Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Tabbed SSH/Telnet Client

As a system admin I am using an SSH terminal (PuTTY in most cases) and hate switching between the multiple open sessions I have. So in my search for a tabbed SSH client that was FREE (since I am cheap) I came across two options that fit the bill. The first product is a freeware telnet/ssh terminal utility called Poderosa that is not bad and I use it periodically. I must say that I am a PuTTY fan so I really hoped someone had written a tabbed PuTTY client, but I could not find one. I did, however, come across a nice little utility that lets me have my PuTTY and tabs too...it's called WinTabber and it grabs open windows and places them in tabs within its container window. To better understand I suggest you check out the screenshot on the website. If you have a tabbed based ssh client you would recommend that is free (again because I am cheap) then post a comment and leave a link so I can check it out.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

TSMExpert Issues

I am continually frustrated with the load speed of TSMExpert and am considering going with someone other than Google Blogger to host the site. The problem is cost...although I use Google Adsense I have only made $100 since starting this site three years ago. So who would you suggest for quality hosting, low cost, and ability to keep TSMExpert easy to use?

Monday, March 24, 2008

TSM 6.1 on the horizon?

You can read: ..."You'll now be able to run On-line, automated reorganization of the Tivoli Storage Manager database and have real-time database integrity validation." Hurray!
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I'm a little afraid of: "An improved administrative experience with a faster installing, better performing, smaller footprint Administration Center. More intuitive navigation for client tasks with a new global client node view and fast path to client node creation."

I'm curious what you expect from the new version!

/* A great built in licence calculator also would be good... ;-) is this such a big request? */

Thursday, March 20, 2008

TSM License Pricing

What's up with IBM license pricing being insanely high? It doesn't help when the Netbackup reps are willing to give their product away (free Crap is still Crap!). I've heard of numerous HUGE accounts looking into Netbackup, and with Symantec basically giving it away, how do you stop management from considering it? With IBM's pricing out of control it doesn't help. I sure hope IBM reconsiders their pricing...it's forcing people off of TSM.

Windows 5.5. TSM Client Crashing

I ran into a problem today with a Windows 2003 32-bit client scheduler crashing with the ANS1009W DRM FilesNotToBackup RC 13 error. It is caused by malformed values in the Windows registry key that lists the default files to exclude. I had never seen this error before but it was happening with the base 5.5 client. When I had the Win Admin apply the 5.5.0.4 patch the problem was resolved. All attempts at trying to fix the registry entries manually were unsuccessful, so I would suggest applying the patch if you experience this problem.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Phantom Session

I recently ran into a problem trying to update an Exchange TDP's password. When we would try to update the password on the TSM server we were presented with an error stating that the password could not be updated due to the client being in session. Strange thing was that it was NOT in session. We waited thinking maybe it was a residual transaction taking place in the log or DB for the TDP, but after some time we realized it was not going to clear up. It actually took a reboot of the TSM server to allow the resetting of the TDP's password. Anyone seen this on 5.4.1? If so let me know what if anything you did to clear it up.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Tivoli Storage Manager v5.5...

REPOST: I think this article from Flex is a good one to keep on the front page since TSM 5.5 migrations are only going to continue. Check the comments for solutions to this problem.

Today afternoon I had a little time and tried the brand new v5.5 client on MS Windows platform (x32) and got this error message in the dsmerror.log:
"ANS1009W An error occurred processing the operating system include/exclude statements.
The error was detected while processing: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup\DRM. RC = 13."

I didn't want to believe what I saw. This funny message still exists.
Here is the solution from IBM: ANS1009W DRM FilesNotToBackup RC 13
/* Edit the registry manually... this is the solution in the 21st century... */

Do you have this problem? Here in Hungary, all Windows servers are affected...

I like the TSM concepts itself but I don't even want to think about what ISC 5.5 will be like... ;-)

I really miss the 64bit HSM and Journal on MS Windows (we got only Online image and Open file), where is the IBM 3494 support on HP-UX Itanium (I don't understand why this is a problem for a developer? Someone could really explain it...), on the fly db reorg function (ESTIMATE DBREORGSTAT - What a solution? ), ... but the restartable server-to-server export/import sounds good.

Cheers!

Saturday, March 01, 2008

LPI Linux Certification Tutorials

I have updated the link to the LPI Tutorials from IBM so it goes to the page with just the topics covered in tests 101, 102, 201, and 202. I myself an looking into certifying on Linux and AIX so check these out. It can't hurt they're FREE!

FYI - You can find even more tutorials covering Linux at IBM DeveloperWorks.