TSM 6.1 Docs Online

I found this link listed on ADSM.org and thought I would pass it along. Here is a link that will take you to the TSM 6.1 documentation. Supposedly the upgrade doc alone is over 200 pagers. Not sure if any of you are "dying" to try 6.1, but I am planning on testing it soon.

IBM Considers Buying Sun!

Did I.Q.'s just drop substantially around the world? Go sell crazy somewhere else! Why would IBM even consider buying Sun? Definitely not for their Server technology, it's gotta be for their software portfolio. Most people are not aware that IBM's makes more money from their software division than hardware. (At least they used to...still think they do). But still, I gotta think Sun would be better served by a buyout from HP or Cisco...maybe Dell, but Dell seems uninterested from what I have read.

Question About Active Data Pools

Geoffrey Huntley recently asked me what situation would an Active Data pool be useful? To be honest, I couldn't think of a good situation. Since I don't use an Active Data Pool I thought I would throw the question out to our fellow readers to get some feedback as to how you might be using ADPs. My biggest reason for not using them was the PIT restore issue. You can read my full gripe here. Basically if TSM wont utilize it when doing a PIT then what's the benefit? I'd say more than half, if not 75%, my restores are from older dates.

Active Data Pool - What's The Point?

To go along with the ADP story I have moved this older post up for easy reference.

With the release of TSM 5.4 Tivoli has added the ability to create an active data storage pool to allow for faster restore times. We have been looking into using them at work when I stumbled upon this interesting factoid in the description of the active data pools limitations:

1. The server will not attempt to retrieve client files from an active-data pool during a point-in-time restore. Point-in-time restores require both active and inactive file versions. Active-data pools contain only active file versions. For optimal efficiency during point-in-time restores and to avoid switching between active-data pools and primary or copy storage pools, the server retrieves both active and inactive versions from the same storage pool and volumes.

So my question is why don't they allow the client to restore all the active data first then restore the inactive, or why didn't they implement a multi-session restore process when they added active data pools to the product, thereby speeding up the restore process? With the amount of P-I-T restores I do, this issue makes the whole active data pool useless not just for me but I'm sure for many of you.

TSM 6.1 Technical Overview Presentation

IBM gave a Technical Overview of TSM 6.1 today and I thought I would post the links to the presentation for everyone. To go to the IBM presentation page click here.

To replay the presentation you can click here.

Who Did What?

This weekend I had an issue with a backup failing on a client using LAN-Free. When checking the TSM actlog the error I kept seeing was:

ANR9999D (Session: 265500, Origin: OD0BG-UAX001-STA) mmsshr.c(3874): ThreadId<13> Unable to obtain model type for '/dev/rmt23', rc = 46(SESSION: 265500)

So I had a good idea that the client and TSM Storage Agent were having issues communicating. I knew this because I had seen this error before when the TSM client and TSM Storage Agent were not at the same release levels. Checking the TSM client I found it at 5.4.0.0 and the Storage Agent at 5.3.4.0. Turns out an admin upgraded the client without knowledge of the Storage Agent, causing the backup failures. This is an example of what can happen when someone tries elbow their way into another groups area without the knowledge to do it right.

ART: Restore Testing software for TSM

We have a new product that does something unusual.

ART (Automated Restore Testing for TSM) test-restores a random sample of files. And it does this for every node at your site, automatically, on a schedule.

We don't think anyone has ever done this kind of comprehensive restore testing before.

ART has uncovered problems at every customer site it has tested. The problems are usually operational, and often easy to fix.

If you'd like to give the free trial a whirl (it's full-featured but limited to 20% of your nodes), go to www.tsmworks.com/download. We appreciate feedback from TSM experts out there.
Thanks!