At my site, a few of us call the TSM application our "canary in a coal mine",
it typically the first indication of other possible problems on the host or network.
Sure, most of the time it is actually only the TSM client having issues, but in those
cases where we can't figure out why TSM is having a problem, it has turned out to be a
non-TSM issue.
We have had many situations where the TSM backups fail on a client and we
start poking around only to find that TSM failures were only a symptom, not the cause.
Most common are changes in network topology or settings that were incorrect, but TSM
has also lead us to find filesystem corruption, incorrect system settings, botched
patches, and other issues before any OS tools found it.
Good luck finding the problem....
Ben
-----Original Message-----
From: Gianluca Mariani1 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 8:56 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Poor TSM Performances
I tend to think of TSM as a troubleshooter by now.
in my experience, in what is probably the majority of real world cases I've
been in, anything that happens in the environment in which TSM sits,
automatically reflects back to TSM which is the first application to
suffer.before anything else.
we range from faulty fibre channel cables to DB2 unsupported patched
drivers to tape drive microcode, just to mention the very last engagements
we have been involved in.
most of the times it's difficult to convince people that it might actually
be a problem outside of TSM.
my 2 eurocents of knowledge tell me that before shouting "TSM sucks", it
could be beneficial taking a deep breath and wondering about possible other
causes.
FWIW.
Cordiali saluti
Gianluca Mariani
Tivoli TSM Global Response Team, Roma
Via Sciangai 53, Roma
phones : +39(0)659664598
+393351270554 (mobile)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy says of the Sirius Cybernetics
Corporation product that "it is very easy to be blinded to the essential
uselessness of them by the sense of achievement you get from getting them
to work at all. In other words ? and this is the rock solid principle on
which the whole of the Corporation's Galaxy-wide success is founded
-their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their
superficial design flaws"...
Shannon Bach
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent by: "ADSM: To
Dist Stor [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Manager" cc
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ST.EDU> bcc
Subject
06/03/2003 Re: Poor TSM Performances
16.26
Please respond
to "ADSM: Dist
Stor Manager"
Three times our TSM Server has suffered from major performance problems.
All three times it turned out to be an undetected problem outside of our
TSM server. One was a TCP/IP patch that was missed in an upgrade. The
second time was with just one of our bigger clients with what seemed to be
the NIC settings, which in turn lead to the discovery of a faulty mother
board. Once a new one was put in, the performance problem disappeared.
The last one was much harder to detect but turned out to be a problem with
a switch in a gateway ? (what the network guys told me : ) . Our TSM
server is on our MVS OS/390 mainframe though so maybe the same things won't
apply for you. I will tell you this though, each time the network guys
were positive it was within TSM and insisted that it could not be a
problem on their side. They now think of TSM as one of their testing tools
whenever there are any changes implemented on their side as it seems to
detect problems no other tests do.
Shannon Bach
Madison Gas & Electric Co.
Operations Analyst - Data Center Services
Office 608-252-7260
Fax 608-252-7098
e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
