
direct each to whomever you want you may want to create specialized
reports for different people.  For example, you may want to have a
report sent to a DB administrator showing the status of their backups
along with any issues. You may want to send a report to a tape
operator showing what volumes need to be sent or retrieved from an
off-site vault.  You may want to automatically provide management with
a summary report so that they have an overall status of their data
protection operations.

The goal is to keep TSM running smoothly and to resolve any issues as
quickly and easily as possible whenever they do arise. If your daily
report indicates that TSM is running smoothly you can choose to review
the activity summary or go on to more pressing items. If the report
indicates that a server needs attention it will also highlight what
the issues are and will provide you with recommendations on how to
resolve them. TSM operational reporting also includes a special kind
of report called an operational monitor. You can configure a monitor
to run on an hourly basis to check for issues. Whereas a report will
be sent regardless of any issues, a monitor will only notify you if
there are issues. A monitor can notify you via e-mail or by sending a
message to your Windows desktop.

Operational reporting is highly customizable using template and
extension files. These files leverage the power of your custom SQL
select statements and they can be easily shared or traded with others.

Another time saving feature that operational reporting provides you
with is the ability to automatically send your clients an e-mail to
notify them of failed or missed schedules. This type of notification
is well suited to automation and can free up your valuable time for
better things.

What TSM operational reporting is not:

TSM operational reporting is a simple reporting tool and is not
intended to replace other advanced tools from Tivoli, Tivoli business
partners and other 3rd party vendors. TSM operational reporting
focuses on the information available in the TSM database and does not
maintain a separate database of information. This makes it very useful
for day-to-day operations but not for trending and advanced
analysis. If you would like more advanced reporting we recommend
considering one of the separate higher end packages that are
available.

Prerequisites

 - A TSM server running in your environment (any operating system)
 - Windows 2000/XP/2003 to run operational reporting on.

 Note: Operational reporting does not run under NT4.

Best Regards,

Mike Collins
Tivoli Storage Product Architecture
emcollin AT us.ibm DOT com