Update: TSM 2009 Symposium

I received a response to my query on the cost of the 2009 TSM Symposium presentations USB stick. The following will provide you with the needed purchase information:

The USB-stick with all symposium presentations and materials in PDF-format is
available for 50 EUR plus shipping costs (Germany 3 EUR, European Union 5 EUR,
US 8 EUR).

Payment is accepted only by Paypal. Please transfer the respective amount by
using the Paypal service (http://www.paypal.com/) to
nc-kallecl(at)netcologne.de. Add your post address as optional message for the
payment or mail it to tsm2009@uni-koeln.de.

Pay Pal will make the necessary conversion from dollars to euros and expect to pay around $86 with current conversion rates. If you'd like to check the conversion rates try Google's currency conversion tool.

TSM 2009 Symposium

I went looking for the presentations given at the 2009 TSM Symposium and discovered that the presentations will be provided on a USB stick for around 50 Euro plus shipping. Previously the presentations had been posted for the community to access, but it looks like we wont have that opportunity going forward. I didn't see anything for U.S. cost and will post an update when I find out if/how we can purchase the symposium presentations. I would recommend you talk your company into purchasing it since I have always found the presentations to be very informative, and with 6.1 out it might help you with any planned migration/upgrade.

Tivoli User Community

I had the opportunity this week to attend the Arizona Tivoli User Group and gain some valuable information on TSM Fastback, TSM 6.1, and Tivoli Storage Virtualization Management. They covered these products in the morning session and had a hands on demonstration of TSM 6.1 Admin interface and reporting features in the afternoon. What was even better was they offered a free certification exam so I got caught up on my TSM certification. Not every group will be able to afford free certifications, but it is definitely worth your time to check out your local or regional group for contacts and information. To find the Tivoli User Group in your are check out the Global Tivoli User Community website. If there is no group within your area you can still join the global group and attend webinars and participate in online activities.

Update: Weird Volhist Records

Upon further investigation I found that my other shared library environment, that has multiple NAS devices defined to the library manager, is also showing the NAS device class for all LTO-3 volumes used by the library clients. If anyone has a NAS attached to a shared library environment please compare your volhist devclass to those of your library clients and tell me if you see the same situation. CRAZY THING IS, it doesn't seem to affect the library clients from using their tapes or acquiring scratch. What my concern is, is that I am slowing losing use of tapes that should be marked back as scratch, but due to the volhistory settings is unable to be released. I am wondering if this is a bug in TSM that could be affecting others.

Weird Volhist Records

I am reviewing my Volume History file on my ACSLS library controller and it shows volumes as REMOTE and owned by the library clients but the weird thing is it shows the DEVCLASS as a device class that is not even defined on the library clients. Why would TSM do this? So I have a device class called IBM-LTO-3 on all my TSM instances (8 total including the library manager) and on the library manager there is a device class called NAS-DEV-CL. I show tons of tape volumes using the NAS-DEV-CL devclass on the library manager's volume history but not on the other instances (since they don't even have the NAS-DEV-CL devclass defined). Why or how would this occur? I tried an audit library on one of my library clients but it is not completing (I've had issues with audit library commands from library clients before). Any ideas?

Here is an example of what I see:

tsm: PD-703-S-AITSM-1>select * from volhistory where volume_name='L40202'

DATE_TIME: 2009-08-19 03:33:07.000000
UNIQUE: 0
TYPE: REMOTE
BACKUP_SERIES:
BACKUP_OPERATION:
VOLUME_SEQ:
DEVCLASS: NAS-DEV-CL
VOLUME_NAME: L40202
LOCATION: PD703-UAX007
COMMAND:

When I query the volume on the library client I see:

Volume Name: L40202
Storage Pool Name: NP-STD-TAPE
Device Class Name: IBM-LTO-3
Estimated Capacity: 1.6 T
Scaled Capacity Applied:
Pct Util: 0.4
Volume Status: Filling
Access: Read-Only
Pct. Reclaimable Space: 26.1
Scratch Volume?: Yes
In Error State?: No
Number of Writable Sides: 1
Number of Times Mounted: 14
Write Pass Number: 1
Approx. Date Last Written: 08/26/09 11:01:12
Approx. Date Last Read: 09/22/09 11:19:00
Date Became Pending:
Number of Write Errors: 0
Number of Read Errors: 0
Volume Location:
Volume is MVS Lanfree Capable : No
Last Update by (administrator): CSMALL
Last Update Date/Time: 09/14/09 13:14:21
Begin Reclaim Period:
End Reclaim Period:
Drive Encryption Key Manager: None

So the question is how did this volume history record on the library manager end up with the devclass that doesn't exist on the library client? It doesn't seem to affect the volumes or processing daily tasks, but I am worried its not freeing up the tapes to return to a scratch status when they are reclaimed.

What do you think?

Smarter Tivoli Storage Manager Reclamation Configuration Tool

This is what we need?

Personal Backups

A friend of mine lost a bunch of family pictures and video when his hard drives died (he lost both at the same time). As backup people we are all well aware that the current home computer user does not have an easy and safe way to backup all their data easily. Oh, sure they can buy a USB drive but those can also be destroyed in a fire, flood, or even stolen. There are some online options but wanted to ask those out there what their experiences are with them and any suggestions. I currently have 200+GB I need protected so what are the safest options...and no I wont be buying a tape drive. ;-)