From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On 
Behalf Of Burton, Robert
>  We are being pushed to improve our reclamation thresholds in 
>order to drive down the amount of tape volsers required...
>
>We are using STK 9940 tape drives and get 300GB - 1 TB of data 
>stored on each tape.  I'm trying to explain that with the 
>larger tape sizes it is much more difficult to keep the 
>reclamation numbers at the same target levels as with the 
>smaller tape volumes.

Here's an idea that will alleviate the problem to a point.

Use max filesize filters and route really large files (say > 50GB)
directly to their own primary and copy tape pools. Don't send them to
disk, and don't bother running reclaims on those pools. (You'll find it
doesn't buy you much, and takes too much time.) Use the COPYSTGpool
parameter to define this new primary pool so that you don't have to run
a separate BACKUP STGpool process; the primary and copy pools will both
get their versions of each file at the same time.

Doing this will make running reclaims on the balance of your files
faster. Of course, it will also help if you have an adequate number of
tape drives for your workload.

--
Mark Stapleton (stapleton AT berbee DOT com)
IBM Certified Advanced Deployment Professional
  Tivoli Storage Management Solutions 2005
IBM Certified Advanced Technical Expert (CATE) AIX
Office 262.521.5627