Backupset TOC

I wanted to clear up an error in a statement I made either here or ADSM.org about backupset TOC's. I previously thought that the TOC for a backupset was not portable. I was wrong. After looking into the DEFINE BACKUPSET command I realized that a TOC can be generated for a backupset after the fact. This feature helps make it more portable and requires that a TSM server be available to store the TOC. A TSM server is required to rebuild the TOC, but if the backupset is meant to be portable you can skip the TOC creation locally and allow the alternate TSM server to create it when you define the backupset to it.

TSM Express Flaw!

I don't know how many of you readers use TSMExpress but there is a flaw that has been identified by IBM. ComputerWorld has a description of the flaw here. So if you do have TSMExpress in use make sure you look into this.

VSS issues on Windows

October last year I blogged about VSS issues on Windows. Here is another link which may help troubleshooting;

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21243837

Cheers

2008 Suggestions

We here at TSMExpert are looking for topics for the coming year. If you have a TSM related topic you would like discussed let us know by posting a comment below and we'll consider all suggestions. If you have a wish to contribute a post on a specific topic all you need to do is send me an e-mail here with the information and we'll gladly consider it (I am always looking for contributors to TSMExpert.org).

Bare Metal Restore

All the best for 2008
Bare Meal Restore - Put simply

For W2K the TSM dsm.opt DOMAIN ALL-LOCAL is the default, this will include
SYSTEMOBJECT backup for incrementals.

Backup Commands:
dsmc incr

TSM Windows 2000 restore steps:
1. Repartition, format harddrive
2. Install W2K, set computername to original
3. Install appropriate W2K Service Pack
4. Install tsm ba client
5. dsmc restore c:\ -replace=all -subdir=yes
6. dsmc restore systemobject
7. Reboot

Cheers
Ryan Partington

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

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.