Friday, December 21, 2007

I am late wishing Happy Holidays so for anyone celebrating the Holidays left TSMExpert.org wishes you all the best!


December 2007

* Means that Holy days begin at sundown the day before this date.
** Regional customs, group preference or moon sightings may cause a variation of this date.
Bold titles are primary holy days of tradition.

20
Eid al Adha * - Islam

21
St. Thomas Day - Christian

22
Winter Solstice
Yalda * - Persian/Zoroastrian
Yule - Christian
Yule * - Wicca/Neo Pagan northern hemisphere
Litha * - Wicca/Neo Pagan southern hemisphere

25
Christmas * - Christian
Feast of the Nativity ** - Orthodox Christian

26
Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra) Zoroastrian
St Stephen's Day - Christian

28
Holy Innocents - Christian

30
Feast of the Holy Family - Catholic Christian

31
Watch Night - Christian

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

DR Tests & System Restores

I know I have covered this before, but we have been doing DR tests and when restoring UNIX servers I find it easier and faster to use the Web/Java GUI to select all file systems required to restore the data than following the IBM guideline to build a small script that runs them serially. The thing I don't get is why they would push command line restore. Doing the restore file system by file system will require the same tapes be mounted multiple times where the GUI will restore all the data available on the tape for the selected backup. They do state that you can execute more than one restore simultaneously, but in every DR exercise I have run that would just cause tape contention since I do not collocate by file space. Unless I am wrong in how TSM handles a GUI based multiple file system restore wouldn't the GUI be the better solution when in a DR or full UNIX system restore scenario?

Of course this is all dependent on whether you have Java 1.4.1 or higher installed.

Friday, December 14, 2007

60 seconds of tips

Good morning comrades

After running a database restore you need to run an audit on your storage pools so they are consistent. Failure to do so may results in lost space and errors in your log.
Read more

How do you know from day to day the throughput of your client backups? Here we take a glimps at a method which can help you review performance with next to no effort.
Read more

Enjoy the weekend

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Tip of the day

setopt maxsessions - server side option which specifies total number of sessions, client and server, that can run at any one time

set schedmaxsessions - this number is a PERCENTAGE of 'maxsessions' and specifies what percent of the maxsessions can be used for server/client schedules, like the maintenance script or daily client backups

If # of clients trying to backup over night exceed the percent of maxsessions available, you'll get an error in dsmsched.log which looks something like this. "Could not backup, no sessions available"

Monday, December 10, 2007

FILE vs DISK

There are a number of words you'll read before becoming uninterested. You can read everything below in under 20 seconds.

Based on real word advantages:




DISK

  1. No reclamation required

  2. Does not Fragment

  3. Caching allowed

  4. Shredding supported


FILE


  1. Only uses space required

  2. Can query node data

  3. Smaller DB and lower processor utilisation

  4. Supports LAN Free

Do you have anything to add?

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Nice List of TSM SQL Querries

I came across this web page when doing a search on TSM SQL queries and thought I would post it for all to reference. Thanks goes to Thobias Salazar Trevisan for the list and as he requests please send him any SQL queries you think would be beneficial to the masses they can be added. Thobias also has created a TSM monitoring tool that can be found here. For those of you not as versed in TSM, this tool might help you with your daily tasks.

Monday, December 03, 2007

TSM Oxford Symposium Presentations Available

In case you didn't know, the 2007 TSM Oxford Symposium presentations are now available from the following link:


If you have the time I highly recommend you look through them, I guarantee you will find at least one presentation that can help you in your environment. Thanks to the symposium for posting the presentations for us lackeys who could not attend.

Journal

The TSM journal can be your friend or foe. Which one depends on when and how you use it. IBM have released an FAQ around the journal and below I point out a couple of important areas. It will take you no longer than 60 seconds to improve/refresh you're understanding of the journal.

60 second intro

  • Journal Backup is appropriate for backing up files systems with small or moderate amounts of change activity between backup cycles.
  • A traditional incremental backup of the file system must be completed while the
    journal for the file system is active.
  • This backup must result in the Last Backup Completion Date being updated on
    the TSM server.
  • Once the full incremental backup has been completed, the change journal is marked
    as valid for the TSM client node and server the backup was performed with.
more...

Friday, November 30, 2007

Recovery

It's not about backup, it's about recovery. Let's take a look at a few articles that can help you protect your TSM environment. You're backup solution is no good if you can't recovery from a disaster. These articles are based on Windows.

http://ryanpartington.com/article/tsmdaily/
Working through your daily tasks should look something like this, ensuring you have an offsite copy of your primary pools.

Once you're happy with your daily tasks, schedule a test server recovery exercise every quarter. This will allow you to optimise your processes and resolve any potential stumbling blocks. The following two articles look at recovering the server.
http://ryanpartington.com/article/tsmdisaster/ - Step by step text
http://ryanpartington.com/article/tsmrecovery/ - Step by step videos (posted earlier this week)

Any comments welcome
Thanks

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Blog Links

If you have a blog that posts TSM related subjects and issues send me an e-mail and I'll link to it under my new TSM Related Blogs link list. It doesn't have to be 100% TSM, but I would like the links to have at least 50% TSM and storage related topics. You can e-mail me through my contact info on the right under About The Admin.

Good TSM Recovery Videos

Ryan Partington has posted some really good TSM Server Recovery walk through videos on his website. The videos are around 40 minutes total in length and can help those of you who have never gone through this situation on procedures to follow. I've posted the first video and you can find the others here. Leave comments below on what other video tutorials you'd like to see.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

TSM Sharepoint TDP

Has anyone used the Sharepoint TDP for TSM yet? I have a number of Sharepoint servers at work and would like to know what users thoughts are on its capabilities. Is it easy to use or a nightmare to implement? Does it backup well or is it slow? Does it adversely affect the systems performance? If anyone can give me some feedback I'd appreciate it.

Friday, November 16, 2007

TSM 5.5 Available Today + TSM 5.4 Upgrade (or not) + The End is Nigh for TSM 5.3

Howdy folks,

Further to Chad's post, here's the full announcement on www.ibm.com (worth a look as it's pretty comprehensive):

>>> http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=877&letternum=ENUSZP07-0476


(I spy this link is also hidden away in one of the comments below)

TSM 5.5 is available for download for Passport Advantage customers as of today (Friday 16th of November 2007), and media is available from 14th December 2007.

There's also an IBM Redbook for TSM 5.5 being written at this very moment and there's likely to be a draft available mid-December (thanks for the info Craig).

Finally for now, it's worth noting that after a touch over three years in service, TSM 5.3 goes out of support at the end of April 2008 - time to exercise those upgrade muscles as I'm sure many shops haven't even taken the leap up to TSM 5.4 yet.
However, if this all seems too daunting too soon, I understand that IBM are offering extended support for 5.3 for two further years (at cost).
Over and out...

David McClelland
London, UK

Thursday, November 15, 2007

TSM Job in LA

TSM Engineer

6 month contract to hire

Up to $105,000 perm salary

- Candidate will be part of the Engineering (Technical Services) group

- The main characteristic of the candidate they are looking for is troubleshooting and the desire to find problems and fix them.

- Skills needed in addition to traditional TSM admin experience;

1. Tivoli Data Protection (TDP) is the #1 skill they are looking for. TDP is Tivoli module that helps back up databases such as SQL and UDB. The client has approximately 50TB a night in database info that needs to be backed up.

2. Server Migration Experience. The client is moving some mainframe based TSM over to a Unix platform. They will also be upgrading some of their older Unix servers to new ones so server migration experience is very important to them.

3. NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol)

4. NAS backups. Currently, their NAS is not mirrored.

- Client currently has 13 TSM servers and is looking to have as many as 30 by the end of next year

- LA facility has 3 servers moving to 7

- Candidate will be on 7/24 oncall rotation once every 8 weeks.

- Candidate will work 45-50 hours per week.

David Schnurr
866-491-0601 toll free
918-491-0800 fax
dschnurr@gdhconsulting.com
http://www.gdhconsulting.com/

Let Them Know You Saw The Post On TSMExpert.org!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

TSM 5.5 Added Features

Looks like 5.5 is due out sometime soon and IBM has released some of the features that will be available with the update. Still waiting on some change to the ISC but I doubt that is going to happen anytime soon. The following is from the aritcle which can be read here and another more thurough one from CNN Money is here.

TSM 5.5 includes integrated key management for encrypted backups, support for VMware's Consolidated Backup option (VCB), snapshot support for Microsoft applications, the ability to do multiple simultaneous restores on sequential disk and the ability to restart the movement of TSM instances from one server to another.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

TSMExpert.org


I have purchased the TSMExpert.org domain and will be switching the site to that address within the week. The current site address will forward to the new address. Basically the site should stay the same (it will still be hosted by Google) but the new address should make the site easier to find and index by the large search engines. If you have questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.


Saturday, October 27, 2007

ACSLS Shared Library DRM Checkout

I was recently asked by a reader if I would show them how I do the checkout of my DRM tapes in an shared ACSLS library. If you are not aware, ACSLS does not really support true DRM checkout within a shared library environment. Unfortunately, what occurs when you run the checkout is that ACSLS tries to check the tapes out one at a time; prompting for a request response before checking out the next tape. I found this out when we implemented our STK L5510 library and the checkout process was broken. So I went searching for some kind of answer to the situation and found APAR IC45537 which states the problem has been known since March of 2005. IBM has not resolved the issue within TSM but has relied on a local fix to resolve this issue. So I decided to post the script I created here to help those people out who have an ACSLS library and are looking to share it between multiple TSM instances and don't want to have to deal with Gresham's software.

Here is a basic rundown of what the script does.



  • On each library client DRM checks the tapes out with a REMOVE=NO option and creates a file with a list of the tapes.
  • On the library manager the tapes are checked back into the library.
  • The Library manager then checks every library clients DRM tapes out.
I know it sounds complex but it's not. It also is not perfect so you will need to keep on top of it, but don't worry it is not so bad that it's a headache. Some explaination is required also; In my environment I have 7 TSM instances and the firsts is just a library controller. This is why the following script starts at TSMSERV2 and stops the loop after TSMSERV7. Also note that the pipe sysmbol will not show up for some reason so you need to add it before the grep statements. Before you use the script you will also notice that it uses a TSM macro. Create the file by putting the following command into a macro called move_drmedia.mac.

move drm * so=dbb wherestate=mo tostate=vault remove=no CMD=&VOL CMDFILE=/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List APPEND=YES WAIT=YES
move drm * so=dbb wherestate=vaultr tostate=onsiter


=-=-=-=-= Below Starts Checkout Script =-=-=-=-=

#!/bin/ksh

cd /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin

OFFSITE=/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/OFFSITE/offsite.txt
RETRIEVE=/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/OFFSITE/retrieve.txt
ADSMID=`cat /usr/local/scripts/ADSMID`
ADSMPASS=`cat /usr/local/scripts/ADSMPASS`
I=2

cp $OFFSITE "$OFFSITE.BAK"
cp $RETRIEVE "$RETRIEVE.BAK"
cp /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List.bak

cat /dev/null > /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List

printf "Use this list to determine tapes that are to go offsite report any discrepancies to the Recovery Services Team.\n\n" > $OFFSITE
printf " \n\n" >> $OFFSITE
printf "=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\n\n" >> $OFFSITE
printf " Tapes to be sent offsite\n\n" >> $OFFSITE
printf " Current as of: `date`\n\n" >> $OFFSITE
printf "=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-\n\n" >> $OFFSITE

printf "Use this list to determine tapes that are to come back onsite from Iron Mountain for reuse. Report any discrepancies to the Recovery Service Team.\n\n" > $RETRIEVE
printf " \n\n" >> $RETRIEVE
printf "********************************************************\n\n" >> $RETRIEVE
printf " Tapes to be brought back onsite from Iron Mountain\n" >> $RETRIEVE
printf " and placed back into TSM library for scratch.\n\n" >> $RETRIEVE
printf " Current as of: `date`\n\n" >> $RETRIEVE
printf "********************************************************\n\n" >> $RETRIEVE

while [ $I -lt 8 ]
do
S=TSMSERV-$I

dsmadmc -id=$ADSMID -password=$ADSMPASS -servername=$S -dataonly=yes "select volume_name from drmedia where state='MOUNTABLE' " grep L[0-3] >> $OFFSITE

dsmadmc -id=$ADSMID -password=$ADSMPASS -servername=$S -dataonly=yes "select volume_name from drmedia where state='VAULTRETRIEVE' " grep L[0-3] >> $RETRIEVE

dsmadmc -id=$ADSMID -password=$ADSMPASS -servername=$S 'macro move_drmedia.mac'

sleep 120

I=$(( $I + 1 ))
done

dsmadmc -id=$ADSMID -password=$ADSMPASS -servername=TSMSERV-1 'CHECKIN LIBVOL TSMLIB search=yes stat=private checklabel=no vollist=FILE:/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List'

sleep 180

dsmadmc -id=$ADSMID -password=$ADSMPASS -servername=TSMSERV-1 'CHECKOUT LIBVOL TSMLIB vollist=FILE:/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/Vol_List'

mail -s "TDC Daily Tape Checkout" $HN tape_rpt < $OFFSITE

mail -s "TDC Daily Tape Return" $HN tape_rpt < $RETRIEVE

Friday, October 26, 2007

Monthly Backups

Many people I have talked with have a requirement to keep a month end backup for an extended period of time. This is where backupsets can be very helpful, but what do you do when backupsets just wont cut it? Well I have a requirement to keep some month end data for extended periods but all other backups are kept for 30 days. How do I accomplish this? The answer is a shell script. Before the ehanced scheduler came about in TSM 5.3 the only way to get the backup to change to a different type at the end/beginning of the month was to have some script handle it or you could manually control it. So here is a good shell script that looks at the day of the month and if it is the 1st it runs a backup to an alternate nodename. In this example the nodename is the same as the default nodename with -MONTHLY added to the end. We also made a dsm.opt file called dsm.opt.monthly that references the stanza in the dsm.sys with the alternate name. Then schedule this script as a daily command script for the node and it will run the daily incremental to the default nodename every day except on the 1st of the month. I hope this is useful for some of you. Click Read More to see the script.

#!/usr/bin/ksh
#set -x
export PATH=$PATH:.:/etc:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/local/lib:
export LIBPATH=$LIBPATH:/usr/odcs/bin
export DSM_LOG=/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin
export DSM_DIR=/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin
BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE=/usr/local/scripts/logs/Filesystem-incremental-backup.log
if [ -f $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE ]; then
mv $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE.`date +%d`
printf "`date` - Starting Backup\n" >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
fi
printf " test " >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
# Modified to use the monthly opt file on the 1st for monthly backups that are
# kept for a extended period of time.


case `date +%d` in
01)
export DSM_CONFIG=/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt.monthly
;;
*)
export DSM_CONFIG=/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt
;;
esac
# Back up the filesystems
#
printf "`date` - Starting the backup of the filesystems.\n" >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
# Set the success variable to zero
INCR_BACKUP_SUCCESS=0


/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsmc incr >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
# /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsmc q fi >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE INCRCODE=$?
if [[ $INCRCODE -ne 0 && $INCRCODE -ne 4 && $INCRCODE -ne 8 ]]
then
printf "`date` - Incremental backup failed - return code: $INCRCODE\n" >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
exit 1111
else
printf "`date` - Incremental of $FS successful - return code: $INCRCODE\n" >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
fi
printf "`date` - Backup has completed successfully\n" >> $BK_SCRIPT_LOGFILE
echo $?

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

SpectraLogic Library Review


We recently acquired a Spectra Logic T950 library for one of our data centers and I thought I'd let you all know how it's been performing. Since I was with IBM previously my only experience was with STK's (which we were trying to push out the customers door ASAP) and IBM hardware. I can say I was no fan of the STK L700 and being an IBM'er at the time I touted the 3584 and 3494's like they walked on water (they don't). We frequently had to have maintenance on our IBM libraries. Was it due to the fact we were collocating over 2500 clients and mounts were through the roof? Probably!

The data center I worked at with IBM had a secondary library room that housed the 8 libraries (some were for mainframes) and tape shelves. The room was running out of floor space to accommodate another library or expansions to existing ones. This is where SpectraLogic has IBM and the competition beat, hands down. A single T950 frame can house up to 24 drives and a max of 950 tapes with a frame H 78.77 in, W 30.63 in, D 43.21 in (H 200.1 cm, W 77.8 cm, D 109.8 cm). That's a little taller but less deep than an IBM TS3500 frame at 70.9"H x 30.8"W x 47.7"D (1800 mm x 782 mm x 1212 mm), with the IBM L frame handling a max of only 12 drives and 287 tapes.

How does SpectraLogic get such great density? They go vertical with a twist. SpectraLogic libraries use "TeraPacks" that are 10 tape chassis that load the tapes so the barcode are vertical not horizontal like IBM and most other libraries. When the library needs a tape its robot removes the TeraPack and then the gripper mechanism grabs the tape. I can hardly tell if it adds more than a second or two to the mount time, but even if it does the density gain negates the ever so slightly increased mount time.

I could go on an on and mention every little thing that I like about this library, but one of the coolest features is the ability to add SATA RXT portable RAID media, making the T950 VTL capable. The RXT media (which stands for RAID eXchangeable TeraPack) fits in the SpectraLogic half inch tape drive openings and is composed of multiple SATA disks sealed in a enclosure capable of taking rugged handling with built in shock dampening technology. The TeraPacks range in size from 2TB to 1TB, but I'm sure you will see larger sizes in the very near future. The RXT media is compatible with all major backup applications and operating systems.

The final item that sealed the deal was of course price. This library came in at a great price point, lower than IBM and Sun by quite a bit. This, added up with all the other features/benefits it offers in expandability, made it a win/win. "So, how has it performed?" You ask. Well, so far it has performed above my expectations. I have shed my IBM favoritism and seen it for what it was "stubbornness". I would highly recommend considering SpectraLogic the next time you seek to buy new or refresh old equipment. They definitely have the features everyone is looking for available in their libraries, and with data center space at a premium you can count on the T950 to give you the capacity you need in less space than competing libraries.

***UPDATE***
The mount time is a a lit more excessive than thought. Because of the TeraPack having to be removed, then the tape grabbed and placed in the drive, then the terapack replaced; the mount times are quite a bit longer when you have a VERY busy queue. I think SpectraLogic needs to speed this process up somehow. I must say if they can speed it up the overall library density is great. It would be cool if there was some way they could utilize a tool that grouped all scratch together and tapes that are most frequently mounted. Almost like a tape slot reclamation. It might speed things along when say 5 systems are all waiting for scratch. I need to research this a little more. I'll see if I can get feedback from SpectraLogic.

NetApp Drive Definitions

I always forget the NetApp drive definitions so i thought I would post the example I found here so I can recall it later. If any of you wondered which definition TSM uses or would like to know why here is your answer:


rst4l - rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
nrst4l - no rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
urst4l - unload/reload device, format is: H Format 30 GB
rst4m - rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
nrst4m - no rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
urst4m - unload/reload device, format is: H Format 30 GB
rst4h - rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
nrst4h - no rewind device, format is: H Format 30 GB
urst4h - unload/reload device, format is: H Format 30 GB
rst4a - rewind device, format is: H Format 60 GB comp
nrst4a - no rewind device, format is: H Format 60 GB comp
urst4a - unload/reload device, format is: H Format 60 GB comp

The one is red is the definition TSM uses since it rewinds the tape, but leaves the unload/reload to TSM and not the device itself.

Friday, October 19, 2007

FilesX Xpress Restore & TSM

If you click the title of this post you can read the news article that explains this new tool that has been validated to work with TSM. It provides a block level disk backup of application data allowing TSM to work with the Xpress Restore repository enhancing the speed of backups...This is one tool I would like more information on so I will be looking into how it works with TSM.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Good De-Deuplication Questions

An anonymous reader posted the following comments about the De-Duplication post a few days ago which I thought were good enough to post on the main page and let everyone read them. In the future I hope more of you would post with your name so we can give credit where credit is due. Anyone currently using a De-Duplication product, we would love to hear from you.

I have serveral issues with Backup and DeDupe (most of which are TSM related).

First of, why are people retaining so much data within TSM (i.e. the retention period is increasing). TSM is something that is supposed to be used in response to a data loss event. In other words, data is lost either through hardware failure, logical failure or because of human error and we turn to TSM to recover it.. but an increasing number of people are using it as a filing cabinet for data placing infinite retention on data. I don't think TSM was truly designed to do this. I see this as more of data management function akin to HSM and Archiving.. Yes, TSM has archiving but I think it's pretty weak in terms of functionality, it really needs to be married to an application that can do better indexing and classification in order to make this powerful.

So.. if the data you are storing within TSM cannot truly be used to support a data recovery function, then why keep it? Are you really going to restore a file from 180days ago because someone suddenly discovered that they deleted a file 4 months ago that they now need. I haven't seen much of that, occurences are typically rare.. yet the outlay to stay consistent on such a policy could be expensive. Forget about just the cost of the media - there's much more to it than that.

DeDupe becomes more efficient when you retain more data in the backups, but more versions = bigger TSM DB which often means that you have to spawn another TSM server to keep things well maintained.

In TSM land we're very conscious of the TSM DB.. It's the heart of the system and we go to great lengths to improve it's performance and protect it. In the event that it does become corrupt we can roll it back using TSM DB backup and Reuse delay. The DeDupe engine must also have a index/db.. what do we do if it becomes corrupt? If it does, how do we insure that we can get it synched up with TSM again?

How well will DeDupe work when data is reclaimed? TSM rebuilds aggregates when data is reclaimed, so how much work is that for the DeDupe engine and what's the I/O pattern going to be like on the back end storage.

How does this work in terms of recovery both operationaly and in terms of a disaster? Single file restores, probably great. Recovery of lots of files, probably not too bad.. when recovering lots of small files the client is typically the bottleneck.. not sure that the dedupe engine would impact it much. What about recovery of a large DB? This one I am more skeptical of. We can get great performance from both tape or disk.. potentially the best performance from tape provided that we can get enough mount points and the client isn't bottlenecked in some way. But what if it's deduped on disk.. will the data stream from disk or will we get more random I/O patterns. If it's a 10TB that needs to be recovered, I think that still equates to 10TB that needs to be pushed through TSM, even if it's been deduped to 2TB on the physical disk behind the dedupe engine.

What about DR where you want to recover multiple clients at the same time. Good storage pool design can alleviate some of the issues with tape contention, disk may offer some advantages because the media supports concurrent access (but bear in mind that TSM may not - depending on how you configured it).. If that disk is deduped though, then potentially you have less spindles at your disposal. That could mean more I/O contention and perhaps more difficulty in streaming data.

Tivoli's October "Valuable Support Info" E-mail

Are you subscribing to IBM/Tivoli's Valuable Support Information E-mail? If not take the time to subscribe because the links, notices, and information are worth the few minutes it takes. For those of you not subscribing yet here it is in its entirety.

Welcome to the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) technical support information update. This communication is designed to help you derive maximum value from your TSM software by providing the most up-to-date technical information, answers to frequently asked questions, and links to other key information. Please take a moment to read through the materials provided below. We are sure that you will find answers to many of your questions. This month's mailing has five main sections:

  1. Frequently Encountered Situations and FAQs
  2. News & Technical Flashes
  3. Recent & Important Downloads
  4. Upcoming Events & Live Technical Trainings
  5. Problem-Solving Resources on our web site
You are receiving this notification because you are one of the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager customers, who have called for technical support in the past year.

To Unsubscribe: Please reply to this email and change the Subject field to 'unsubscribe.'
To Subscribe: Please reply to this email and change the Subject field to 'subscribe.'
=========================================================================

Frequently Encountered Situations and FAQs

Title: TSM Journal Based Backup FAQ
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21155524

Title: Library fails with ANR8840E and ANR8418E
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21218357

Title: Replacing a damaged primary storage pool volume
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21219227

Title: Windows 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Hotfixes for Systemstate Backup
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21242128

Title: IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center Requirements
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21195062

Title: Overview - Tivoli Storage Manager Supported Operating Systems
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21243309

Title: Upgrade Instructions - Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) 5.2 to 5.4 or 5.2 to 5.3 Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21251665

Title: MustGather: Read First for Tivoli Storage Manager Products
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21263547

Title: Guideline For Selecting The Appropriate IBM Tape Device Driver for Windows 2000
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21268024

Title: IBM Ultrium Generation 4 (LTO-4) drive and drive encryption support
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg27009625

News & Technical Flashes

Title: URGENT Actions Required: Changes to Daylight Saving Time will affect IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Administrative Interfaces
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21254129

Title: Backupsets should not be used to store Data Protection client or API client data
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21268040

Title: Data loss may occur on TSM 5.4 servers when performing off-site reclamation of a copy storage pool and active-data pools are defined
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21268228

Title: Two security vulnerabilities exist in the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) client
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21268775

Title: Featured Documents for Tivoli Storage Manager
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg27009872Recent & Important Downloads

Title: Tivoli APAR notification page
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21177831

Title: Recommended TSM Client and Server Fixes
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21247179

Upcoming Events & Live Technical Trainings

Tivoli's Support Technical Exchange web seminars allows you to participate in live discussions on topics such as deployment, trouble-shooting tips, common issues, problem solving resources and other Support and Services recommendations.

To see the connection information for these seminars, as well as ALL Tivoli products just use the main link below.

Link: http://www.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/supp_tech_exch.html

Mark your calendars: Here are the current listings for the FREE seminars though December, 2007

10/18/07 TSM Backup Considerations with Nseries
10/23/07 Overview, setup, and usage of NDMP operations
10/23/07 Understanding TSM HSM for Windows

11/06/07 LVSA / Open File Support
11/15/07 Tivoli Storage Manager Update
11/15/07 Ask the Experts call in session: TSM devices for Windows
11/20/07 Installing the Integrated Solutions Console (ISC) and Administration Center
11/29/07 Tuning Disk for use with Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM)

12/06/07 Exploiting Disk Technology with Tivoli Storage Manager

Help us choose future topics for our calls!
If you have ideas for a future discussion topics for TSM or to report problems with viewing content, please send feedback to: isstte@us.ibm.com

Problem-Solving Resources Online

Visit the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager product support page
Link: http://www.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManager.html IBM Education Assistant for TSM

Short, task-based audio and visual presentations on pertinent topics.
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21236711

Free IBM Support Assistant product plug-in for TSM A desktop tool to aid in your TSM administration.
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg24009958

Self help support info for new Tivoli Storage Manager Administrators
Link: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21212718

Complimentary TSM Concepts Poster & Complimentary Online Self-Paced Training Classes
Link: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=663&uid=swg21217663

Participate in the ADSM.org and ADSM/L forums:
Link: http://www.adsm.org

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Backupsets & TCopy

OK, I am going to throw a question out into the TSM world and see what you people think. I was asked at work if a Backupset could be copied using the UNIX tcopy command? I thought about it and since Backupsets are independent of the TSM server I would think, in theory, it should. The only issue I could see would be needing to define the copy to TSM, since it would have no record of it. The benefit would be that I would not need to mount the tapes all over again to run the Backupset. The reason I ask is that a customer wanted two copies of a full backup of a server to archive forever. Anyone ever tried it, any theories? They are all welcome!

New! Free training for TSM v5.4 ISC

If you use the ISC (even though it wastes more time than it saves) you can get some free training from IBM. The trainings cover:

  • Installing the Admin Center
  • Using the Admin Center
  • Managing ISC users and TSM admins
If you click on this posts title it will take you to the page or you can click here to be taken directly to the IBM Education Assistant webpage.

TSM 5.1 Flash!

This flash was posted by IBM on Sept. 25, 2007:

Customers running IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) 5.1.6 Windows, HP, Sun, AIX and Linux and using devices other than 3570, 3590, or IBM LTO may have problems with the automatic labeling of tapes by the TSM server.

You can click on the title of this post to see the IBM page.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Table Of Contents Added

I added a Table Of Contents widget on the left toolbar for you to easily list all the post since the site began. The TOC is sortable by clicking on the header of each column. Hope it adds to your experience with the site. If there is something you would like see on the site let me know and I'll see what I can do to accommodate your request.

Monday, October 15, 2007

TSM Client Install Help

I found a good set of How-To's and documentation from IBM while looking for client overviews of installing the TSM client on UNIX platforms. It is an IBM Education Assistant covering installation, migration, and upgrading. It's always been part of the Infocenter but I never noticed it. Duh! There is a nice slide show walk-through covering installation of the TSM client on different platforms. Also some PDF's and even a Silent Install how-to. The main page can be found here and the installation help can be found here.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Data DeDuplication - Been There Done That!

I just got off a pretty good NetApp webcast covering their VTL and FAS solutions. One of the items they discussed was the data deduplication feature with their NAS product. When the IBM rep spoke up they discussed TSM's progressive backup terminology and I find it interesting to contrast TSM's process with the growing segment of disk based storage that is the deduplication feature. The feature really helps save TONS of space with the competing backup tools since they usually follow the FULL+INC model causing them to backup files even when they haven't changed. Here deduplication saves them room by removing the duplicate unchanged files, but this shows how superior TSM is, in that it doesn't require this kind of wasted processing. What would be interesting is to see how much space is saved in redundant OS files, but that is still minor compared to the weekly full process that wastes so much space.

This brings us to the next item, disk based backup. This is definitely going to grow over time, but costs are going to have to come down for it to fully replace tape. The two issues I see with disk only based backups is in DRM/portability and capacity/cost. If you cannot afford to have duplicate sites with the data mirrored then you are left having to use a tape solution for offsite storage. Also with portability disk can be an issue. For example we are migrating some servers from one data center to another and we used the export/import feature. We have also moved TSM tapes from one site to another and rebuilt the TSM environment. To do this with disk is a little more time consuming, you would need the same disk solution and the network capacity to mirror the data (time consuming on slow connection) or have to move the whole hardware solution. Tape in this scenario is a lot easier to deal with. Now when it comes to capacity vs. cost there is a definite difference that will keep many on tape for years to come. Many customers want long term retention of their data, say 30+ days for inactive files and TDP backups (sometimes longer with e-mail and SARBOX data). So what is the cost comparison for that type of disk retention (into the PB) compared to tape. Currently it's no contest and tape wins in the cost vs. capacity realm, but hopefully that can someday change. So if any of you have disk based solutions or VTL solutions chime in I'd like to hear what you have to say and how it's worked for you.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Vulnerabilities Found In TSM Client!!!

(APARs IC52905 and IC53616)

Wow I'm glad I added the news section to the blog I saw this article about a possible exploit with the TSM CAD on client systems. I'd try to explain it but it's best to check the article. It can leave systems open for execution of arbitrary code. Check it out here and here. This exploit goes back as far as the 5.1 client so be aware of the issue even with older clients.

Affected Products:

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Client version 5.1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Client version 5.2
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Client version 5.3
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Client version 5.4

Solution:

Apply client update package 5.4.1.2 (UK27738 and UK27739) :
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24016585

Apply client update package 5.3.5.3 (UK29248 and UK29249) :
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24016838

Apply client update packages 5.2.5.2 and 5.1.8.1 :
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24016985
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24016586

Original Advisory:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21268775

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Labels Explained

On the lower left column of the website you'll see the Labels header. These labels will help you speed up your searching for content on TSMExpert by narrowing the results and showing all posts that have that label assigned. Need to look for Shared Library articles click the label and you'll see all related posts. I hope it helps and if you don't see a label for what you are looking for Google search TSMExpert for it.

TSMExpert Changes

I have made a number of updates to the sites, mostly cosmetic, but I have also removed some of the contributors who have not submitted lately (last 3 months). If you have an item(s) you would like to contribute I will gladly add you to the contributors list. Send me an e-mail letting me know what item you would like to cover or experience you would like to share or get feedback.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Free Tivoli Web Based Training

If you are not aware of it, there is some good FREE web based training from Tivoli here. Also if you cannot afford, or take the time, for the regular class training they do have some decent low cost web based training for TSM and CDP (Continuous Data Protection) listed on the site also. Now it's not as thorough as the classroom training but if you have never used TSM it's a good start.

Friday, August 24, 2007

VSS Question

I was asked about Exchange backups today and after looking at some documentation I remembered that with Exchange 2003 there is a VSS backup option. For the life of me I can't think of anyone who has used it with their Exchange backups. Is there anyone out there who has attempted to use, or is using VSS with their Exchange TDP? I have never trusted it enough to rely on it for my Exchange backups. It has enough problems with the system objects, but since MS has had some time to work out the kinks has anyone been successful with it? Is it worth the hassle?

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

TSM Summary Table Question

So here is a question I hope someone can answer, does the SUMMARY table in the TSM DB track all backups whether they are scheduled or client initiated (cron or manually) or does it just track scheduled backups? Also does it track LAN-Free backups with data amounts? I figure it only tracks scheduled backups, but I haven't taken the time to look. If anyone cares to wager a guess or has the definitive answer please let me know.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

DIRMC Saga Suggestions

Flex asked about DIRMC and I have had experience using it. When I was with IBM we used it to backup all the directories to disk and we kept them on disk for fast restore. This was especially useful when we ran into the know issue with MS checkdisk and cluster volumes with over 4 million files. The chkdsk would would run and strip all permissions from files and folders. Since our files inherited their permissions from the folder by restoring the directories we were able to quickly recover from the permission stripping without having to do a full restore.

Friday, July 27, 2007

DIRMC saga

Do you use DIRMC option?

If your answer is YES, could you describe why and how you use it?
I'm a bit confused regarding this topic... Do we have to use this feature at all?

TSM Symposium 2007

Has anyone been at this symposium yet? It seems to me the topics were/will be interesting...

Here is the link about the details: Click!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Windows VM Restore Issue

I recently ran into a problem where a number of Windows 2003 VM's would not restore. The VM host machine crashed and the Admins brought it back up on an alternate server. They recreated the VM's but when they would attempt to do a Point-In-Time restore they would fail with a File Not Found error. There was no ANS message. I think it had something to do with Active Directory or DNS, because when I used the VIRTUALNODENAME setting the restore worked fine. Anyone seen this or have insight into it?

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

NDMP Question

I have a customer who wants to have a copy of a NetApp volume. That's not a problem but my question is this, is an NDMP dump initiated by TSM capable of being restored without a TSM server? Since TSM labeled the tape is there any issue with trying to restore the data directly from a NetApp with a direct attached drive? Also when running an NDMP dump directly from the NetApp and not from TSM is the TOC/Catalogue stored on the same tape with the data? My thinking is that the NDMP dump even though initiated by TSM is still just an NDMP dump. My concern is the TSM labeling and if it would cause any readability issues for a NetApp based restore?

UPDATE!!!

I contacted Tivoli support and a NDMP backup is fully independent of TSM. I figured it was but wanted to make sure. The customer wanted us to backup a NetApp volume and send him the tape to hold indefinitely. Now I know I can just send him one of the older NetApp backups from the time period requested without needing to do anything special.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Restoring Windows Shares

This is a repost from June 2005

Well, it inevitably happens that a large fileserver is being replaced, goes down, or goes bad and you have to restore it. Well if you are restoring to the same type of hardware then life is beautiful and NT/2000/2003 has no problems and acts like the good little boy it should be, but what happens when you have to restore to new hardware, or are refreshing the server to a newer more powerful server? This is when NT can be worse than that bratty little kid I wanted to strangle in the movie Problem Child. Personally John Ritter should have shot him and buried him in the back yard, but I digress. So how can you restore Shares or any other piece of the registry with TSM when NT doesn't like having the registry of another machine of different hardware restored? Well that's were a little ingenuity and some preemptive strategy comes in handy. The easiest way is to setup a script using the command line registry tool REG.EXE that runs a REG EXPORT KEYNAME each day and stores it as a file. Here is the string needed to backup the Shares key. (The following is all one line)

REG EXPORT HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Shares C:\BACKUP\SHARESEXP.TXT

The command backs up the Shares key to a folder I created on the C: drive called Backup, but you can put it wherever you like. A simple batch file will suffice to execute the export and you can either schedule it through Windows daily or through TSM. Yes, you can do that and TSM will gladly back it up. This allows you to then restore the export file and reimport it into the server of choice. Just make sure that with any schedule where you are executing a command/batch file you put the full path of the file or else TSM can possibly fail to execute it, even if its in the TSM BACLIENT directory.

Ok, not everyone has that process in place and needs to restore the Share key now! Well have no fear TSM can help you accomplish it. Let's look at the process for this situation and I'll provide some links. First off you can restore the registry without activating it. The command to do so is

RESTORE REGISTRY -ACTIVATE=NO (for Win2K/Win2003)

RESTORE REGISTRY ENTIRE -ACTIVATE=NO (for WinNT)

Now for each process you can restore specific keys but for ease of use the entire restore will work. TSM will restore the registery to the c:\adsm.sys\computername\ directory. From this point you can load the hive in RegEdit containing the share key and export it to a file. Once exported you should be able to import it into the current registry thereby restoring the shares. Here is a Microsoft document that covers loading the hive and processes to use. There is also a good document on backing up and restoring the registry here. If you have any questions feal free to comment and I'll respond as soon as possible.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Oracle RMAN Catalogue Cleanup

This is an update to a story posted back in August 2005

Why do people love Oracle? When I hear mention of Oracle I think of Luke Skywalker when he saw the Millennium Falcon, "What a piece of junk!" Like the Falcon it looks clunky, breaks down easily, and has the most temperamental behavior. When it's running, however, it screams. The problem is that DBA's and/or the RMAN catalogue sometimes don't do appropriate cleanup. If the DBA's are doing their job they should be using the tdposync syncdb command to do cleanup with TSM. If you cannot get them to do this or it doesn't seem to be working correctly you can use a manual process on the TSM side. If you want to make sure that a particular node is performing cleanup within TSM run the following select command -

select object_id from backups where node_name=[TDP NODENAME] and
backup_date < '2007-06-01 00:00:00'


This can be redirected to a file then used later to delete with an undocumented delete command. If there is data going further back than your retention requirements state then you have a problem with the DB cleanup.

I am posting the undocumented TSM individual backup object delete command here, but remember any deletion from the TSM DB is done AT YOUR OWN RISK!

delete object 0 [Object ID Number]


It's unsupported because Tivoli doesn't trust you to not screw stuff up, and although I don't think you will, I understand their concern. Put this into a shell script and you can process thousands of objects and do a large amount of cleanup in a short ammount of time.

Monday, June 04, 2007

LAN-FREE

We face a lot of problems recently with LAN-FREE on MS Windows platform. The TSM server runs on AIX or HP-UX, but the client is always MS Windows. Sometimes we lose one or a few drives, sometimes all of them. The problem doesn't evolve immediately only after a while. For these problematic customers we use J1A, E05 or LTO3 drives with the newest firmwares and drivers, of course.

Does anyone else have the same CHALLENGE?

Friday, June 01, 2007

When Good Libraries Go Bad!

This title might sound like a FOX network show, but the other day our SUN/STK Powderhorn library stopped mounting tapes and was giving us all sorts of problems. I called out SUN support and the service reps looked over the library and found nothing wrong. The next place to look was, of course, ACSLS. We cycled ACSLS twice and each time the library had trouble coming back online and even when we got the acs and and ports online we could not get the lsm to come online. Every attempt failed and I left the problem in the hands of our oncall to figure out with STK. When I finally heard from him I was told the problem was a duplicate IP had caused the whole library to become inaccessible to the ACSLS host. So this relatively simple mistake took out a backup and restore environment for most of a day. Just shows you can never plan enough for the types of problems that can occur.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Audit Library Issue

I had something crazy happen this weekend with our STK L700. It somehow ended up needing an audit of the library, but when we would run the audit it would fail. Failure of a command I can live with but there was no supporting messages to explain the cause of the failure. The library was rebooted multiple times, but the audit still was failing. Finally my resourceful manager Steve ran an audit library with the PVR and MMS flags and the audit completed successfully. The one thing it could have been was from a stuck tape in a tape drive, but why no context message to explain the failure? We had deleted the drive and the path and the tape should have been removed on the first audit since it could no longer be seen.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Old Admin Tool

If you ever used the old Windows Admin GUI from 3.1-3.7 then you might have liked some of the features, what I was wondering was why didn't someone write something similar in Java? Since it would then work cross platform it makes sense to write an Admin tool in Java. Keep it small and simple and we'd all be happy.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

New TSM administration

I use a small PERL script which helps me to administrate my TSM servers.

What do you use or need when you administrate your TSM servers?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

TSM SQL Tutorials

If you are like many admins out there you might not be very versed in the SQL side of TSM. Luckily, PJ from ADSM.org posted some great TSM SQL tutorial links that I think everyone could benefit from. There is a beginner and an advanced lesson, so there is something for everyone. Check them out.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Servergraph Help!

If anyone out there uses Servergraph and would be willing to give some pointers or insight into it I would be indebted. This product is VERY complex and it leaves a new user wondering where to start. So please help if you can!

Split TSM servers (same platform)

One of our customers has a TSM sevrer with a very big TSM database (100G) and wants to split this big TSM server database into two TSM servers.

The plan is to install a new TSM server instance and load this big TSM database into this new instance. We want to separate these two TSM servers in the following way: we would delete those nodes from the original TSM server that we would keep in the new/another instance and vica versa based on the storage pool usage (means keep/delete whole storage pools on TSM servers).

/* The new instance will be a library client of the original TSM server which will be a library manager. */

What do you think of it? Will it work or not?

Monday, April 02, 2007

X Windows GUI Gone!

I was performing a DR recently and while trying to do a large HP/UX system restore found that the TSM X-Windows GUI was not in the client directory. Upon further investigation it turns out that Tivoli has switched to a complete Java GUI. While this works fine the problem is with Java. During the DR test I was allowed to install java but on the production systems the customer does not want Java installed. So with no X-Windows client and the inability to use java the command line is the only option. Now this is fine when restoring individual files, filesystems, and so forth, but I found restoring a VERY large server with 20+ filesystems is a whole lot easier and faster with the GUI. So the lack of an X-Windows client could be an issue if like many companies you don't install java on your UNIX servers.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Adventures In ISC Hell

I just tried to upgrade the ISC from 5.3 to 5.4 and it failed misserably. It gave me JVM errors and I could not uninstall the previous version. I had to reimage the windows server and install from scratch. Since installing from scratch I notice that nothing has been done to help with usability with the Admin Center. Most items go off the screen and to be honest IBM should fire the Admin Center project managers for not doing any usability testing. Most items go off the screen and the average 1024x768 user can not serious use it to help with productivity. This has to go down in the anals of App interfaces as one of the biggest blunders in recent history. Heads should be rollong but more than likely bonuses were doled out!

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Don't Say I Never Help My Fellow Admins!

Well I thought I would put up a link to IBM's developerWorks website since it has a plethora of free tutorials and trainings. There's everything from AIX to Linux with all the shell and script bliss in between. What?!? No windows stuff you ask? We don't need no stinking Windows! IBM even posted web based training for working towards LPI (Linux Professional Institute) certification. Then there is a great reference for all those looking to get some sort of SAN certification. Well SNIA is the SAN certification standard so check out the link as it points right to all their tutorials by business professionals. They are not necessarily geared towards the certification but can be helpful. The links are on the left under Tutorials.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Answering My Own Question!

So I asked previously what would cause file level restore information to go to the TSM activity log. Well it turns out the nice people at IBM-Tivoli have added a new TSM server option that sends restore information to the activity log so restores can be monitored from the server. No longer do you need to sit and watch the client session information to see progress, now you can check the activity log and see EVERY file being restored. To be honest I am not sure whether I like this or or not. The verdict is still out! You tell me what you think.

Oh yeah the option is:

REPORTRETRIEVE YES

Monday, March 05, 2007

TSM Client Restore/ActLog Issue

So one of my colleagues kicked off a restore and upon doing an ActLog query for an unrelated issue it was noticed that every file restored was reporting in the TSM ActLog. Does anyone know why when I run a restore the ActLog is listing every file restored for a Windows client? I have never seen this happen before and not sure what setting is allowing it. Is this new in one of the 5.3.x releases or am I missing something? This can have a huge impact on ActLog size so I am a little concerned. I am used to seeing this in the DSMSCHED.LOG not the TSM ActLog.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

5.4 Upgrade Yes/No?

After Geoffrey's post I thought I would ask all of you if anyone is planning on upgrading to the 5.4.0 release of TSM. When I was with IBM we tended to wait til the first point release, so I am wondering if anyone is really going to upgrade at this point? Also for those playing with the new release, did they improve the ISC or is it still a mess?

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

New feature to Tivoli Storage Manager 5.4? (ANR1183I / ANR1182I)

Was playing around with iTSM 5.4 EE on Linux this morning and it appears they have (finally) updated the restore algorithm to list every volume required to complete a restoration.

As usual the information is stashed away in the activity log and is displayed after the inital query is sent to the server - before tapes are mounted.

ANR1183I / ANR1182I

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

TSMExpress Review Wanted!

TSMExpert is looking for a TSMExpress review with comments and opinions on how well it works and ease of implementation. If anyone would like to post a review please contact me so I can add you as a contributor if you are not already listed.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I Want My 5.4!

So it's the new year and I haven't heard if TSM 5.4 is still on schedule for release this month? Anyone know? I want some of those features like better restore from backup sets and offsite capabilities for NAS. If anyone has inside information I would love to hear it.

That's Funny!

So my friend Ron L. from California sent me an e-mail and asked me if I was on TSMManager's payroll. I said, "What are you talking about?" He stated my name is in the manual for the product and included a snapshot from it. So I downloaded the TSMManager manual to make sure it wasn't some photoshop joke, and to my surprise he is right. Albeit it is at the end but us schills take what we can get. I thought it was quite funny and somewhat of an honor since I have been touting their product for a number of years and even more so since the ISC debacle. To answer Ron's question, "No I am not on the payroll!" Although a lifetime license to use TSMManager would be nice. :-D



Sunday, January 07, 2007

ANS1035S (RC406) Options file '*' could not be found.

Came across this the other day whilst installing TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning on an AIX 5L server:
Data Protection for mySAP.com(R) technology

Interface between SAPDBA Utilities and Tivoli Storage Manager

- Version 3, Release 3, Modification 10 for AIX LF 64-bit -

Build: 219 compiled on Dec 4 2003(c) Copyright IBM Corporation, 1996, 2003, All Rights Reserved.
BKI5014E: Tivoli Storage Manager Error:

ANS1035S (RC406) Options file '*' could not be found.


BKI5014E: Tivoli Storage Manager Error:ANS1035S (RC406) Options file '*' could not be found.

For a while now I have been symlinking the configuration files back to a central repository to make administration easier, so checking the symlinks is the most obvious place to start:
# ls -ltr /usr/tivoli/tsm/tdp_r3/ora64 | egrep "dsm.opt|dsm.sys"

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 16 Nov 20 14:34 dsm.sys -> /var/tsm/dsm.sys

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root system 20 Nov 20 14:35 dsm.opt -> /var/tsm/backint.opt

Does backint.opt exist and is it valid?
# cat /var/tsm/backint.opt

SErvername TSM_BACKINT

* TRACEFILE /tmp/trace.out

* TRACEFLAGS api api_detail verbinfo verbdetail timestamp

What about DSM.SYS?
# cat /var/tsm/dsm.sys
SErvername TSMPRD

COMMmethod TCPip

TCPPort 1500

TCPServeraddress

passwordaccess generate

resourceutilization 2

inclexcl /var/tsm/tsm.include

schedlogname /var/tsm/log/dsmsched.log

schedlogretention 14

errorlogname /var/tsm/log/dsmerror.log

errorlogretention 14

queryschedperiod 2

schedmode prompted

ManagedServices Schedule WebClient
SErvername TSM_BACKINT

COMMmethod TCPip

TCPPort 1500

TCPServeraddress

TCPNodelay yes

TCPBuffSize 32

TCPWindowSize 64

LargeCommBuffers yes

TXNByteLimit 25600

passwordaccess prompt

resourceutilization 2

* inclexcl /var/tsm/backint.include

* schedlogname /var/tsm/log/dsmsched.log

schedlogretention 31

errorlogname /oracle/DEV/sapbackup/backint_error.log

errorlogretention 14

queryschedperiod 2

schedmode prompted

So everything was looking to be configured correctly, so I attempted to turn on tracing on the TSM API but as the TDP could not find the option file it would not work.
The next logical step was to trace the client and figure out where it was dieing:
# truss brbackup -u / -c force -t offline_force -m all -p initDEV.sap -a -c force -p initDEV.sap -cds
execve("/usr/tivoli/tsm/tdp_r3/ora64/backint", 0x2FF22CCC, 0x2FF22CE4) argc: 5

kload("/usr/lib/nls/loc/en_US__64", 128, "") = 4026536384

kload("libi18n.a(shr_64.o)", 384, "/usr/ccs/lib") = 4026536536

access("/usr/lib/nls/msg/en_US/backintv3.cat", 0) = 0

open("/usr/lib/nls/msg/en_US/backintv3.cat", O_RDONLY) = 3

open("/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/api/bin64/en_US/dsmclientV3.cat", 04) = 0

access("/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/api/bin64/en_US/dsmclientV3.cat", 04) = 0 access("/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/api/bin64/en_US/dsmclientV3.cat", 04) = 0open("/usr/tivoli/tsm/client/api/bin64/dsm.sys", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) Err#2 ENOENT

Bingo - as it turns out I had forgotten to also create my symlinks to the configuration files in the "client/api/bin64" directory.

Tivoli Storage Manager 5.2 and Capacity on Demand gotcha.

A customer recently commissioned a new frame for their 3584 library and installed some new tape drives. TSM was left running under the assumption that paths and drives could be taken offline whilst work was performed on the library to ensure availability to backup to the disk storage pools.

Unfortunately this is not the case when you are commissioning additional storage slots (frames or capacity on demand).

The first indication that something was astray was that after the paths and drives online was that the the inability to check in any more tapes as the library was still showing that it was full.

The new frame allowed for over 400 more slots so this also didn’t make sense. After some thought I remembered the ’show slots’ command. After running the command I noticed that I was only being shown 704 slots rather then ther full number of slots I knew that were available.

The diagnostics and administration tool "tapeutil" showed the new and updated element range which confirmed that the configuration from an operating point of view was correct.

So the problem obviously was to do with TSM:

tsm:> show slots 3584atl

PVR slot information for library L32ATL.
Library : L32ATL
Product Id : 03584L32
Support module : 4
Mount
count : 5
Drives : 16
Slots : 704
Changers : 2
Import/Exports :
10
Device : /dev/smc0
Drive 0, element 257
Drive 1, element 258
Drive 2, element 259
Drive 3, element 260
Drive 4, element 261
Drive 5, element 262
Drive 6, element 263
Drive 7, element 264
Drive 8, element 265
Drive 9, element 266
Drive 10, element 267
Drive 11, element 268
Drive 12, element 269
Drive 13, element 270
Drive 14, element 271
Drive 15, element 272

Changer 0, element 1
Changer 1, element 2

ImpExp 0, element number 769
ImpExp 1,
element number 770
ImpExp 2, element number 771
ImpExp 3, element number
772
ImpExp 4, element number 773
ImpExp 5, element number 774
ImpExp
6, element number 775
ImpExp 7, element number 776
ImpExp 8, element
number 777
ImpExp 9, element number 778

slot element range 1025 -
1728

After some research, I discovered that the element count is only queried once upon TSM startup and it is not possible to update the this information without restarting TSM.

tsm:> show slots 3584atl

PVR slot information for library L32ATL.
Library : L32ATL
Product Id : 03584L32
Support module : 4
Mount
count : 8
Drives : 20
Slots : 1130
Changers : 2
Import/Exports :
10
Device : /dev/smc0
Drive 0, element 257
Drive 1, element 258
Drive 2, element 259
Drive 3, element 260
Drive 4, element 261
Drive 5, element 262
Drive 6, element 263
Drive 7, element 264
Drive 8, element 265
Drive 9, element 266
Drive 10, element 267
Drive 11, element 268
Drive 12, element 269
Drive 13, element 270
Drive 14, element 271
Drive 15, element 272
Drive 16, element 273
Drive 17, element 274
Drive 18, element 275
Drive 19, element 276

Changer 0, element 1
Changer 1, element 2

ImpExp 0, element
number 769
ImpExp 1, element number 770
ImpExp 2, element number 771
ImpExp 3, element number 772
ImpExp 4, element number 773
ImpExp 5,
element number 774
ImpExp 6, element number 775
ImpExp 7, element number
776
ImpExp 8, element number 777
ImpExp 9, element number 778

slot element range 1025 - 2154