Hi All I think it may be time for a collective report on TSM 5.4 client and server - I'm starting to find some things that I don't like about it, and I think the quality control has gone backwards a little with this release.
My situation is that I work for a small firm handling multiple clients in the TSM/AIX/IBM storage space. We don't sell anything, just do services. Most of the clients run TSM on Windows, and of course no matter what the server OS the clients are mostly windows. I've upgraded two clients personally to 5.4 client and server and a colleague has done one. Issues. 1. hanging client sessions - I have some clients that appear to backup correctly but then the session stays open indefinitely, even past the next backup. 2. DFS mount problems. Apparently the code that gets windows file attributes has changed in 5.4 client. This causes issues when a windows DFS root is backed up - the underlying directories are reported as inaccessible. There is a testflag hack to revert to the old code which gets around the issue, once you know about it. 3. SNAPSHOTLOCATION size issues - windows clients that have backed up successfully on previous versions are now reporting ANS9999E ntrc.cpp(928) followed by ANS1378E indicating snapshotlocation is too small. As this happens with systemstate and system services backup, it looks like VSS problems again. While we are on the subject of TSM and Windows VSS, this has been a thorn in my side for some time. I even have one client machine (5.3.4 client, 5.3.2 server) which is a *new* Windows2003 SP1 build and the machine hangs hard on *every* systemstate backup. This is the worst case but far from the only one where VSS refuses to play ball with TSM. Can not IBM use some if its marketing musclewith MS to get the TSM guys and VSS guys into a room together and keep them there till we have a solution that works reliably or at least a diagnosis and repair tool that can correct whatever ails VSS in these situations? My recommendation? at the moment 5.4 Server is stable enough for production use. I would give the client until 5.4.1 to get its act together. Use 5.3.4 client instead. My 2 cents - ok a buck fifty this time Steve Steven Harris AIX an TSM Admin Brisbane Australia Moving to Sydney soon - any job offers gratefully considered.
