I've been trying to make use of ResourceUtilization to backup a 1TB Oracle database directly to tape (4 drives), but am just about ready to give up on it.
My objective is to have the TSM Client open 4 concurrent data sessions, each backing up a separate filespace going to a separate tape drive, utilizing all 4 tape drives 100% of the time. My plan was to bind all 20 filespaces to an MC whose CopyGroup is directed to a tapepool, and set client ResourceUtilization to 5. I expected the TSM Client to initiate 4 concurrent data sessions/threads, and the TSM Server to mount/use 4 tapes, 1 per thread. Not so. With ResourceUtilization=5, TSM Client opened 5 server sessions, but only 2 sessions went into MediaW status and only 2 tape-mounts were performed by the server. 2 sessions remained in IdleW status. I confirmed all drives/paths were online. With ResourceUtilization=7, TSM Client opened 7 sessions with the server. 4 went into MediaW state immediately. However, the server only mounted 1 tape. 3 sessions sat in MediaW and 2 in IdleW status for almost 50 minutes before I terminated the test. Throughout the test 'q mount' reported only 1 in-use tape and no additional pending mounts. There were no mount-related errors in the TSM Server Activity Log and no sign of problems in the Client schedlog. With ResourceUtilization=10 (max), TSM Client opened 8 sessions with the server. 4 went into MediaW immediately and shortly after that 4 tapes were mounted and in-use. This is almost the desired behavior. However, 3 other sessions sat in IdleW the whole time, and the TSM Client & Server logs provided very little insight or progress-reporting. It also appeared that only one thread/session (the 1st filespace backed up) was actively appending to the schedlog, even though 4 tapes were mounted/in-use and Collocation=Filespace was set on the TSM Server tapepool. With ResourceUtilization, it seems that I can neither predict nor see what is actually happening. On a 1 TB database backup comprised of >20 filespaces that will take up to 24 hours to complete, I absolutely must have the ability to accurately control and monitor the progress/status of the backup. ResourceUtilization isn't giving me that control or insight. Comments?........rsvp, thanks Kent Monthei GlaxoSmithKline
