General notes

Not allowed backups

Backups of CDs/DVDs inserted in the computer (file system type CDFS for Windows systems) and/or inserted sticks (file space names containing "USB", "Flash" or other partial names) are not allowed. Such backups will be deleted without consultation.
In case of legitimate interest, first copy the corresponding data to your hard disk and then back it up.

Monitoring of automatic backups

Every day the status of the automatic backups ("events") of the ISP clients queued that night is checked in the ISP servers.
For each backup whose status is indicated by a return code greater than 0 (this also applies to the status Completed), an e-mail with the corresponding status and return code is generated and sent to the ISP administrator of the corresponding computer.
responsible of the corresponding computer.
For the statuses Missed,Started,Restarted and InProgress the return code is not required.
If the return code is not 0, the entries in the log files
dsmerror.log error messages
dsmsched.log messages from the ISP scheduler
dsmwebcl.log messages of the ISP Client Acceptor (CAD)
can be checked.

The subject line of the e-mail is structured as follows:

ISP backup for <computer> from <date> "<backup-status> (RC=<return-code>)"

<computer>name (ISP-nodename) of the computer to be backed up
<date>Tag of the backup in the form dd.mm.
<backup-status>Backup status
email
CompletedSpecifies that the backup has been completed.No=(RC=0)
Yes (RC>0)
MissedSpecifies that the backup startup window has passed and the backup has not begun.Yes
FailedSpecifies that the client reports a failure in executing the backup and succesive retries have not succeeded.Yes
StartedSpecifies that the backup has begun execution.Yes
RestartedSpecifies that the client has retried execution of the backup.Yes
In ProgressSpecifies that the backup is running and has not yet reported the completion state of the server.Yes
SeveredSpecifies that the communications with the client is severed before the backup can complete.Yes
FutureSpecifies that the beginning of the startup window for rhe backup is in the futureNo
PendingSpecifies that the QUERY EVENT command was issued during the startup window for the backup, but execution of the backup has not yet begun.No
<return-code>Return code
0The backup ended successfully.
4

The backup ended successfully, but some files were not backed up. No other errors or warnings occurred. This return code is displayed frequently. Files are not backed up for various reasons. The most common causes are:

  • The file meets an entry in an exclusion list.
  • The file was used by another application and the client could not access the file.
  • Too many changes were made to the file during the backup.
8

The backup ended with at least one warning message.
Check the dsmerror.log, dsmsched.log , and dsmwebcl.log files for issued warnings.

12Backup ended with at least one error message (does not apply to error messages for skipped files).
Check the dsmerror.log, dsmsched.log , and dsmwebcl.log files for issued error messages. Generally, this return code means that the error was so severe that the backup could not complete successfully. For example, an error that prevents processing of a complete file system outputs return code 12.

Monitoring the age of filespaces of all computers

A so-called filespace can be a file system or a part of a file system (platforms: UNIX, MacOS X from version 10.3.9), a drive (platform: Windows) or volume (platforms: MacOS, Novell NetWare).
In the following, backup always refers to the backup of a single filespace.

Please note:
Only incremental backups update the start and end dates of a backup of the corresponding filespace. In the case of selective backups, these dates are not updated and thus monitoring assumes that no backup has been performed for this filespace.
Therefore, always perform incremental backups.

To ensure an optimal usage of the backup system and to inform the users about possible outdated data, the users are usually informed on Mondays if the last backup was too long ago and/or is incomplete-.

Rules for TSM servers S01 N03

Currently, automatic notification is done for the following backup types:

  • For automatic backups (TSM scheduler) older than 15 days.
    For this there is an entry in the TSM server about the backup dates for these computers.
  • For manual backups older than 30 days.
    The user backs up these computers either at irregular dates or by own schedules.
  • In the case of backups without a timestamp , the user is notified on the following Monday.
    Such incomplete backups are usually caused by incorrect operation during manual backups (selective instead of incremental backup) or incorrect configuration in the option files dsm.opt and dsm.sys (for example, a missing entry of a virtualmountpoint statementin the option file dsm.sys).

Since May 1, 2006, the following rules have been in effect, as announced at the IT Officers meeting on Jan. 23, 2006:

  • Automatic backups: filespaces whose backup is older than 180 days are deleted.
  • Manual back ups: Filespaces whose backup is older than 180 days will be deleted.
  • Backups without timestamp:Filespaces are deleted after 3 weeks, i.e. when a filespace has been registered during four consecutive monitoring sessions.

The monitoring is usually done on the 1st Monday of each month.
The following deletion dates are scheduled (subject to change):

20223.1.7.2.7.3.4.4.2.5.6.6.4.7.1.8.10.10.7.11.5.12.

TSM nodes without TSM server contact

TSM nodes (computers), which had no contact to the TSM server for more than 180 days, will be deleted, i.e. removed from the TSM computer inventory.
The check is usually done on the 1st Monday of each month. This corresponds to the regulation for manual backups in the old ADSM/TSM servers.
If a newly registered computer should not have made a backup within 30 days, this node is deleted in the TSM server and the computer must be registered again afterwards.

Of course exceptions are possible, e.g. if a user is ill or on a diner trip, the affected computer is being repaired or similar.
These exceptions have to be discussed with the backup team. An accepted exception will always be confirmed by e-mail.

Status: 26.7.2021