I hope I can also contribute somehow to the FAQ with few additions and suggestions for correction.
01-08. What is the audience of the list? A.: Many people related to ADSM/TSM/ITSM are actively participating on the list - *SM administrators & users, *SM consultants & solution designers, IBM/Tivoli developers & support people for both TSM and TDP, people from Hardware (disk/tape storage) and Software (TSM add-ons, tools, etc.) TSM-related vendors, IBM/Tivoli partners & competitors. All participate on voluntary basis and no one is obliged to answer your post (look Question 02-03). 02-03. ... + Use subjects! Posts without subject or with non-descriptive subject (like "Please Help!!!") have lower chance to get answered. (Sorry, this actually is related to netiquette but many people will not follow your links in 02-04 as do not read "how to unsubscribe" (IMO)) 03-03. What means <some_unknown_to_me_TSM_term> ? The whole ADSM/TSM/ITSM backup ideology from product creation is completely different compared to other similar purpose products. Many terms are TSM-specific and their explanation can be found in redbook "Tivoli Storage Management Concepts" (SG24-4877-02). The book very quickly and with enough detail can introduce you in the TSM world. 04-07. Latest stable versions are available at http://www.tivoli.com/support/storage_mgr/adsercli.htm (I think it should be better than ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenance/ and you had a typo in "maintenenace" :). The latest possible versions which do not undergo exhaustive testing are available as patches and can be found at ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/patches. Client versions are installable and do not require previous version of the client to be installed. TSM Server code and TSM for Applications (former Tivoli Data Protection products) code are updates to already installed base code. The latter is available on the media (CD) recived when the correspoding product was purchased. Zlatko Krastev IT Consultant Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject: Monthly FAQ posting I've decided to create something that's been missing from the list. I will be posting this FAQ on a monthly basis. There are a goodly number of questions and situations that crop up on a regular basis, and it would be nice to have the answers gathered into one place. Hopefully, this will cut down the number of repeated questions. Naturally, I'm going to miss some questions that should appear. I would be grateful for any requests to include additional material. (Please send them directly to me, rather than to the list; my address is at the bottom of the FAQ.) updated 08/24/2002============================================================ QUESTIONS 01. About the list itself 01-01. How do I subscribe to ADSM-L? 01-02. How do I unsubscribe to ADSM-L? 01-03. Why don't I see my questions on this list? 01-04. How can I see my questions on the list? 01-05. Who decides what questions go on the list? 01-06. Is there a digest or archive of the list? 01-07. How do I get more information about the list? 02. Types of questions asked 02-01. What subjects are covered in this list? 02-02. What kinds of questions can be asked? 02-03. What kinds of questions can I expect answers to? 02-04. What levels of netiquette are expected? 03. Available ADSM/TSM/ITSM resources 03-01. What FAQs are already out there? 03-02. What other sources of help can I find? 04. Quick facts about questions asked on ADSM-L 04-01. Is it called ADSM, or TSM, or ITSM? What's the deal here? 04-02. What are backupsets? How can I use them? 04-03. How does TSM do full/incremental/differential backups, just like my old backup software <fillintheblank> used to? 04-04. How do I unsubscribe to ADSM-L? 04-05. How do I do mailbox-level restores of Exchange using the Tivoli Data Protection Agent for Exchange? 04-06. How do I force TSM to do a full backup of a client? 04-07. Where can I download the latest version of TSM/TDP? ANSWERS 01-01. Send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a blank subject line and a message consisting only of the line SUBSCRIBE ADSM-L. 01-02. Send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a blank subject line and a message consisting only of the line UNSUBSCRIBE ADSM-L. Do NOT try to unsubscribe by sending email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] All that does is annoy the list members, and doesn't get you off the list. 01-03. That's the normal behavior of ADSM-L. 01-04. If you want to see your own questions, send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a blank subject line and a message of the line SET ADSM-L REPRO. 01-05. The list members. There appears to be no active moderation of the list. (No, that's not a license to abuse the list. Complaints from the list members do get listened to.) 01-06. Indeed. There is an indexed version of the mailing list at http://adsm.org. 01-07. Send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a blank subject line and a message consisting only of the line INFO. This will cause an email to be returned to you with a list of documents available about VM.MARIST.INFO and instructions on how to get them. 02-01. Officially, only questions concerning the installation, configuration, care, and feeding of ADSM/TSM/ITSM should appear. However, since backup and recovery systems cover a wide range of IT and business issues, there have been discussions about disaster recovery, tape and other storage systems, and other Tivoli products (such as Storage Network Management and Decision Support). Keep it centered around TSM, and no one fusses much. 02-02. You can ask pretty much any subject-related question you care to. There's no guarantee you'll get an answer, though. Reposting an already-asked question will sometimes get you an answer, but sometimes it'll get you nothing. 02-03. As with any other mailing list, the questions that lend themselves to short, concise answers are the ones most likely to get answered. As an example, you're much more likely to get an answer to "Does my new tape library, model ZYX-666 made by Spelvin Corporation, work with TSM version 4.2?" than "I just got TSM. How do I use it?" Keep your questions focused and narrow in scope. 02-04. The standard civility is expected. If you're unsure of netiquette rules, go to http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html or http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/index.html. 03-01. There are a few (including this one), but the one that far outshines them all is Richard Sims' page at http://people.bu.edu/rbs/ADSM.QuickFacts. It is organized by keyword, it is *exhaustive*, and it is updated frequently. (Say, Richard, when are we going to see your shining face back in the list?) 03-02. There are several sources of help for TSM problems. --This list is a good resource, but, like most mailing lists, you must separate the valid information from the invalid. The best way to do that is to read it frequently; you'll soon learn who hits the nail with the hammer most often. Personal experience has shown that some of our brightest stars are (but are not limited to) --The same caution extends of course the ADSM-L online archive at http://adsm.org. This archive is indexed and searchable, although personal experience shows that the search function could use some work. --Tivoli maintains extensive documentation on all TSM products. You can find Tivoli documents, in PDF and HTML format, at http://www.tivoli.com/support/public/Prodman/public_manuals/td/TD_PROD_LIST. html. --Tivoli technical support, although not as fast to respond as in past times, is still one of the best technical support lines in the market today. The number is 800.848.6548. You will need your customer number, which you should have gotten when you purchased TSM, and the name of the 'official' contact person designated when the order was placed; without both, they will not be able to help you. --IBM maintains a documentation system they call Redbooks. Redbooks are rather like O'Reilly's "missing manuals"; they contain information that doesn't make it into the standard software manuals. There is a lot of good TSM information in some of them. You can find redbooks in .PDF format at http://redbooks.ibm.com. 04-01. The backup and restore software package we refer to today as Tivoli Storage Management was once known as Adstar Distributed Storage Management; the server was only available on IBM mainframes. IBM acquired the software, shortened the name of it to ADSM, and increased the number of OSs that could run the server. Later, Tivoli took over maintenance and changed the name to Tivoli Storage Management. The official name of the software is now IBM Tivoli Storage Management (ITSM). 04-02. Backupsets are created from the latest (active) version of each file on a client's system. These files are copied from data already stored in TSM storage (disk, tape, or other media) to a single "file". Thus it is not necessary to do an extra backup across your network to create a backupset. Backupsets cannot be browsed like backups and archives; you can, however, use wildcards to restore files, and you can look at the contents of a backupset, provided you know the backupset's name, from Q BACKUPSETCONTENTS. 04-03. You're not using your old backup software anymore. TSM uses a backup/restore philosophy unlike other backup software. Once the initial full backup of a client is finished, TSM then only backs up files that are new or have modified. This sort of backup used to be called "incrementals forever", but is more accurately described as "progressive backups". There is not a way to perform differentials. 04-04. (This question is answered twice in this FAQ because it needs to be.) Send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a blank subject line and a message consisting only of the line UNSUBSCRIBE ADSM-L. Do NOT try to unsubscribe by sending email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] All that does is annoy the list members, and doesn't get you off the list. 04-05. Not in a straightforward way. Microsoft does not support mailbox-level Exchange backups or restores. In a nutshell, the only way to do mailbox-level restores is to restore the entire Exchange information store and directory to a staging Exchange server, and then use the Exchange administative software to move the desired mailbox from the staging server to the production server. 04-06. From the command line, run dsmc selective <drive_letter>:\* -subdir=yes (Windows) dsmc selective /<filespace>/* -subdir=yes (UNIX) to backup the entire drive/filespace. From the GUI, press the BACKUP button, select the desired data to backup, use the pulldown menu to change from "Incremental (complete)" to "Always backup", and press the "Backup" button. 04-07. The latest full versions of TSM backup/archive clients are available from the ftp site ftp://service.boulder.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenenace . You cannot download the (required) base level of TSM server code, but you *can* download the latest version of the server patches at the above ftp address. Similarly, you cannot download the (required) base code for Tivoli Data Protection software, but you can download their patches at the above ftp address. -- Mark Stapleton ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Certified TSM consultant Certified AIX system engineer MCSE