Backup Central

I have a situation that I can't quite get my head around. It may not be
do-able, however I thought I would ask..

I have a department that wishes to back all of their Windows lab machines
under the name of their main server. It already works, as the NODENAME of
each lab machine has been changed to the main server name, and the passwords
are consistent. The filespace names are unique on the main server, so that
is working as well.

The main problem I am having is trying to schedule mess. They are behind
a firewall, so they are trying to use polling, however when they attempt
to run the polled schedule, the server tells them that the schedule has
already run (because one of the other clients ran it first). Is there even
a way to do this with the scheduler, or should I have each client run a
windows schedule instead?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bob

I don't think there is a way to get around the schedule already running
issue with a single system name for multiple servers. I'm surprised the
TSM server doesn't balk about multiple backups running with the same
node name at the same time.
Scheduling a dsmc backup inc through windows scheduler would be one way
to eliminate that.
But they would all try to run at the same time, then they would run at
the same time.

Doesn't each successive backup expire the data from the other systems ?
Or does it ignore it because it's a different filespace ?

Sounds messy. But could be a very interesting licensing loophole

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L < at > VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of
Bob Booth
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 12:36 PM
To: ADSM-L < at > VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: Different nodes backing up under same name

I have a situation that I can't quite get my head around. It may not be
do-able, however I thought I would ask..

I have a department that wishes to back all of their Windows lab
machines under the name of their main server. It already works, as the
NODENAME of each lab machine has been changed to the main server name,
and the passwords are consistent. The filespace names are unique on the
main server, so that is working as well.

The main problem I am having is trying to schedule mess. They are
behind a firewall, so they are trying to use polling, however when they
attempt to run the polled schedule, the server tells them that the
schedule has already run (because one of the other clients ran it
first). Is there even a way to do this with the scheduler, or should I
have each client run a windows schedule instead?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bob

Your posting doesn't mention potential use of client-node proxy.
Did you review and discard that facility as not suitable for some
reason?

Richard Sims

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 02:16:55PM -0500, Ochs, Duane wrote:
I don't think there is a way to get around the schedule already running
issue with a single system name for multiple servers. I'm surprised the
TSM server doesn't balk about multiple backups running with the same
node name at the same time.

I think it is because the systems seem to 'poll' at slightly different
rates, so some win, some loose.

Scheduling a dsmc backup inc through windows scheduler would be one way
to eliminate that.

That is what I figured, but I don't have any control over the systems, they
are in a different department than ours, so I wanted to make it as simple
as possible for the administrator to deal with.

But they would all try to run at the same time, then they would run at
the same time.

Sure, it has happened before, and I have seen the messages about 'multiple
schedulers running', it is rare however.

Doesn't each successive backup expire the data from the other systems ?
Or does it ignore it because it's a different filespace ?

It seems to ignore it.

Sounds messy. But could be a very interesting licensing loophole

We are trying to do it for accounting reasons. These are 'customers' and
we bill by 'client node' with a minimum charge per month. We consider these
desktop machines for purposes of licensing. (however, don't get me started
on the Tivoli License Nightmare (TM))

Bob

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 03:30:12PM -0400, Richard Sims wrote:
Your posting doesn't mention potential use of client-node proxy.
Did you review and discard that facility as not suitable for some
reason?

When I looked at it, it didn't seem to apply to this situation, or maybe
too complicated for the remote administrator. I will look at this
application again and see if I can understand it better.

Thanks for the advice.

Bob

Bob,

We have some situations where we want to do something similar. What I
have found to be the simplest is to set up each machine as if they were
going to be backed up individually, with dsm.opt files that reference
their unique machine names. This opt file is used for the dsmcad and
scheduler services. Then I create a 2nd opt file on each machine that
uses the common nodename I want all the data stored under. Then rather
than scheduling an incremental backup, I create a schedule(s) that are
defined as command action, with the object pointing to a simple batch
file that I have copied to each machine. This script runs the dsmc i
command using the -optfile=<2nd optfile> parameter. This way each
machine is easily scheduled but the data all gets backed up under the
common nodename. I have examples if you want to email me offline.

Steve Schaub
Systems Engineer, Windows
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L < at > VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of
Bob Booth
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 1:36 PM
To: ADSM-L < at > VM.MARIST.EDU
Subject: [ADSM-L] Different nodes backing up under same name

I have a situation that I can't quite get my head around. It may not be
do-able, however I thought I would ask..

I have a department that wishes to back all of their Windows lab
machines
under the name of their main server. It already works, as the NODENAME
of
each lab machine has been changed to the main server name, and the
passwords
are consistent. The filespace names are unique on the main server, so
that
is working as well.

The main problem I am having is trying to schedule mess. They are
behind
a firewall, so they are trying to use polling, however when they attempt
to run the polled schedule, the server tells them that the schedule has
already run (because one of the other clients ran it first). Is there
even
a way to do this with the scheduler, or should I have each client run a
windows schedule instead?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Bob
Please see the following link for the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee E-mail disclaimer: http://www.bcbst.com/email_disclaimer.shtm