Well, we always have the info center. Sorry, just joking.
Hans Chr. On Thu, Dec 17, 2015 at 3:16 PM, Rhodes, Richard L. < rrho...@firstenergycorp.com> wrote: > Great Comments! > > I've often wondered if IBM appreciates just how complicated TSM is. > > We had a big discussion the other day about would we recommend TSM to > other possible customers. > The answer we a very qualified "yes". We really like TSM for its core > feature - incremental forever backup system. It saved our posteriors years > ago when we were drowning in periodic full backups, especially from remote > sites. But the tradeoff is learning/maintaining a very complicated program > that requires lots of resources. Roger below mentions policies. To this > day, after working with TSM for many years (since TSM v3.7), if the topic > of policies comes up I have to look up and refresh my memory of what they > are and how they interact. And then, try and explain them to a > user/manager/auditor/whomever. > > The Admin Guide is the best document I know of for how TSM fits together - > how to get your head around TSM. No other documentation comes close. > Losing it would be a big loss. > > Sometimes when we talk we wonder if the folks who develop and support TSM > (and most products today from all vendors) actually use their own products > like we use them. If all they had to learn/use TSM was the standard > documentation, I wonder how far they would get. This is why this mailing > list is SO great! > > Rick > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of > Roger Deschner > Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 11:06 PM > To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU > Subject: Re: Bring back TSM Administrator's Guide > > Thank you for your response Clare. It's good to know these comments are > being read. > > There are a large number of areas that cannot be covered separately. A > very large topic is Policy, which is one of Spectrum Protect's hardest > to understand areas, yet it affects and is affected by everything else. > For instance, it has been essential to understand Policy in crafting our > hybrid D2D2D2T solution. Or when the auditor came and said we needed to > keep just a certain set of files for five years. The Admin Guide covered > Policy well enough that you could make your way through its many > complexities and get it to work for you. But to cover Policy adequately, > it had to refer to many other areas of the book. > > Policy is just one example, which really needs everything else in the > book, in order to explain it well enough. But it needs to all be in one > place. I carry 4 PDFs (Admin Guide, Admin Ref, Windows Client, Unix > Client) around on a USB stick so I can refer to them wherever I am and > whatever the network is there. > > Another topic that the solution guides simply do not cover, is the > complex interrelationships between storage pools of different kinds - > tape, VTL, disk, file, optical, etc, and how to structure migration, > reclamation, collocation, and storage pool backup to make the data flow > among them the way you want. > > There's sveral other topics of similar complexity, such as managing the > client scheduler, and how to build a daily schedule of server > activities. > > There are of course specialized topics that shouldn't be in there. You > mentioned NDMP. Another is V5 to V6/7 migration. Virtual Machines could > be its own book. > > The basic issue here is that, as the sophisticated and fully evolved > "best of breed", Spectrum Protect has a rather steep learning curve. It > always has, since it was WDSF. After 20 years with WDSF/ADSM/TSM/SP I am > still learning things, and I still refer to the Admin Guide frequently. > > Doing away with its best documentation can only hurt this highly > sophisticated product. Coherent how-to knowledge is the essential weapon > in the face of complexity. Without the Administrator's Guide, more will > simply declare Spectrum Protect to be "too complicated to understand", > and settle for an inferior solution that is easier to understand. It's a > battle that those of us who know the product well, constantly fight, > which is why this book is so essential to the product. > > Roger Deschner University of Illinois at Chicago rog...@uic.edu > ======I have not lost my mind -- it is backed up on tape somewhere.===== > > > On Tue, 15 Dec 2015, J. Pohlmann wrote: > > >Hi Clare. The Admin Guide provided a one-stop shopping approach to all > >functional areas of Spectrum Protect. I think this is what's missing from > >the current documentation. Clearly the Admin Guide was aimed at an > >experienced person as opposed to a novice. In an initial Spectrum Protect > >implementation, the Solutions Guides are of value. However they fall short > >in supplying guidance and "how-to" or "setup" information to an existing > >installation. So, even though the Admin Guide became bigger over the > >releases, the topics are still of extreme value. For example tape is still > >aa viable media, especially in the light of LTO 7 technology. It fits into > >large to very large enterprises, yet when it comes to media management of > >disaster protection implementation, we have no guidance in the new > >publications. So, I would vote for the return of the Admin Guide, it still > >is the best collection of implementation and usage guidance for all the > >various Spectrum Protect aspects. I would prefer one book to a large set > of > >publications that are topic oriented. > > > >Best regards, > >Joerg Pohlmann > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of > >Clare Byrne > >Sent: December 15, 2015 13:59 > >To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU > >Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Bring back TSM Administrator's Guide > > > >Please be assured that we in IBM development are listening and are > >discussing future actions regarding the Administrator's Guide content > since > >the feedback about the 7.1.3 release that did not include that book. > >I gave some information in a response to that earlier feedback: > >http://www.mail-archive.com/adsm-l@vm.marist.edu/msg99286.html > > > >We are working on a plan to publish a solution guide for the disk-to-tape > >architecture next. This should fill in some gaps left by the removal of > the > >Administrator's Guide. Timing of the publication is yet to be determined. > > > >We are also discussing how to fill the information needs for those who > will > >not be using one of the four documented architectures. We already point to > >the 7.1.1 guides from newer releases but we realize this is not ideal. > >Possible actions include creating additional, supplemental information > >outside of the solution guides, similar to what we have done for the > >information about NDMP ( > > > http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGSG7_7.1.4/srv.admin/r_ndmp.htm > >l > >). > > > >What are the most important subjects from the old Administrator's Guide > for > >us to consider? Knowing more specifics about your priorities would be very > >helpful to us for setting our priorities and plans. Web traffic for the > >content on IBM Knowledge Center gives us some information but not a > complete > >picture of needs. > > > >Meanwhile, to make the 7.1.1 Administrator's Guide PDFs easier to find and > >download, today we added the five English PDFs to the Tivoli Storage > Manager > >wiki. Find the links to them on this page: > > > https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/Tivol > > >i%20Storage%20Manager/page/Version%207.1.1%20PDF%20files%20of%20IBM%20Tivoli > >%20Storage%20Manager%20documentation > > > >The 7.1.1 Administrator's Guide PDFs are also still available in the > >711_411_PDFs.zip file that you can find at > >ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/products/TSM/current/ > >The available translations are in the 711_411_PDFs_nl.zip file in the same > >directory. All this content (English and other languages) remains > available > >online in IBM Knowledge Center at > > > http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSGSG7_7.1.1/com.ibm.itsm.srv.com > >mon.doc/t_server_main.html > > > >PDFs for previous releases, including several unsupported levels, are also > >still available. Start on this page: > > > https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/Tivol > >i%20Storage%20Manager/page/PDF%20documentation > > > >(Note: This wiki was unavailable for several days, starting on 11 > December. > >While the wiki is available again, restoration of some pages and links is > >still in progress. Unfortunately you might find some links that don't > work, > >especially for the unsupported releases. I don't know the projected date > for > >completion.) > > > >Clare Byrne > >Information Development for IBM Spectrum Protect Tucson, AZ US > > > > > ----------------------------------------- > > The information contained in this message is intended only for the > personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the > reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent > responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby > notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, > dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly > prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify > us immediately, and delete the original message. >