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Because TSM Studio saves the last known position of the window, it is possible that if the resolution changes, multiple screens were used or the window was accidently dragged off the screen that the TSM Studio is now on a part of the Window Screen that is not visible. To resolve this issue use ALT+CTRL+W to reset the position of the window

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In this article I will show three ways that you can verify that your Backups were successful using TSM Studio.

The first is from the Events Table

To view the events table goto the Monitor Category and then double click on the Events Dataview

Select the Date Range

The events data is displayed

There are a number of other related views in this Category such as Missed and Failed Backups

View the Backup output from the Summary Table

To view the events table goto the Monitor Category and then double click on the Summary Dataview

Select the Date Range

Use the Filter Backup to just show Backups

Choose Backup

Filter the Successful Column to display Backup Jobs that have failed

A list of all the Failed Backups will now be displayed

The third way to check is to look at File Spaces

The file spaces dataview can be found under the Storage Category

Check the Backup Start Date and the Backup End Date.  If the Backup End Date is less than the Backup Start Date or the Backend End Date is blank then there is a problem with the backup of the Node owning this filespace

We also have a specific Dataview to show all suspect File Spaces, goto to teh Troubleshooting Category and select File Spaces where Backup End Date is less than Backup Start Date

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It is possible to impersonate a client node on a different node and there are 2 ways to do this.

The first option is to just change the nodename to match the impersonated name, this requires that you know the password of the nodename to be impersonated.

Either change the nodename in the dsm.opt file to the nodename to be impersonated

or change the nodename in the Backup-Archive Client by going into the preferences

and Changing the Node Name

Alternatively you can use the ASNodeName option. This requires specifying the ASNodeName option either in the dsm.opt file or using the Backup-Archive client and also granting access on the TSM Server to impersonate this Node Name.

Either modify the dsm.opt file as follows

or go into the preferences dialog as above and change the As Node Name field

Now grant the Node Test1 access to impersonate Test2 on the TSM Server.

Open the Client Nodes dataview in the Configuration category in TSM Studio and choose the node that is to be impersonated. Right click to bring up the Commands context menu and choose Grant Proxy Access to and select the Node that will impersonate this node

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What are the Activity Log, Events and Summary Table.  

The Activity Log is the message log for TSM. Everything that is logged in TSM goes into the activity log. The Events Table stores information about anything that is running from the internal TSM Scheduler including admin tasks and client backups.   The Summary log is a summary of all activity that happens on the server such as admin tasks ( expiration, reclamation etc ), backups and restores.   These TSM object are stored in the TSM Database so changing any retention values will affect the size of TSM database so keep an eye out of the database utilization when increasing these values.   To change the retention values for these objects in TSM Studio, right click on the TSM Server in the TSM Server navigation windows and select Server Properties

Goto the logging tab and simply choose the new retention values for the Activity Log, Event  and Summary Tables. The values are measured in units of days

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The RelabelScratch parameter is aimed for use with Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL) and instructs TSM to relabel the tape when it becomes a scratch tape

NOTE: Do you not use the parameter below TSM 5.5.3 as there is a major bug with this option which can cause your tapes to be relabeled incorrectly

Why is this parameter needed?  ( This is based on my experience with the Falconstor VTL Product)

When using VTL’s with De-Duplication, the Virtual Tape Library Engine and DeDupe Engine are separate subsystems ( either within the same System or in different Systems ). In these cases the VTL Engine is just a transient area for your data before it is deduplicated and is moved to the storage managed by the DeDupe Engine.

Over time TSM will expire old data, reclaim tapes and tapes will move back to the scratch pool. The problem is that the VTL and DeDupe engine do not know that these tapes have become scratch tapes and so will not remove the expired data. The only way that the VTL and DeDupe systems know that a virtual tape has become a scratch tape is when TSM starts writing on that virtual tape from the beginning again.

To overcome this problem the RELABELSCRATCH parameter was introduced. This will tell TSM that it should rewrite the internal TSM label on the virtual tape when it becomes a scratch tape. This will let the VTL and DeDupe engine know that the data on that tape can be removed from the VTL and DeDupe Engines.

To see how this parameter is set on your library

Run the following QUERY LIBRARY FORMAT=DETAILED and you get output like the following. Checkout the Relabel Scratch Option

tsm: SPIRITTSM55_SERVER1>query library format=detailed

Library Name: LB0.0.0.2
Library Type: SCSI
ACS Id:
Private Category:
Scratch Category:
WORM Scratch Category:
External Manager:
RSM Media Type:
Shared: No
LanFree:
ObeyMountRetention:
Primary Library Manager:
WWN:
Serial Number: 9EZ7Z00M08
AutoLabel: No
Reset Drives: No

Relabel Scratch: Yes

Last Update by (administrator): ADMIN

Last Update Date/Time: 02/04/2010 04:58:33

When using TSM Studio go to the Libraries Dataview in the Libraries and Volumes Category and check out the Relabelscratch column

To change the relabelscratch parameter the Library cannot have any activity to it

UPDATE LIBRARY libraryname RELABELSCRATCH=YES

where libraryname is the name of your Library

To change using TSM Studio

Right Click on the Library to bring up the Commands Menu and choose Edit

Check the Relabel Scratch Option and Press Ok

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Some commands when entered in TSM particular those that involve moving Tapes in and out of the IO Slot will require a response from the TSM Operator.

To display Outstanding Requests enter the following command

QUERY REQUEST

output similar to the following will be displayed

ANR8352I Requests outstanding:

ANR8373I 001: Fill the bulk entry/exit port of library LB0.0.0.2 with all DLT

volumes to be processed within 60 minute(s); issue ‘REPLY’ along with the

request ID when ready.

REPLY requestnumber  ( for example REPLY 1 )  where requestnumber is the number in the QUERY REQUEST output

To do this in TSM Studio

Open the Query Requests Dataview from the the Monitor Category

Right Click to access the Commands Menu and select Reply

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Any TSM command can be run as an administrative schedule and the TSM Scheduler whilst not being an advanced scheduler does provide a lot of flexibility of when a task can start.

To have a look at the currently defined Admin Schedules QUERY SCHEDULE * TYPE=ADMINISTRATIVE FORMAT=DETAILED

From TSM Studio go to the Automation Category and open the Admin Schedule’s Dataview.

TSM has two styles of schedules that can be used

Classic Style and Enhanced Style

The Enhanced Style option gives more advanced scheduling options such as running on a particular day of the month, week of the month. We will cover the Enhanced Style in another article.

Let’s have a look at the Define Schedule Command

DEFEINE SCHEDULE schedulename TYPE=ADMINISTRATIVE CMD=’EXPIRE INVENTORY’ ACTIVE=YES DESCRIPTION=’Admin Schedule’ PRIORITY=5 STARTDATE=TODAY STARTTIME=NOW DURATION=20 DURUNITS=MINUTES SCHEDTYLE=CLASSIC PERIOD=1 PERUNITS=DAYS DAYOFWEEK=ANY EXPIRATION=NEVER

schedulename – Any name that has meaning to you

TYPE=ADMINISTRATIVE – Tells TSM this is an admin schedule, The other type of schedule is a client schedule which is used to define client tasks ( such as backups )

CMD=’EXPIRE INVENTORY’ – Enter the command to be run for this schedule, remember to enclose in quotes if there a spaces in the command

ACTIVE=YES – Whether this schedule is active or not. If set to no it will not run

DESCRIPTION=’Admin Schedule’ – Enter any meaningful description. Remember that any parameter that has spaces in it will need to be surrounded by quotes

PRIORITY=5 – If you have more than one schedule with the same start time. TSM will start the schedule with the highest priority first. ( 5 is the default )

STARTDATE=TODAY – This is the start date for the schedule. The schedule will not run until the start date has been reached. TODAY is a special keyword that is substituted with today’s date, you can also use TODAY+X (where x = the number of days ) or in the format MM/DD/YYYY   STARTTIME=NOW – This specifies the start window for the schedule which may not be the actual start time of the schedule. This is used in conjunction with the   DURATION and DURUNITS to determine when the schedule will start. NOW is a special keyword used to specify the current time DURATION and DURUNITS – These two parameters with the Start

Time specify the window that TSM will use to start the schedule.

DURATION being a numerical value from 1 to 999 and

DURUNITS can be MINUTES, HOURS, DAYS.

Our settings here tell TSM that is must start this schedule within 20 minutes of the Start Time.
There is a special case in that you can set the DURUNITS=INDEFINITE which tell TSM that is can start the schedule any time after the Start Time.

PERIOD and PERUNITS – These two parameters tell TSM how often to run the schedule so in this example it is once every day. There is a special value for PERUNITS, PERUNITS=ONETIME which instructs TSM to only run this schedule once.

DAYOFWEEK=ANY – This parameter tells TSM what day of the week to run this schedule on.  Other possible values are WEEKDAY, WEEKEND, Monday, Tuesday, etc.

EXPIRATION=NEVER – This parameter specifies when the schedule expires. After this date the schedule will no longer run. Use MM/DD/YYYY format.   To Define an Admin Schedule in TSM Studio open the Admin Schedule Dataview and select Add Schedule

Also available from this Dataview,  Execute, Disable, Enable, Edit and Delete your schedules    To See a Time of Day diagram for your schedule open the automation Category and open the Admin Schedules Time of Day Diagram. To change the times simply drag the Admin Schedule to a new time. ( This dataview is only available at the Server Level )

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We suggest you read the following Article on Collocation before reading this Article –> Read Here

As noted in the article on collocation. The main problems you will come across with collocation is running out of scratch tapes andor a large number of tapes in a filling status. The main cause of this is having a storage pool with a collocation method of Group and then having no collocation groups or nodes not in collocation groups.

Using TSM Studio go to the Trouble Shooting category and open the Nodes not in Collocation Group dataview.

To Add a Node(s) to a Group simply right click the select Add to A Group

After putting all your nodes in a group, You will now need to move the data off the current tapes so that TSM can collocate the nodes and their data.

There are a number of ways to do this and here are two of them

1. To do this use the Move Data command on each tape and move the data back to the primary disk pool so that the migration process can move the data back to tape using the collocation you specified.

2. Or use the Move Data command to move the data to the same storage pool as the tape is already in, TSM will then move the data from the selected tape and collocate the data with nodes from the same group on other tapes.

Using TSM Studio to run the move data command. Open the Volumes Dataview from the Libraries and Volumes category Right Click on the Tape and Choose Move Data

Choose the Storage Pool to move the data to

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All new Tapes being put into a Physical Tape Libraries will require a barcode on them. In most cases the vendor that supplied the tapes should also supple the barcode label.

TSM requires that the first time you put a new tape into the library you run the LABEL command.The LABEL command instruct’s TSM to write an Internal Label at the start of the Tape and this internal label will match the external barcode label.

The Assumption with these commands are that you are using a Fibre Channel or SCSI attached Library The tapes can be either placed into the slots in the library or they can be placed in the CAP slots ( TSM called these external IO slots – BULK IO )

When the tapes are ready you can run the following command

LABEL LIBV libraryname SEARCH=BULK LABELSOURCE=BARCODE CHECKIN=SCRATCH
Where libraryname is the name of your library
SEARCH=BULK tells TSM to search the external Input Output slots for the new tapes If you are not using the CAP ( External IO Slots ) and the Tapes to be labelled are already in the library then change the SEARCH=BULK to SEARCH=YES
LABELSOURCE=BARCODE tells TSM to make the internal tape label the same as the barcode
CHECKIN=SCRATCH tells TSM to mark this tape as a scratch tape When using TSM Studio open the Libraries Dataview in the Libraries and Volumes Category

Right Click on the Library that has the tapes in that you wish to Label and select the Label Command

Enter the options for the Label Command as above and press Ok

NOTE: When using the SEARCH=BULK TSM will prompt you to enter the Tapes and wait for a reply. Click Here to see the Article on replying to requests

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Auditing a Tape Library is the process in which TSM verifies the information it has stored internally about the tapes, their labels and where they are located in the library (slot numbers) with the Physical Tape Library.

Why do you need to audit your library?
From time to time your Library will have maintenance performed on it, Tape Library Arms get jammed, tapes get stuck in drives and need to be manually moved back to their slot and tapes can be manually inserted in Tape Libraries. When problems or tasks like these described happen in your tape library it is good practice to run the Audit Library command.

The Audit Library Command can verify the tapes in the Library in one of  two ways.
1.By Barcode, this option verifies the barcode information and slot position and runs quickly as the Tape Library already has this information stored in its internal memory.
2.By Internal Label, every tape that TSM uses has an internal label that has been written to the start of the tape by TSM when running the label command when the tape was initially placed into the Library. Using this method causes TSM to mount every tape into a drive and verify its label. As every tape is physically mounted and read this option can be time consuming.

Which option should you use?

In a physical library it is extremely rare for the barcode label and the internal label to not match, but it can happen, so if you have the time then I would recommend using option 2, but if you don’t have a big window for your tape library to be out of action then use option 1.

If you are using a Virtual Tape Libraries and have the Relabel option set then I strongly advise running option 2 from time to time on your virtual library.

When running either variation of the Audit Library command there must be no activity happening on the Library. Run the Query Mount command and make sure there are no tapes mounted or even idle.  Cancel all processes and Sessions that are using the Drives.   Once there are no drives in use run the Audit Library
From the Admin CLI   Using barcode information only AUDIT LIBRARY LibraryName CHECKLABEL=BARCODE

Using Internal Labels AUDIT LIBRARY LibraryName CHECKLABEL=YES   Where LibraryName is the name of your Library

From TSM Studio Go to the Libraries and Volumes Category and open the Libraries Dataview

Select the Library you wish to Audit  Right Click to bring up the Command Options and select either the Audit Library ( Check Label ) or Audit Library ( Check Barcode )

In TSM Studio you can check for label mis-matches, it requires that you first run the AUDIT LIBRARY command with the CHECKLABEL=YES option then from the Main Menu Select Tools–> Check TSM Tape Labels

Choose the TSM Server and Library and then hit the Refresh Button   Use the View drop down to show you the mis-matched tape labels

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The Administrative Client is part of the normal windows backup-archive client install but by default it is not installed. You will need to apply a custom install as shown below:

1. Start the Tivoli Storage Manager Client InstallShield(R)

2. Choose the Destination Folder

3. Choose Custom Setup as the Setup Type

4. IMPORTANT – Make sure that you select the Administrative Client Command Line Option as shown below and choose ‘ run all ‘ from my computer

5. Click the Install option

6. To verify the installation, verify the existence of dsmadmc.exe in the C:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient directory

You may come across an error if the paths are not correctly set up. If you see the following message when starting the administrative cli program or when testing a TSM Server connection in TSM Studio, follow the suggested action below.

ANS0101E Unable to open English message repository ‘dscenu.txt’

This error is a result of the administrative cli  program, “dsmadmc.exe”, unable to find the message file.

To start, you can check if the dscenu.txt file exists in the c:program filestivolitsmbaclient directory ( assuming, you installed the TSM client in the default location ).   

If the file exists, try adding the following environment variable   

DSM_DIR=C:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient

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TSM uses a hierarchy of Storage Pools to “migrate” or move data from one type of storage to another or to the same type of storage.

How does Migration work?

There are a couple of parameters that need to be setup to facilitate migration. The first is to setup the “Next Storage Pool” parameter, this defines which pool the data will “migrate” to from the current pool.

To see how this is currently defined on your storage pools

Run the following Admin CLI Command

QUERY STGPOOL F=D and look at the “Next Storage Pool” field

In TSM Studio open the Storage Pools Dataview from the Storage category and check out the NextStgPool column

 To change the Next Storage Pool from the Admin CLI

 UPDATE STGPOOL stgpoolname NEXTSTGPOOL=nextstgpoolname

 From TSM Studio

Right Click on the Storage Pool and Choose Next Storage Pool and then choose the storage pool

The next part is setting the migration threshold parameters which tell TSM when to move the data from the current pool to the “Next Storage Pool”. These two parameters are

Low Migration and High Migration, they represent a percentage full threshold for the storage pool that they are defined on

These Parameters function like this

TSM writes data to the current pool, the current pool hits the High Migration Threshold and will start “migrating” data to the storage pool defined in the “Next Storage Pool” field.

TSM will keep “migrating” data until it reaches the Low Migration Threshold and will then stop and wait for the High Threshold to be hit again

To Change the Low Migration or High Migration from the Admin CLI

UPDATE STGPOOL stgpoolname LOWMIG=xx HIGHMIG=xx

From TSM Studio, Select the Storage Pool and right click and choose Migration Thresholds and then choose the values

Ideally you will want enough disk space in your Primary Disk pool to store the nightly backups and while the nightly backups are running you will keep the high migration value somewhere around the 80 mark and low migration value somewhere around the 60 mark just so you don’t run out of space in the Primary Disk Pool.  During this time you can be running other TSM admin tasks such as reclamation.

 In the morning when your backups have finished or close to finishing you can change the High Migration to 5 and Low Migration to 0, this will then force all the data from the Primary Disk Pool ( Usually to Tape ).

This is not the only way this can be done and you may have reasons to run things differently and if you have a VTL you may wish to run with low values continuously.

Another Parameter related to Migration is the Migration Processes parameter, this defines how many processes will be used to Migrate the Data to the Next Storage Pool. When moving from the Primary Disk data to a Primary Sequential Pool (In most cases this is usually a tape pool) each process will use one tape drive.

UPDATE STGPOOL stgpool MIGPROCESS=xx 

From TSM Studio, Select the Storage Pool, Right Click and choose Migration Processes.

These procedures can be automated using Administrative Schedules  

To stop Migration set  HighMig=100 and LowMig=99 and to Migrate everything HighMig=0 and LowMig=0

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Reclamation is the process of reclaiming unused space on a tape (applies to Virtual Tapes as well). Over time the TSM expiration process will expire old data, creating gaps of unused storage on the tapes.  Because Tapes are sequential media, TSM can only write data to the end of the tape, so these gaps of “Empty Space” cannot be used.

Lets see an illustration of this

Tape 1 is a new tape and data is written to it as follows (each number on the following line represents a file being backed up)

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16

Over time the expiration runs and expires old files (The * represents an expired file)

1-2-3-*-5-*-*-8-9-*-*-*-13-14-15-16

TSM refers to this space ‘*’ as Reclaimable Space.

TSM can only write to the end of the tape and the Reclaimable Space cannot be reused until all the data on the tapes expires and the tape becomes a scratch tape again.

To view this reclaimable space

QUERY VOLUME volno F=D   (where volno is the Volume Number for the Tape ) and look at the Pct Reclaimable Space field.

When using TSM Studio open the Volumes dataview from the Libraries and Volumes Category and view the Pct Reclaim Column

To get back this reclaimable space TSM has a Reclamation process which copies all the valid information from the tape to a new scratch tape so looking at our previous illustration TSM will create the new tape with the valid files

1-2-3-5-8-9-13-14-15-16

This eliminates all the reclaimable space and the old tape becomes a scratch tape.

On each Storage Pool supporting reclamation there is a Reclaim Threshold parameter

Run the QUERY STGPOOL stgpoolname F=D and look at the Reclamation Threshold field

Or when using TSM Studio, open the Storage Pools dataview in the Storage Category and check the Reclaim column

NOTE:  For tapes with a value of READWRITE or READONLY in the ACCESS column. TSM will run the reclamation on them when they are FULL, if they are FILLING they will not be touched.

Tapes in an OFFSITE status in a copy pool will be reclaimed whether or not they are FILLING or FULL.

To Change the Reclamation Threshold for a Storage Pool use the following command

UPDATE STGPOOL stgpoolname RECLAIM=xx  ( stgpoolname is the storage pool and RECLAIM is the threshold to use )

On TSM Studio right click on the Storage Pool and select Reclamation Threshold and either choose one of the values or use the SET option to choose another value.

As there are a number of admin jobs and backup jobs that all need to use tape drives, you will need to find the right window to run your reclamation processes and decide how many processes you wish to run. Remember that each process will require 2 tapes drives, one for the input tape and one for the output tape. Automatically starting and stopping your reclamation processes can be done with Administration Schedules. ( Check back soon to see an article on Admin Schedules )

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Collocation is the process of grouping your nodes together (collocating) to help improve restore performance.

Over time as you add more and more nodes to your environment, the data for these nodes will slowly become more and more dispersed across your tapes as you perform backups.  When restoring the data if only a small number of files are required, this will not be a problem but when a restore is needed for a large number of files and those files have become dispersed across a large number of tapes then restores time will become an issue. I have personally experienced an issue when restoring a large volume that took over 2 days when not using collocation.

Instead of having every node’s data being placed on tapes at TSM’s discretion, collocation allows you to define groups of nodes to be stored together on your tapes.

As with everything there is a trade-off, collocation groups will require the use of more tapes but can significantly improve restore times.

Badly configured collocation will cause the consumption of very large amount of tapes.  And in my experience this has been the number one cause of the “Where have my all my scratch tapes gone” and “Why do I have so many filling tapes” , we will explore this later in the document.

Collocation is set at the Storage Pool so it is possible to have different levels of collocation based on Storage Pools.  As Collocation is really designed to help with Physical Tapes it only applies to Primary Sequential and Copy Storage Pools.

There are a number of difference types of collocation methods that can be used

NO – Collocation is disabled for the Storage Pool

FILESPACE – TSM Attempts to put each file space on its own tape

NODE – TSM Attempts to put each Node on its own tape

GROUP – TSM will put groups of Nodes on their own tapes as defined in the collocation groups.  If no collocation groups are defined then the storage pool reverts to Node Collocation.

NOTE:  If Group Collocation is set and there are no collocation groups defined or there are nodes not defined in any collocation group then you very quickly run out of scratch tapes and see a lot of filling tapes with not much data on them

Firstly let’s look at how to check to see if collocation is set.  From the Admin CLI issue the command

Q STGPOOL F=D and check the status of the collocate field

From TSM Studio open the Storage category and open the Storage Pools Dataview and the check the value in the Collocate column

To change the collocation method being used

Admin CLI:  UPDATE STGPOOL COLLOCATE=GROUP

From TSM Studio

Go to the Storage Pools dataview and right click on the storage pool(s) you want to change

and choose Collocation

Choose the collocation method and press Ok

The next thing to do will be create the collocation groups

From TSM Studio open the Configuration category and open the Collocation dataview

Right Click and Choose Add Group

Enter the Group Details and then press Ok

Next Add Members to the Group, From the Collocation Dataview right click the Group and Choose Edit Group Members

NOTE: A Node can only be a member of one collocation group

Simply move nodes in and out of the group and press Ok

Read Here for Trouble Shooting Tips

Recommendations:  If you have plenty of tapes and will never run out then use FILESPACE or NODE.

If Tapes are at a premium and you dont care how long a restore will take then dont use collocation

Otherwise you will need to find a happy medium between tape usage and restore times using the Group method.  I have seen a number of different methods for collocating node, such as grouping by application type or OS Type.  I suggest putting nodes with small amounts of data that does not change very often together and putting nodes with large amounts of data by themselves.  For the rest of the nodes try and keep each group from using more that 50 tapes for any node in the group ( this number will depend on the number of drives you have, how fast the library can load the tapes and how fast the drive can move to the required location on the tape) to ensure fast restore times.

I have seen collocation disabled for copypools as a lot of organizations already replicate the critical data to their Business Recovery sites using other methods

As with everything I say in these articles test, test end test again

NOTE:  Virtual Tape Libraries do not have the same limitations as Physical Tapes. As the mount times and seek times are negligible collocation can be disabled without affecting restore times.

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The reuse delay parameter is used to define how long a tape will stay in a pending state. It is specified in days and can be applied individually to primary sequential and copy storage pools (in other words storage pools that handle tapes).

Why do we need this parameter?   This parameter is used to ensure that if you had to restore your TSM Database to a previous days backup that the tapes will be in a consistent state with the TSM Database as at the point of the restore.

To Illustrate this, assume that the reuse delay parameter is set to 0 so that tapes become scratch tapes as soon as they are empty.

Monday

A TSM Database Backup is taken on Monday

Tape A1 currently has data for Node ZZ

Tuesday

The data for Node ZZ on tape A1 expires and because the reuse delay parameter is set to 0 tape A1 becomes a scratch tape

Tape A1 is now immediately used to backup node YY’s data

Wednesday 

For some reason, you have to restore to the last TSM database backup which was taken on the Monday.

Because the database is now running as at Monday TSM believes that tape A1 holds the data for Node ZZ.  A decision is made to restore data for Node ZZ which resides on A1 and TSM complains that the volume is corrupt because the data on the tape is not what TSM is expecting. In this case if the reuse delay parameter had been set to 2 days then tape A1 would not have been written on and the restore would work as expected.

How do I check for the tape status ?

Tapes that are empty but not yet available to be used as scratch tapes have a status of PENDING. To view pending tapes in TSM Studio open the Libraries and Volumes category and double click on the Volumes Dataview. As seen below check the “Status” column and look for tapes in a ‘PENDING” state.

To see when these tapes will become scratch tapes, check the Pending Date.  This is the date that the tape went into a pending state. Add the Reuse Delay value to determine when the tape will go from a Pending State to becoming a scratch tape.

To find the Reuse Delay value check the Storage Pool that the Volume is in

Then goto the Storage Pools dataview locate the same Storage Pool name and check the Reuse Delay Column

How do I set the value for this parameter ?

I recommend that you set the value of this parameter to be equal with the number of days or TSM Database backups you keep.

To change the reuse delay parameter from the command line

Update STGPOOL STGPOOL_NAME REUSEDELAY=days

Where STGPOOL_NAME is the name of the storage pool and days is the value for the REUSEDELAY parameter

UPDATE STGPOOL TAPEPOOL REUSEDELAY=2 for 2 days

To change the reuse parameter from TSM Studio goto the Storage Pools Dataview, select the storage pool that you wish to modify, right click to bring up the context menu. Select Reuse Delay and choose the value (in days) you wish to set. Press Ok

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The Mount Retention parameter specifies how long to keep a tape in a tape drive after it has finished being used. By default the value of this parameter is set to 60 minutes. So a tape will stay in the drive for 1 hour after it is finished with.

Why?  The main reason for having this parameter high is that a tape mount is a relatively expensive operation in that is can take some time for a tape library to unmount and mount a tape, so if the same tape is likely to be used again in the near future it will not need to re-mounted if it is already in the tape drive thus saving time either for backup or restore tasks. If you have a shared library environment or do not have a lot of drives then I recommend you bring this value right down to around 5 mins ( or even 1 minute if tape drive contention is a big issue ). With Virtual Tape Libraries tape mounts operations are extremely fast and high mount retention values are actually detrimental to the performance of the system. In this case the mount retention parameter should be set to 1 minute. The mount retention parameter is defined in a device class. Device Classes are defined per Tape Library and each device class affects all the drives in the library it is defined with.

To change the Mount Retention parameter using the command line update devclass device_class_name MOUNTRETENTION=minutes   where device_class_name is the name of the device class minutes is the number of minutes to keep the tape in the drive after it is finished being used

To change the Mount Retention parameter using TSM Studio Firstly open the Device Classes dataview in the Configuration Category and double click to open the dataview

Find the Library Column and locate the library that you wish to change

Select this row and right click to bring up the context menu for this object and select Change Mount Retention

Choose the Mount Retention Value and press Enter to Change

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All the articles that I have written are from my own personal experiences using TSM for the past 15+ years. TSM is a diverse product that can be setup and deployed in many ways. Before using any of the methods in the articles, ensure that you use due diligence to test that all steps will work as described in your environment.

If you have comments, like help with the contents in one of the articles or would like to see an article on a particular TSM topic please send me an email at gelliott@spiritsoftware.biz. You are welcome to use these articles on your own sites as long as you have a link on the article back to this site

Example:  Written by Spirit Software Solutions

Graeme Elliott CEO,
Founder and Chief Architect
Spirit Software Solutions

All Articles are copyrighted by Spirit Software Solutions

*** LEGAL STUFF ***

Direct, incidental, consequential, indirect, or punitive damages arising out of your access to, or use of, the site and articles within. Without limiting the foregoing, everything on the site is provided to you ‘AS IS’ WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON INFRINGEMENT. “Please note that some jurisdictions may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so some of the above exclusions may not apply to you. Check your local laws for any restrictions or limitations regarding the exclusion of implied warranties.”

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Firstly for the TSM Instance to be able to capture information about restored files the following option must be enabled in the dsmserv.opt and the TSM instance restarted

REPORTRETRIEVE   Yes

Then in TSM Studio you can use the Client Node–>Show Restored Files dataview to show restored file for a given date rangle

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In most of the TSM Studio dataviews there is an option to Export data to XML

This XML can be loaded back into TSM Studio at any time without having a connection to a TSM Server using the Tools–>Load Dataview from XML Option

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If the following error message is seen when starting TSM Studio

The file ‘……\AppData\Roaming\Spirit Software Solutions\TSM Studio\TSM Studio.scfg’ already exists
Error 100 (Provider v5.0.3.1237): Cannot create data storage or file: ……\AppData\Roaming\Spirit Software Solutions\TSM Studio\TSM Studio.scfg
Error 113 (Provider v5.0.3.1237): Cannot create database: ……\AppData\Roaming\Spirit Software Solutions\TSM Studio\TSM Studio.scfg

This indicates there is a problem with the TSM Studio configuration file

Try cleaning the configuration file using the Clean Config File Utility

If the Clean Config File utility indicates there is an issue with the configuration file then there are a number of options

• Restore the configuration file from a previous backup
• Delete the Configuration File, TSM Studio will recreate it but you have to re-enter the TSM Server definitions and license key
• Send the Configuration File to support@spiritsoftware.biz and we will attempt to recover it

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This error is caused by duplicate keys in the TSM Studio configuration file. In our own testing labs we have re-created this issue by starting more than 1 copy of TSM Studio at the same time. There is no issue running multiple issues of TSM Studio simultaneously but we suggest waiting until TSM Studio is fully activated before opening another copy.

This will be resolved in TSM Studio 2.9.3.4. In the meantime to remove the duplicate keys now download the following program –> DuplicateKeysFix

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The Node (Backup, Restore, Archive and Retrieve ) Statistics dataviews in TSM Studio source their data from the TSM Server Activity Log.

The format of the numbers in the Activity Log is dependent on the regional and TSM Client settings on the Client Node so it is possible that there may a number of different number formats stored in the Activity Log. This does cause issues for TSM Studio when trying to determine which number system is being used and converting to numbers. To address this issue TSM Studio 2.9.3.5 has added configuration options to set defaults and overrides for the different number systems.

Firstly the default setting which all be used for all Client Nodes data can be set using the Settings–>Client Node Statistics Settings–>Client Node Statistics Defaults as shown here

In the settings dialog specify the default values used for the decimal point and thousands separator.

Use the Client Node Statistics Overrides to change this setting for individual Client Nodes

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To use TSM Studio to help configure libraries and drives presented from MHVTL to a windows TSM Server see this video by K. Gundurao

http://kgundurao.blogspot.in/2014/02/mhvtl-configuration-in-tsm-with-help-of.html

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When TSM Studio 10 is installed, it is installed with a prepackaged version of IBM’s TSM Admin CLI   (dsmadmc.exe).  The version in 2.9.4.6 is not supported on Windows 10.

To run on Windows 10 you will need to install and use the version that is in the latest TSM Backup Client you can use the instruction in the TSM Studio Installation documentation see link below.

https://spiritsoftware.biz/knowledgebase/installing-the-administrative-cli-windows/

Then go to setting –> options

And setup the new location of the dsmadmc executable

This issue will be resolved in version 3 which will be a free upgrade if your support and maintenance is up-to-date

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Adding Multiple Servers from the Servers Dataview
Expand Server->Configuration and Double Click on Servers

 

The first task to perform after installing TSM is to add your TSM Servers. There are two ways to add your servers. You can add each TSM Server manually or import them from the TSM Servers Dataview  ( To be able to import your servers from the Servers Dataview you first must define a TSM Server manually ).

See an Example Here of setting up a TSM Server 
Adding a TSM Server

 

User Profiles :- – A quick note here about User Profiles. If you use the same userid with the same password to connect to all your TSM Servers then setup a User Profile. See the Knowledge Base article on User Profiles – User Profiles KB Article

 
Adding TSM Servers Manually

TSM Server Definition Dialog is Displayed, Enter the TSM Server Details

Right Click on the TSM Servers Navigation view and Select Add TSM Server.

• Enter the Server Name ( Any name that has meaning to you )
• Enter a Description for this server (optional)
• Enter the IP Address or DNS name for this server
• Enter the Port of leave at the default  (1500)
• Switch to the Logon Tab
• If you are using a User Profile then select the User profile to use
• Otherwise enter the Userid and Password for this TSM Server
• Check the Auto Logon checkbox if you do not want to be prompted for a Password when connecting to the TSM Server
  

The same as above but with an example of using a DNS name instead of IP address

 

Once you have created your first TSM Server you can now import the rest of your servers from the Server Dataview.

• Expand your TSM Server to show the Dataview Categories
• Expand the Configuration Category
• Double Click on the Servers node.
• Select the Servers You want to import
• Right Click on the Dataview to bring up the dataview context menu
• There are two options for importing either using the IP Address of the Server Name
• IP Address will put the IP Address in the address field for the TSM Server Definition
• Server Name will put the Server Name in the address field for the TSM Server Definition
• Next Specify the User Profile of Userid details for these servers and they will all be imported into TSM Studio

Select the servers to Import and Select the Import Servers to TSM Studio ( either Using IP Address or Using Server name, see below for the differences )

A Dialog will appear requesting the Userid and Password details, fill this in

Example Importing using IP Address

Example importing the same server using Server Name ( Notice the Server Address Field )

Spirit Software Solutions

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