Greetings,
I think I will weigh in on this one.  I think most of our Windows TSM
client missed/failed backups fall pretty evenly into four groups:

1) Fixable problems within the OS, including VSS and WMI service
failures/hangs.  Included in this group is the occasional corrupt
file/filesystem, or Windows OS in memory meltdown.
2) On large filesystems, problems with the TSM scheduler or journal
services hanging.  Sometimes these are resolvable with Windows registry
hacks, or "memoryefficientbackup yes", or adding "3GB" to the
system.ini.
3) Unexplainable random events, where restarting the TSM services makes
the problem disappear, but we can't prove there was a certain cause.
4) Fixable problems with our processes, like other admins taking down a
system for maintencance, and not telling us to remove it from the
schedule. 

In the past year we upgraded all ~1500 Windows clients here to 5.4.2.0
(except for the Windows 2000 servers, that had to stay behind on 5.3.6.)
We tried various flavors of 5.5, but none were as reliable as 5.4.2,
which sort of surprised me.  We gave up trying 5.5 a few months ago, so
maybe it is cleaned up by newer version now.  We don't have enough hands
to upgrade all the clients more than about once a year, so when we find
a stable version, we generally stick with it.


Best Regards,

John D. Schneider
Sisters of Mercy Health Systems 
Email:  John.Schneider AT Mercy DOT net 


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Wanda Prather
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 2:18 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] TSM V6 Tivoli Clients

"VSS is like a nose.
Sometimes it runs, sometimes it blows." --- me.


On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Zoltan Forray/AC/VCU
<zforray AT vcu DOT edu>wrote:

> And of course after M$ changes/fixes their problems, they screw-up the
TSM
> clients which results in another client
> patch................lather--rinse--repeat
>
> "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 03/24/2009
> 02:46:48 PM:
>
> > From:
> >
> > Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU>
> >
> > To:
> >
> > ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> >
> > Date:
> >
> > 03/24/2009 02:48 PM
> >
> > Subject:
> >
> > Re: [ADSM-L] TSM V6 Tivoli Clients
> >
> > Sent by:
> >
> > "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> >
> > On Mar 24, 2009, at 2:35 PM, Timothy Hughes wrote:
> >
> > > I agree there are too many issues with the 5.5 clients, I am also
> > > hoping
> > > for a big improvement with 6.x specifically regarding the VSS
issues.
> >
> >  From all I've read, the VSS issues are the result of ongoing
> > Microsoft programming errors, of which IBM is just one of the
victims.
> >
> >     Richard Sims
>
This e-mail contains information which (a) may be PROPRIETARY IN NATURE OR
OTHERWISE PROTECTED BY LAW FROM DISCLOSURE, and (b) is intended only for the
use of the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the addressee, or the
person responsible for delivering this to the addressee(s), you are notified
that reading, copying or distributing this e-mail is prohibited. If you have
received this e-mail in error, please contact the sender immediately.