> We are currently implementing Tivoli as our backup soltuion for all our
AIX
> and Windows servers. As far as versioning, is there some sort of
guideline
> most people are using as far as number of verisons of a specific file to
> keep ? We are primarily a software production house and I'm trying  to
> figure out what is the mose useful versioning route to go by.

My two cents:

In an ideal world, you might keep all versions forever. But in the real
world, you need to balance the needs of the business with the resources
you have to accommodate your backup data. Data retention needs are
specific to your business and its needs. I do not believe that there are
any "one size fits all" answers to this. This is a subject you should
address with the people who will be using your TSM system.

One general approach would be to consider your data retention needs not in
number of versions to keep, but in how long to keep them. For example, if
my typical need was to be able to restore up to 15 days ago, then I could
configure my copy group retention settings like this:

   RETEXTRA=15
   RETONLY=15
   VEREXISTS=NOLIMIT
   VERDELETED=NOLIMIT

With the number of versions set to NOLIMIT, I can restore any backup
version from up to 15 days ago, with the granularity being limited by how
often I run backups (usually once a day, but maybe I might need to run
more than one backup a day for a given file). Also, it may be that after I
delete the file from my client system, the RETONLY or VERDELETED values
might need to be different (for example, maybe I want to extend the
retention of the latest backup version to, say, 30 days).

Note that I am not recommending these values, but just using them as an
example.

You can also configure multiple management classes wth copy groups that
have varying criteria. This allows you to manage some files differently
from others.

Regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

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