Where are my backup stored and how long ?

tsm: TSM01>q dom

Policy        Activate-     Activate-     Number of      Description             
Domain        d Policy      d Defaul-     Registere-     
Name          Set           t Mgmt           d Nodes     
                            Class                        
---------     ---------     ---------     ----------     ------------------------
WINDOWS       WINDOWS       MC_DEFAULT            21     Production for Windows servers                    
UNIX          UNIX          MC_DEFAULT            12     Production for UNIX/Linux servers                
DATABASE      DATABASE      MC_DB                  2     Production for Databases servers 
tsm: TIPRTSM01>

Here for each domain you will see a default management class. So if your client node is not optimized, or no change, it will use the default management class as policy.

tsm: TSM01>q copy WINDOWS active f=d

                 Policy Domain Name: WINDOWS
                    Policy Set Name: ACTIVE
                    Mgmt Class Name: MC_DEFAULT
                    Copy Group Name: STANDARD
                    Copy Group Type: Backup
               Versions Data Exists: No Limit
              Versions Data Deleted: 1
              Retain Extra Versions: 35
                Retain Only Version: 35
                          Copy Mode: Modified
                 Copy Serialization: Shared Static
                     Copy Frequency: 0
                   Copy Destination: BCKCONT
...

                 Policy Domain Name: WINDOWS
                    Policy Set Name: ACTIVE
                    Mgmt Class Name: MC_LONG
                    Copy Group Name: STANDARD
                    Copy Group Type: Backup
               Versions Data Exists: 5
              Versions Data Deleted: 1
              Retain Extra Versions: 60
                Retain Only Version: 35
                          Copy Mode: Modified
                 Copy Serialization: Shared Static
                     Copy Frequency: 0
                   Copy Destination: BCKCONT

If you have specified on the client (TSM client section) another management class, then the policy will apply for this part. Copy destination is the target of the data (primary storage pool, but not sure that it will stay on this destination, it can be used as cache.

tsm: TSM01>q dom
Node Name                     Platform     Policy Domain      Days Sinc-     Days Sinc-     Locked?
                                           Name                  e Last      e Passwor-     
                                                                  Access          d Set     
-------------------------     --------     --------------     ----------     ----------     -------
FACTORY                       Linux        UNIX                       <1            491       No   
                               x86-64                                                              
MYPC                          Linux        UNIX                        7            182       No   
                               x86-64                                                              
FILESRV                       WinNT        WINDOWS                     1            865       No   
MYSQLDB01                     (?)          DATABASE                  445            445       No   
DATAMOVER01                   TDP VMware   VMWARE                    394            445       No   

On TSM client (can also be centralize on TSM server using clientoption) In the Folder (default): c:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient\, check the dsm.opt (on UNIX check the dsm.opt and dsm.sys)

Here you will find if exist the DOMAIN directive, which indicate which drive or Windows component to backup.

EX: DOMAIN c: d:

If not specified, default is ALL-LOCAL

Then by Default the client will be backup on default management class, except if you have specify an include option in this file.

EX: include d:\…\* MC_LONG , here all files from d: will be backup using the MC_LONG policy

What is versioning ?

Achiving

A TSM archive is a full backup that you will keep for long time 30 days, 5 years, 30 years, nolomit! Versioning is not applied to TSM archiving policy

Backup

A TSM server backup using versioning, the latest version of each file is set as active, and versioning applies only on previous versions of a file flag as inactive files. For information, when you stop to backup a TSM client or a filespace (drive in windows, filesystem in linux), the latest version of file (active version) will be kept forever until you delete it manually.

A TSM backup is a daily backup based on incremental forever. Based on file versioning, you are much more granular than most backup software. Also you will dramatically reduce data to backup and data stored on TSM server.

To do a traditional backup and keep all files for 30 days, then select:

version exist:  nolimit (number of versions) (for existing files)
retain extra:   30      (number of days)     (for existing files)
version delete: nolimit (number of versions) (for deleted files)
retain only:    30      (number of days)     (for deleted files)

Why version nolimit, because if you do 10 backup per day you won't be able to restore everything during 30 days. If you have only a daily backup then you can replace nolimit by 30 (versions).

In versionning you can be very inventive, for example if a file is deleted, then keep only 1 version for 60 days for example…

Different mechanisms will then recover space of expired files.