Hi Steve,

See my responses below:

> TSM Server 5.2.2.0 & 5.2.4.3 on AIX
>
> 1. Is there a way of finding out the TDP version without going into each
> client and bringing up the gui?  From my Q NODE command, it is showing
> me the client version of the BA client even when I am selecting the TDP
> nodename.

Actually, it is probably showing you the version of the TSM API,
which most of the time is the level of the BA client.
You don't need to bring up the DP Client GUI... you can also
obtain the information from the header of the CLI. For example:
     IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Databases:
     Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server
-->  Version 5, Release 2, Level 1.04
     (C) Copyright IBM Corporation 1997, 2005. All rights reserved.


>
> 2. Why does it seem the TDP development is lagging behind?  I am being
> "pushed" to replace TDP with SQL-Backtrack because:
>    A. We want to provide the DBA's a console to perform backup/restore
> without giving them admin permissions on each Windows server
Microsoft requires this when using the VDI interface of SQL Server.
VDI enables the multiple striping and high-performance throughput.
We have asked Microsoft about reducing the requirements for this.
They understand the requirement, but won't specify any timeframe.

>    B. The DBA's want to be able to do table level restores
Microsoft APIs does not support "direct" table level restores in the
latest
versions of SQL Server. (Older versions of SQL Server used to support it.)
Customers can accomplish table-level restore functionality by
organizing the databases for maximum flexibility. If you have tables
that you need to be able to restore individually, you can place
them into their own file or group and perform file or group
type restores on them.

>    C. TDP does not support x64 for SQL2005 on the Xeon processors (and
> we use all IBM hardware!)
We have added this support. We are targeting to have this ready
for customer download within a few weeks.


Del
----------------------------------------------------

Del Hoobler
Tivoli Storage Manager Development
IBM Corporation