(Sorry for the old reply, I'm still catching up on email...)

On Wed, Jan 09, 2008 at 10:22:03AM -0600, Wanda Prather wrote:
> There are alternatives, including a backupset and an export tape.  The
> problem I have with those:  the data is on the tape, but the older backups
> will continue to expire out of the TSM DB.  So, 6 months from now, you don't
> have anyway to figure out what is ON the backupset or EXPORT tape.  This way
> you can query the DB to see what is in there, if your lawyers need
> something.

I would use a backupset.  TSM 5.4 allows you to generate a table of
contents for that backupset that the client can query/load to do
per-file browsing and restoring based off the backupset.  I'm not sure
how well the backupset would work with application backup tools (if
you're backing up with the Exchange TSM addon), but in terms of taking
an archive-like backup from pre-existing backups without changing
current/future backups, backupsets seem like the way to go.  The TOC can
be stored either on tape or to a file devclass so it's always browsable
even if the backupset media is offline.  (Or a TOC can be recreated
later from a pre-existing backupset, if the TOC is lost or didn't exist
when the backupset was taken.)

Making the node/domain/copygroup changes you described have the benefit
of storing all the active/inactive files for the node when you move it
over (rather than just the files active at the point-in-time defined in
the backupset.)  But that's a lot of configuration/policy/domain
overhead for one client/one point in time.

There's no right answer; only what works best for your situation and
comfort level.  I like that TSM provides these alternatives.

Dave