> We are currently implementing Tivoli as our backup soltuion for all our AIX > and Windows servers. As far as versioning, is there some sort of guideline > most people are using as far as number of verisons of a specific file to > keep ? We are primarily a software production house and I'm trying to > figure out what is the mose useful versioning route to go by.
My two cents: In an ideal world, you might keep all versions forever. But in the real world, you need to balance the needs of the business with the resources you have to accommodate your backup data. Data retention needs are specific to your business and its needs. I do not believe that there are any "one size fits all" answers to this. This is a subject you should address with the people who will be using your TSM system. One general approach would be to consider your data retention needs not in number of versions to keep, but in how long to keep them. For example, if my typical need was to be able to restore up to 15 days ago, then I could configure my copy group retention settings like this: RETEXTRA=15 RETONLY=15 VEREXISTS=NOLIMIT VERDELETED=NOLIMIT With the number of versions set to NOLIMIT, I can restore any backup version from up to 15 days ago, with the granularity being limited by how often I run backups (usually once a day, but maybe I might need to run more than one backup a day for a given file). Also, it may be that after I delete the file from my client system, the RETONLY or VERDELETED values might need to be different (for example, maybe I want to extend the retention of the latest backup version to, say, 30 days). Note that I am not recommending these values, but just using them as an example. You can also configure multiple management classes wth copy groups that have varying criteria. This allows you to manage some files differently from others. Regards, Andy Andy Raibeck IBM Software Group Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. The command line is your friend. "Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.
