The various cited misunderstandings with end users point out the need for a well written service contract upon entering into a service arrangement with an area of your organization. Such a contract needs to define exactly what will happen, when (backup times, retention policies, offsite schedules); what will not happen (e.g., handing TSM tapes to end users, no data images available between backup times); limitations (constraints on drive usage, overall throughput, media problems, downtime, scheduled maintenance and upgrades); client responsibilities (filespace management, assuring backups running, restorals); periodic reports from the server; fees per usage; etc.
End user expectations should not be left to their imaginings. Richard Sims
