Some considerations for long-term archive: - Much of today's data, as it is used from day to day, exists in some product-specific format. If you were to retrieve that data, say, 10 years from now, would you have software capable of reading that data?
- Even if you archive the software, will operating systems 10 years from now be able to run that software? - Even if you archive the operating system installation files, will the hardware 10 years from now be able to install and run that operating system? - There is a good case to consider carefully what gets archived and how you archive it.For instance, maybe for database data, it would make sense to export that data to some common format, such as tab- or comma-delimited records, which is very likely to be importable by most software. Likewise, for image data, consider a format that is common today and likely to be common tomorrow. - 10 years from now, the people that need to retrieve the archived data will probably not be the same people who originally archived the data. Will your successors know what that data is? Will they know how to get to it? ("Gee, we need to get at the accounts payable database from 10 years ago... under which node is it archived?") Will they know how to reconstruct it, and how to use it? I am by no means an expert in this area, but these are some things to consider carefully for long-term archives. Note that most of these issues are not directly related to TSM, but apply regardless of which data storage tool you use. Regards, Andy Andy Raibeck IBM Software Group Tivoli Storage Manager Client Development Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Tucson/[EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked. The command line is your friend. "Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.