Computing at UW-MadisonDivision of Information Technology
Students Faculty/Staff Services Services A through D Services E through L Services M through R Services S through Z Help Desk Tech Store About DoIT   

Bucky Backup

Best Practices

May 2, 2002
This document describes some of the tips and hints that Bucky Backup support staff found to be helpful while supporting the Tivoli Storage Manager client.

General

  1. Ensure that all energy-saving software is disabled or set appropriately. A backup will not happen if the computer is asleep or powered off at the scheduled time. Scheduler must be running.

  2. You should use the latest recommended version of the TSM client as provided by DoIT to ensure stability & consistency in your backups. The client install instructions always reference the latest recommended version.

  3. When using the Backup-Archive GUI to do restores, you will only see "active" files (the most recent versions of non-deleted files). To also see "inactive" files (deleted and previous versions of files), click View, then "Display active/inactive files".

  4. Do not restore files from one node using a newer client on a different node. To support the newer features of the clients and ensure data integrity, the TSM server records the last version of the client your node used. That version number can only go up. When you use a newer client with your node name, the server records the newer client version and then prohibits any clients older than that to connect from your node. Keep in mind that the version numbers of the clients ARE NOT synchronized between platforms, which is often what causes this problem. For example, if you used the 4.2.1.31 client on Windows to restore files from a node that is normally running AIX, and then attempted to use the latest AIX client again (version 4.2.1.15) to back up your server, it would fail.

    The only fix for this is to delete the node and recreate it, and that is destructive to your backup data. You may also update to a newer client, if there is one available.

  5. Initial backups of systems often create very large log files, as the TSM client records its efforts to back up every file on your machine. Once you’ve confirmed that everything worked properly, you can delete these files the next day and reclaim your disk space.

  6. Monitor your log files and adjust any monitoring software you use on your machines to ensure that the proper processes/services are running. While the backup notification service is nice, we highly recommend periodic manual verification that your backups are working. You might even try restoring some data sometime (especially deleted data) to verify the process works and that you know how to do it.

  7. If you alter TSM client configuration files (dsm.sys, dsm.opt, and inclexcl), remember to restart the TSM processes and services so that the changes take effect.

Apple Mac OS

  1. For automated backup scheduling, use the TSM Scheduler application rather than the TSM Scheduler Daemon (the default).

  2. On systems where large files (> 1GB) or large amounts of files (> 10000) are being backed up, increase the TSM Scheduler’s memory allocation in the Finder’s “Get Info” window.

  3. On Mac OS X, make sure an administrative user is logged in at the console and that the TSM Scheduler is running when backups are scheduled.

Microsoft Windows

  1. Please see Tips for Windows.

Novell Netware 

  1. Always keep the Netware server’s operating system patched to the current levels.

  2. Subscribe to the Internet mailing list forum described in the Bucky Backup Netware installation documents.

  3. Read the entire Bucky Backup installation document for Netware servers. The appendices have important information on performance and disaster recovery.