With Unix, I think it is difficult to determine during backup whether the file is sparse or not, since there aren't any flags that say "I'm a sparse file, here is allocation map". My understanding is that during restore, TSM analyzes the data for lengthy patterns of zeroes in the data stream, and that is how MAKESPARSEFILE works; but TSM does not do that analysis during the backup.
Try using client compression, as a very sparse file should compress very well. 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. "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[email protected]> wrote on 01/25/2005 09:53:12: > TSM 5.1.9.0 on windows 2K server. > > We have a new Fedora Core 3 64-bit client, which has a /var/log/lastlog > sparse file on it, which is 1.2TB, yet only 112K in real blocks used. TSM > is trying to backup the entire 1.2TB file, which is causing some backup > problems. > > I've never had this issue before so I looked up sparse files in the UNIX > users guide, and it says sparse files can be "restored" or "retrieved" > with or without the block holes in it using the makesparsefile option in > dsm.opt. However, it does not say if this applys to the backup. > > I looked on my another unix client, and it's /var/log/lastlog is 19MB but > only 276 in actual blocks, yet TSM backed it up as 19MB. So it seems that > TSM must backup sparse files WITH the empty data holes in it, and only has > the option to restore without the holes. > > Is this correct? > > On the other hand, anyone else have a FC3, and seen huge TB sized lastlog > files? That seems way out of hand. > > Thanks in advance, > > Alex > ----- ----- > Alex Lazarevich | Systems Administrator | Imaging Technology Group > Beckman Institute | University of Illinois | www.itg.uiuc.edu > 405 North Mathews Avenue Urbana IL 61801 > Ph: (217) 244-1565 | Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----- -----
