*SMers,
Well, I haven't seen a lot of flames about the TSM 5.1 Mac OS X client at
this ADSM/TSM Forum Listserv, and frankly, I'm surprised.
I have an undergraduate computer science student working summers here for
us, who does web development, and knows his way around Mac OS in
general. Here's what he proposes for our "disclaimer" for the the Mac OS X
client before releasing it to our Mac population. I'm pretty astounded
that IBM/Tivoli let this one out the door:
More Information Regarding the TSM Client for Mac OS X
Before you download the TSM Client for Mac OS X, please read
more in-depth information about the shortcomings of the Client.
The Scheduler May Not Work
We have had mixed success with running the Scheduler for Mac OS
X. Sometimes it will work and sometimes it will not. To make sure that your
computer backs up correctly, we recommend that you backup your
computer manually.
So, now that you have to run manual backups, there is something
you need to know about that as well...
You Will Always Be Asked for an Administrator Password
The TSM Client is going to require your Administrator name and
password every time you run it. Why is this? Well, the TSM Client runs as a
root process in order to backup all the files on your computer
properly (running as a root process means that the TSM Client does not have
to deal
with file permissions among other things). The way Mac OS X
allows for a program to run as a root process is to ask the user for an
Administrator password every time a program wants to run as a
root process. Thus, you get asked for that password every time you run the TSM
Client. It's crummy, we know. Hopefully this will be fixed in a
later release of the TSM Client for OS X.
And last but not least, there are some serious problems with the
OS X client...
Filenames Greater Than 32 Characters Will Not be Backed Up
The OS X TSM Client will NOT backup files that have names longer
than 32 characters. Make sure that all your important documents have
filenames that are 32 characters or less (that includes any file
extensions like .txt).
Filenames with Special Characters Will Not be Backed Up
Also, the OS X TSM Client will NOT backup files that have
special characters in them. This means that files with accents, umlauts,
tildes, and
the like in their name will not be backed up. For example, a
file named "Piņon Forest Pictures" will not be backed up. Make sure that your
important documents do not have special characters in their names.
The System Directory Will Not be Backed Up
The OS X TSM Client will not backup Mac OS X's System directory.
This means that if something happens to your OS X System directory or any
of the files in it, you must reinstall Mac OS X to restore files
in the System directory to proper working condition. Make sure that any
important
documents are not saved in the System directory.
If you still wish to use the Mac OS X TSM Client, please proceed
to the download page.
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I wonder if any others out there have had similar experiences, and further,
whether IBM/Tivoli intends to address these problems?
Thanks. Regards to all. John Bremer
