If you find a good doc , please repost! I haven't found any single source.
Read the TSM VE 6.4 install guide when it comes out, not the 6.3 one. (I"ve seen the Beta and It is Good.) The main thing you need to know reading the (infuriating) manual, is that the doc often uses these terms interchangeably: "vstorage backup server" "proxy server" "data mover" And the "data mover" is just an instance of the TSM scheduler on the machine you are using as a proxy server. Once you get that straight in your head, the doc is pretty follow-able. Most of the doc out there that talks about proxy servers and data movers and sizing will, I hope, become irrelevant with 6.4. The big issues with 6.2 and 6.3 were the amount of data and amount of time required to do periodic fulls of all those vmdk files. With "incremental forever" in 6.4, those problems should all go away. Another thing you need to know, - if the VM's were created in Vsphere 5, they will already have Changed Block Tracking turned on. -if the VM's were created in Vsphere 4, they may or may not have Changed Block Tracking turned on. You can tell for sure by looking at the attributes of the VM, but the VM has to be down to look at them (stupid VM thing) or change it directly. If it's not on, you can turn it on by doing the first full backup with VE, but then you will need a second (full) backup to build the track map. You will only get true CBT incrementals on the 3rd pass. Look at the scheduler log, it will tell you when CBT is in use. And other things I found painful to learn: * If you do a "backup now" from the VCenter console VE plug in, the logs are in the dsmwebcl.log on the proxy server you've chosen to use. Not Intuitively Obvious (at least for me). The scheduled backups are in the dsmsched.log for the data mover on the proxy server. * The VE server (the thing that creates and talks to the VCenter plug-in) is not required and not involved to actually run the scheduled backups. The VE server sits between VCenter and the TSM server and translates between the two of them. You can use the VCenter plug-in to create a backup schedule, and what happens is that it talks to the VE server, and the VE server talks to the TSM server and does a DEFINE SCHEDULE. But when the schedule fires, it's just the TSM server talking to the data mover (TSM scheduler service) on the proxy server. * Learn to q schedule and verify the schedules that VE creates. (You can also update them through normal TSM methods as needed.) * VMWare will frequently get tangled in its own underwear doing its snapshots, or deleting its snapshots. This is a VMware issue, not a TSM issue, and we are stuck with it at least through VSphere 5. Maybe that will save you some research :>) Wanda -----Original Message----- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Steven Harris Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 1:42 AM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: [ADSM-L] Learning resources for VMware Hi Gang I have a customer who is bursting to get TSM for VE 6.4 up and running. So its time to get me some book-learnin'. What does a TSM admin need to know about VMware and especially vStorage in order to get a TSM for VE installation working properly? Where is the best place to obtain such info? Yes I've done some searches, but for example one document that looked promising turned out to be dated 2006, and in this fast-moving environment that is positively stone-age. Thanks Steve. Steven Harris TSM Admin Canberra Australia
