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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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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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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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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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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As of TSM Studio Server version 2.9.1.0 security has been tightened up and no longer stores any security information in the registry.

The default logon to TSM Studio Server is now admin with a default password of password, (Domain field should be blank otherwise TSM Studio Server will assume it is a windows userid).

We strongly advise changing the admin password using the following procedure.

To change the password for the inbuilt admin userid use the Security–>Change Admin Password

Security in TSM Studio Server is now defined by assigning role(s) and Windows groups to a TSM Studio Server security group.

The TSM Studio Server security system will automatically create a group named Admins that has access to all functions in TSM Studio Server, the first time it is loaded it will look for the old group definitions in the registry and load them into this group otherwise it will populate with following default groups Administrators, Domains Admins and TSMStudioAdmins.

Also two roles will be created, one called Administrators which is assigned to the Admins Server group and one called Operational Report Viewer for allowing access to the Operational Report Viewer.

To access TSM Studio Server Groups select Security–>Groups

To modify the Admins Group Double Click or select edit from the Toolbar

Add Windows Group that should have admin access to TSM Studio Server, One Group per line

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If SQL Server is running on the same Server as the TSM Studio Server service then we recommend 12GB of memory as a minimum to ensure the healthy running on TSM Studio Server.

By default SQL Server will be configured to use all available memory this will need to be changed so that there is enough free memory for  TSM Studio Server to function. It is recommended  that SQL Server be given 4GB of memory and the other 8GB is left available for TSM Studio Server.

To change the default memory settings in SQL Server. Start up SQL Server Management Server right click on the server and select properties

Select Memory and then enter 4096 into the Maximum server memory field

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In TSM Studio Server 2.9.011 and above there are a number of added enhancements to help tune TSM Studio for you environment.

The first area to check is on the Concurrency Tab of the TSM Studio Server properties dialog which can be accessed from Configuration–>Properties as shown here



 

The main setting to check here are Concurrent Reports and Concurrent Collector Threads. Report creation can consume large amount of memory so it is recommended to keep this number low.



Also some of the collections can consume a large amount of transaction log space especially the activity log collector.  Each collector  can be individually tuned.  Goto Configuration->Collection schedules and edit the Activity Log collector and change the Concurrent Collectors to a small number (less than 5 )



Also check out the below link for SQL Server memory settings


https://spiritsoftware.biz/knowledgebase/microsoft-sql-…-studio-server

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Alternate Row BackColor Example

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This will display Line Numbers as shown below

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It is possible to enable VSS on a per drive basis by using the following in the dsm.opt file

INCLUDE.FS C: SNAPSHOTPROVIDER=VSS ( Change C: to the drive letter you require )

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The following command will show all unique management classes used by a node

SELECT DISTINCT(CLASS_NAME) FROM BACKUPS WHERE NODE_NAME = ‘XXXXXX’

to see only management classes used on directories use

SELECT DISTINCT(CLASS_NAME) FROM BACKUPS WHERE NODE_NAME = ‘XXXXXX’ AND TYPE = ‘DIR’

to see only management classes used on files use

SELECT DISTINCT(CLASS_NAME) FROM BACKUPS WHERE NODE_NAME = ‘XXXXXX’ AND TYPE = ‘FILE’

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If you find that it takes upwards of 30 seconds of  establish a session to the TSM Server from the Admin CLI (dsmadmc.exe). It maybe because your TSM server is unable to resolve the clients name or the TSM Server is unable to communicate with any DNS Servers.

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TSM has the ability to encrypt data at the client node before sending the data to the TSM server. There are two methods that are available

1. Transparent Encryption

• This is where the encryption key is managed by and stored on the TSM server
• If the client node needs to be rebuilt data can be easily restored
• Data can be restored back to any node that is allowed to impersonate the original node

2. Client Side Encryption

• This is where the encryption key is manually managed and stored on the client using an encryption password
• More secure as data can only be restored if the encryption password is known
• If the password is lost then the data cannot be restored

To enable encryption at the client there are two parameters for setting up and a couple of include and exclude statements for selecting or excluding which files are to be encrypted.

ENCRYPTKEY

The ENCRYPTKEY option is used to choose either transparent encryption or client-side encryption. For client-side encryption there are two options to choose from

ENCRYPTKEY=SAVE  ( Client-Side )

This option will prompt for an encryption password on the initial backup and then store this password in the password file. The password will be retrieved from this file for each subsequent backup.

ENCRYPTKEY=PROMPT ( Client-Side)

This option will prompt for an encryption password for each backup and restore. To be able to restore the data the same password that was using when backing the data up will be required

ENCRYPTION=GENERATE (Transparent)

This option will have TSM generate an encryption key password which is stored on the TSM server and managed by the TSM server.

 ENCRYPTIONTYPE

The ENCRYPTIONTYPE parameter selects what type of encryption is used either DES56 or AES128 with the AES128 algorithm being the stronger of the two

Next is to select which file or directories to include in the backup

use the include.encrypt statement to include files and directories to be encrypted and takes the same format as any other include statement
use the exclude.encrypt statement to exclude files and directories to be encrypted and takes the same format as any other exclude statement

example

ENCRYPTKEY=GENERATE
ENCRYPTIONTYPE=AES256
INCLUDE.ENCRYPT /home/…/
EXCLUDE.ENCRYPT /home/…/test.fil
INCLUDE.ENCRYPT  C:…*
EXCLUDE.ENCRYPT  C:windows…*

When using the client-side encryption the encryption passwords are stored in the TSM.PWD files in unix or in the registry for windows

I would recommended using transparent encryption unless you have a specific requirement not to.

I am option asked how to prove that the data is encrypted. There is no way to do this with TSM and they only way to do this is use a network packet tracing tool such as wireshark. If you are interested on how to do this just send me an email  gelliott@spiritsoftware.biz

For more information see Chapter 5 of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager: Building a Secure Environment

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In Windows you can use the Preview Include-Exclude option in the backup client.

Start the backup client and go to the utilities menu and select Preview Include-Exclude

In the Preview Include-Exclude Dialog, choose the type either Backup or Archive ( Your normal nightly jobs will usually be of type backup )

Choose either to just show included files, excluded files or both. This information is ascertained from settings in your dsm.opt file

Choose  the directories and files to be reported on. If you have a large file system and you choose a top level directory this command may take a long time to run and produce a large output file

Lastly choose the output file and select ok

When the task finishes open the output file with notepad and it will look as follows with the files on the left and the management class on the left hand side

The same preview include-exclude can be achieved with the backup-archive command line in both unix and windows as follows.  This example will produce the same out as above

the -traverse=y tells the backup-archive client to include subdirectories

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TSM v5

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM NODES WHERE PLATFORM_NAME LIKE ‘%DP%’

TSMv6 and above

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM NODESVIEW WHERE PLATFORM_NAME LIKE ‘%DP%’

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SELECT STGPOOL_NAME, COUNT(VOLUME_NAME) AS VOLUME_COUNT FROM VOLUMES GROUP BY STGPOOL_NAME

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TSM v5

SELECT NODE_NAME, FILESPACE_NAME from FILESPACE  WHERE BACKUP_END IS NULL OR BACKUP_END < BACKUP_START

TSMv6

SELECT NODE_NAME, FILESPACE_NAME from FILESPACEVIEW  WHERE BACKUP_END IS NULL OR BACKUP_END < BACKUP_START

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SELECT COUNT(*) AS ERROR_MESSAGE_COUINT FROM ACTLOG WHERE SEVERITY = ‘E’ AND DATE_TIME> ‘YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM‘

WHERE
YYYY = Year
MM = Month
DD = Day
HH = Hour
MM = Month

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SELECT * FROM VOLUMES WHERE ACCESS=’UNAVAILABLE’

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