The problem is that this is a TDP Informix backup. The full backup objects are always named the same so TSM versioning works just fine. This client wants to do a daily backup and keep them for a week. Then they want to do a weekly backup and keep them for 5-weeks. Then a monthly keeping that for a year. Normally I would then make that 3-different nodename. The issue comes into play with Informix. The utility is onbar and it keeps track of all the bakcup objects in his SYSUTILS table. This has the name and object ID from the storage manager. If this information isn't in there, then onbar can't restore it. So, if I backup up daily to a nodename "A", then backup weekly under "B", when I run the ONSMSYNC utility that syncronizes the storage manager and the SYSUTILS table. If the entry isn't in the storage manager, it is removed from the table. So, when the ONSMSYNC runs as the daily "A" node, it doesn't see the weekly "B" backups and removes them from the table. Thus making it impossible to restore from a weekly backup.
I made a suggestion to them that they continue with the daily backups expiring after a week and for their weekly/monthly backups, do an IMAGE backup of the raw LV's of the flashcopy version of the database. Haven't heard back on that idea, yet. I'm trying to get them to change their backup requirements, and even though the DBA says that they'll probably never restore from a weekly/monthly backup, it's still a requirement from the CIO. Right now there's a meeting scheduled next week with the DBA and CIO to "explain" why TSM can't do backups they way they want. An uphill battle. They bought a p690, 24-processor, 6-LPAR system, 2Gbit fibre attached to an IBM ESS Shark. The production LPAR has 12-cpus, 24GB memory and dual fibre to the Shark. All this just to run a 300GB Informix database. Talk about over-kill! -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Richard Sims Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 7:28 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Deleteing a version of a backed up file >If I have 5 versions of a file and want to delete/expire the 3rd copy, how >can I do this with the TSM client? EXPIRE doesn't give me an option for a >specific object. Nor should it, as the product is expected to conform to a rules/policy regimen to assure that data is there as everyone at the site hopes it will be when a restoral is needed. That is, tinkering is contrary to the philosophy of the product, which was selected for its policy nature. You can effect what you want - just think through the product concepts. The Backup Copy Group specifies a certain number of Versions to keep. That is conceptually a shift register: push an object in, the oldest one falls out the back. You can perform as many Selective Backups as needed on a given file system object to achieve the bumping you need. Richard Sims, BU
