I get a lot of hits on this site for TSM material and a lot of search terms are related to upgrading the server from version 5.x to 5.y. For this reason I've ripped some information from the IBM website which is impossible to navigate and pasted it here, enjoy.

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Ryan Partington

Here are hundreds of useful statements you can use with TSM reporting to include in your daily report. I've made a copy on this site, just click 'View Page' to see statements, original site can be found here. Thanks to the author Thobias.

There's nothing quite like the smell of TSM database structure issues in the morning.Only run through this proceedure if you are sure you have DB structure issues.

Here are the instructions on running a dump/load/audit.
.
1. Make a copy of the following files:
- dsmserv.opt
- dsmserv.dsk
- volhist (volume history file)
- devconfig (device configuration file)
.
2. Set the following options in your dsmserv.opt file:
EXPINTERVAL 0
DISABLESCHEDS YES
NOMIGRRECL
.
3. Define a file devclass unless one is already defined if your server is down please add to the devconfig and ensure that the directory that this is written to has enough space to provide the format, the following example creates 10GB dump files, you will need to manually specify all these files in the future so ammend as appropriate.
e.g.-
DEFINE DEVCLASS FILECLASS DEVTYPE=FILE FORMAT=DRIVE MAXCAPACITY=100000000K MOUNTLIMIT=1 DIRECTORY="C:\TSMDATA" SHARED=NO
.
4. Stop the TSM server if it is still running.
.
5. From the c:\program files\tivoli\tsm\server1 directory run the
following:
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..\server\dsmserv dumpdb devclass=FILECLASS
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6. Next, format new TSM database volumes:
(Please run this from the c:\program files\tivoli\tsm\server1 directory)
.
..\server\dsmserv loadformat <# of log files> [repeat log file name and size according to the number] <# of dbvols> [repeat db vol name and size according to the number]
.
e.g. - ..\server\dsmserv loadformat 2 c:\tsmdata\log1.dsm 4000 c:\tsmdata\log2.dsm 5000 3 c:\tsmdata\db1.dsm 4000 d:\tsmdata\db2.dsm 7000 e:\tsmdata\db3.dsm 8000
.
7. Next, we need to load the TSM db via the following command run from
the same directory as above:
.
..\server\dsmserv loaddb devclass=FILECLASS volume= the dump>
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8. Once the load is finished, we will need to run the audit via:
.
..\server\dsmserv auditdb fix=yes
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9. Once the audit is finished, you can bring up your TSM server and attempt to run "expire inventory". If that runs fine, please bring down your TSM server and remove the 3 lines that were added to your dsmserv.opt file and then please restart your TSM server.

Thanks

Ryan Partington

E-Trade apparently have sent some details in the post which I've not yet received. I am to read, sign and send back. Guess it's standard practice to ensure I'm aware of the risks and they can confirm my address. Today is the day that Halifax should be putting £200 into my 'fund' so I can invest in shares. This has not happened as of yet, I'll keep an eye on it and chase them tomorrow if nothing changes.

Looking at TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager) for a moment, yesterday I had to perform an archive retrieve. Data had been written to tape and checked out some time ago. Initially I kicked off the retrieve as was asked to mount a tape. The retrieve began and I continued with other daily tasks. On my return I found the retrieve had failed as a mount request for another tape had timed out. Before I kicked off the retrieve again I ran "q nodedata NODENAME stgp=STGPOOLNAME" and was given a list of all required tapes, once checked in the retrieve was a success.

Cheers
Ryan partington

Yesterday I posted on tsm expert about bare metal restores within TSM. Takes seconds to read and can improve your understanding, read it here. If you're in the UK and would to talk to me about any TSM related ideas from implementation to administration, drop me an email.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

There's nothing quite like writing an article and then losing all the text and having to start again. Take two...

It's best to measure performance to ensure you're heading in the right direction. Yesterday I came across NetMeter which is a tool that monitors your network throughput and displays a pretty graph. I installed it on our TSM server and scaled the graph so it max's out when client backups are running. Now in the future without much effort I can logon and check performance. Takes seconds to setup and may help identify bottlenecks in the future. It can auto load with Windows and takes about 1/36th of your screen up (no idea how I came up with that number).

Enjoy your weekend
Ryan Partington

You experience a database corruption and do a point in time restore(PIT). Any storage pool media that was written to after the PIT is now invalid/damaged data. We resolve this by running an audit of the storage pool. The simple rule of thumb is once you've restored your TSM database, "disable sessions" so clients can't write any data, then run an "audit volume stgpool=FISH", FISH is the only parameter you need to change for you envioronment. Also audit your tape library if any tapes were used after the DB backup, you can check this by reviewing your volhist file before restoring your DB (it will be overwritten afterwards). Once auditing is complete and the server is healthy, "enable sessions".

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Yesterday I blogged at tsmexpert.org and increased what I knew. I wrote with 90% certainty of what I wrote was totally accurate. Comments came back and I was enlightened. Everything we say and write is based on what we've experienced and is always subject to change. It's better so say something and get it wrong, than not say anything at all and still believe it's correct. That said, let me offer you some tips from the field I learnt yesterday in another case

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

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

Defaults if I remember correctly are (maxsessions 25) (maxschedsessions 20) which were not high enough for a recent job I was involved in. We had migrated all the clients over to another storage pool and wanted full backups of each node, when they all tried to initiate there connection on the schedule, 20% of 25 sessions was not enough. Values changed and hopefully today when I visit site, all will be well with the world.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Good morning and welcome to a new week. Good fortune has smiled down and granted you life on our beautiful planet and the good news does not stop there. I've joined the TSM Expert community and will be contributing where I can. If you're a TSM man or woman I'd suggest adding TSM Expert to your bookmarks. Like myself they provide valuable information to the community around TSM but in a way which makes you want to smile.

Enjoy
Ryan Partington

I'm re-writing this article as initially it said 'If you want to upgrade to 5.5 you need to remove previous versions first. But now it says, you can just run the 5.5 installation and have it automatically upgrade your TSM server. Why the confusion? In the TSM 5.5 guide it states "Tivoli Storage Manager Version 5.5 requires any version of Tivoli Storage Manager earlier than Version 5.5 to be uninstalled before installing Version 5.5." However it also states "You can install Tivoli Storage Manager Version 5.5 over a previous version of Tivoli Storage Manager, upgrading your server." Interesting. After a post on http://adsm.org and a call to IBM I can confirm you may run an in place upgrade. I've taken a couple of pages from the TSM 5.5 installation guide for your review. (Click 'view page' for the full article)

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Here we have 7 videos which work through recovering a Windows 2003 TSM server from scratch. Before the video begins I've installed the OS and updates. All in all it's about 40 minutes of raw viewage. I'll be adding descriptions to each video over time. This is a page for the bookmark.

Basically we're recovering a disk device pool from tape media. Click (view page) to access videos.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Friday I updated a clients TSM server from 5.3.2.1 to 5.3.6.0. All did not go well and a database restore was required. I'm losing confidence in TSM's stability on the Windows platform but that discussion is for another day. Once the update was complete and reported back as successful (I know) I started up the service and the problems began. What I should have done was fire up dsmserv.exe so I could see exactly what was happening and confirm the update had been successful. Whenever you make any changes to the TSM server, apply and fix pack or interim update, it's worth firing up dsmserve.exe rather than the service so you can see exactly what is and is not working.

This does not just apply to TSM server updates, the same can be said for all software walks of life. If making changes to a PHP page on a production server and you have suppressed the errorlog to report issues on the page, it may be worth tuning this on before you make the change and then review any potential issues afterwards. It's easy to do these things without taking the necessary precautions as it's easier to act now and think later. If you're anything like me you'll need a few slip ups and site downs before it really sinks into your mind 'what can I do to reduce the risk of my next action?' We're all human

Cheers
Ryan Partington

You've put time into implementing a DR solution, performing daily backups and you should. Your organisation will call on you for data recovery when it goes tits up. So, when was the last time you performed a full DR test, restoring all your data back to another server/disk and tried restoring a few files? DR implementation is nothing if it doesn't work when required. It's as important, if not more important to perform quarterly DR tests. You may think you don't have the time, but once you've ran through this exercise a number of times you'll end up with a procedure which can be followed quickly and efficiently. Questions you want to be able to answer once you're happy with the restore procedure.

What is the recovery point? How old will the data been once restored, 24 hours maybe? Assuming you have a full backup off site each day.

What is the recovery time? How long until you can start restoring data on specific servers? If using TSM you may need to restore everything to disk first?

Once you have these answers and experience ask the business what their business continuity plan is, how do they prepare for a disaster. What site do we have on standby, where will we purchase computers and servers from? What services and data are most important to the business. This is the kind of information that until required appears unimportant. If your organisation does not prepare for a disaster it's possible you'll be out of business sooner rather than never.

It's not about backup, it'd about recovery

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Here are some things to bare in mind when setting up Windows for a backup. I read these tips here and always feel re-reading these notes every now and again improves your ability as an administrator.

NT/Windows 2000 Client

• tcpwindowsize 63
• tcpbufsize 32
• largecommbuffers no
• txnbytelimit 25600

Keep in mind that using NTFS on the TSM client does cause a performance degradation for small file workloads relative to FAT, because of the need to check security information during backup, and the impact of the NTFS filesystem recovery capability during restore.

NTFS file compression should not be used on disk volumes that are used by the TSM server, because of the potential for performance degradation.

For optimal TSM backup and restore performance when using a local client, use the namedpipes communication method.

For optimal TSM backup and restore performance with a large number of clients, consider using TSM client compression. Compressing the data on the client reduces demand on the network and on the TSM server. The reduced amount of data on the server continues to provide performance benefits whenever this data is moved, such as for storage pool migration and storage pool backup. However, client compression will significantly reduce the performance of each individual client, and the reduction will be more pronounced on the slowest client systems.

Anti-virus software can negatively impact backup performance

Cheers
Ryan Partington

SQL command to determine total data backed up for the previous 24 hours.
SELECT activity , CAST(sum(bytes/1024/1024/1024) AS decimal(8,2)) AS "Total GB" FROM summary WHERE activity='BACKUP' AND start_time>=current_timestamp - 24 hours GROUP BY activity

If you want total data backed up by node then use this select statement:
SELECT entity as "Node", CAST(sum(bytes/1024/1024/1024) AS decimal(8,2)) AS "Total GB" FROM summary WHERE activity='BACKUP' AND start_time>=current_timestamp - 24 hours GROUP BY entity

Source: http://momo66.wordpress.com/category/tsm/backups/

Cheers
Ryan Partington

I've had a Windows server which fails when backing up system services. Microsoft say it is the tivoli software, IBM say it's a bug is VSS. Yesterday I came across this page from IBM which has a list or all the hot fixes from Microsoft to address VSS system state backups. Although it did not resolve my issues you may find the details interesting.

Microsft VSS hotfixes

Enjoy
Ryan Partington

The TSM journal can be your friend or enemy. Which one depends on when you use it and how. 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. (click view page for full article)

I found this select statement over@momo66. The following select statement will show the node name, total MB stored per node, number of tapes the data is spanned across and the average MB/tape. This can help estimate restore times and ensure your reclamation process is running efficiently. Click 'view page' for statement.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Yesterday I ran through a disaster recovery exercise. The TSM software I had installed was a newer version than that installed on the original server. After running dsmserv.exe I came across my first issue (Click view page for full article)

Thanks
Rick111

Sometimes after applying an update or fixpack to your TSM server you receive a warning when you start up the MMC. To resolve this simply close down TSM MMC, stop the TSM service, start the MMC, close the MMC, start the service, open the MMC.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

Basic Troubleshooting of TSM is easy. Use something similar to the 'TSM Tracer batch file' I have on this site. It will create a text file each day which details what state tapes are in. This can do wonders when trying to find out why things are not in the state you expect. If the TSM server is crashing at random times, query the log and look at the error before it hangs. If the TSM server crashes at a specific point, start dsmserv.exe > C:\help.txt and then perform the action. If the resulting error log does not help you out, browse over to adsm.org and post your actions+log file.

Cheers
Ryan Partington

This is a brief guide which will be updated with reference material and require files in the coming weeks

Cheers
Ryan Partington

I found this note regarding tsm\baclient\plugins

quot;
01/02/07 I was having issues installing the BAClient due to tsm\baclient\plugins being inaccessible I've had this before I don't remember resolving it I logged a call with TSM Support and they were not familure with the issue although I've had it many times in the past. I had tried the obvious things, taking ownership etc, but all these failed. IBM support suggested the may be a open process that has locked the dir, I checked services and nothing was running, I checked taskman and dsmcad.exe was open. After killing this process the plugins dir was nowhere to be found after browsing back to tsm\baclient

interesting
quot;

A common problem with TSM client backups on a Windows system is the failure of VSS backups. Today I received an e-mail from IBM which documented a list of fixes. I know this will help me in the future so I thought I'd share the link as troubleshooting these kind of issues can be a headache.

Enjoy
Ryan Partington

In a typical Tivoli Storage Manager environment you will be running commands on a daily basis to ensure everything is consistent and you're prepared for a disaster. Here we detail those steps and list some additional commands that may prove useful. The following script is based on a Windows environment so you may want to make some changes if you run nix. If you decide to make any changes we'd be interested in your updates, so leave us a comment.

Enjoy
Ryan Partington

I've written a 'script' for Tivoli Storage Manager which is intended to help you with the disaster recovery preparation and maintenance of plan files which are created with the FILE device type. It deletes planfiles older than 7 days, e-mails you volhist.out, devcnfg.out, plan*.*, dsmserv.opt and dsmserv.dsk together with a logfile.

Thanks
Ryan Partington

We've put together a check list on how to install the Tivoli Storage Manager Client which will be updated as new versions are released. We've also got some details for the Exchange and SQL TDP installation. Basic notes but should help you cruise through the installation if you're feeling a little rusty.

Thanks
Rick111

How to size a Tivoli Storage Manager opportunity? When talking about TSM to a customer you must have a detailed understanding of their infrastructure and budget. You can spend a lot of time on a TSM project with little return if you miss out some fundamental questions early on during the consultation. Here I've put together a printable version of what I use during the initial assessment.

When handing the TSM 'Daily Tasks' over to a new team/user, there can be inconsistencies between where TSM thinks the tapes are and where you have them. It can be difficult to find where the mistake was made, so I put together this simple batch file which is to be run before any daily tasks are performed.

If you've worked with Tivoli Storage Manager you'll be aware of how much is involved during setup and configuration. To help with this process we've put together a check list which you can work through when performing a new installation. There are of course many different ways to implement TSM and this check list wont fit all environments, but it should prompt the thought process as we go through an entire setup, all the way to configuring DRM.

Cheers
Rick111