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How To Reduce Bucky Backup Costs

This document suggests ways to reduce backup costs with Bucky Backup

• Check your backed-up Filespaces (Especially important if your computer's name has ever changed, or if you used to run this Bucky Backup node on a different computer):
  • Start the Backup-Archive GUI through the Start menu or icon on your desktop.
  • Go to Utilities -> Delete Filespaces.
  • Stretch this sub-window out so you can see enough of the white area.
  • Expand "Filespace".
  • The following special Filespaces are normal for the following Operating Systems:
    • Windows XP: ASR, SYSTEM OBJECT
    • Windows 2000: SYSTEM OBJECT
    • Windows 2003: ASR, SYSTEM STATE, SYSTEM SERVICES
    • ASR is very tiny. It only costs you a few cents per month. It contains all files needed to start an ASR (Automated System Recovery) installation of Windows XP or 2003.
    • SYSTEM OBJECT contains all of these: Active Directory (domain controller only), Certificate server database, Cluster Database (cluster node only), COM+ database, Event logs, Windows Registry, System and boot files, System Volume, Removable Storage Management Database (RSM), Replicated file systems (FRS) and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI).
    • SYSTEM STATE contains all of these: Active Directory (domain controller only), System Volume, Certificate Server Database, COM+ database, Windows Registry & System and boot files.
    • SYSTEM SERVICES contains all of these: Background Intelligent Transfer Service, Event log, Removable Storage management, Cluster Database, Remote Storage Service, Terminal Server Licensing, Windows Management Instrumentation, IIS metabase, DHCP database & WINS database.
    • These special Filespaces are needed if you plan on using your TSM backups as part of a Disaster Recovery process.
    • If you have one of these Operating Systems but you don't see these Filespaces, you most likely have a DOMAIN statement defined in your dsm.opt file that only includes 1 or more specific Filespaces.
  • Verify that all regular Filespaces that begin with 2 backslashes (\\) belong to the computer that is running TSM. If you see other computer names in there, verify that you don't need the data (Cancel this window, click the big Restore button, expand "File Level" and the particular Filespaces in question, then look at the individual files there. Also check the Retrieve section for any relevant Archives of the Filespaces in question).
  • If you see any Filespaces that you don't need, you can permanently delete them by checking the box next to them and clicking the Delete button. NOTE: DELETING FILESPACES WILL DELETE ALL CORRESPONDING BACKUP DATA & ARCHIVES FOR THOSE FILESPACES.
  • Close the 'Delete Filespaces' sub-winow.
• Check your Archives (Archives are long-term "point in time" backups. Regular scheduled backups do not create any Archives.):
  • Go to Utilities -> Delete Archive Data.
  • Stretch this sub-window out so you can see enough of the white area.
  • If you don't see anything to expand here, you don't have any Archives to worry about. Close this "Delete Archives" sub-window.
  • If you see "File Level" or anything similar to expand, do so. Verify that you need the data listed for those Archives (Cancel this window, click the big Retrieve button, expand "File Level" and the particular Filespaces in question, then look at the individual files there)
  • If you see any Archives that you don't need, you can permanently delete them by checking the box next to them and clicking the Delete button.
  • Close the "Delete Archives" sub-window.
• Check your file-level backups:
  • Go to Utilities -> Delete Backup Data.
  • Stretch this sub-window out so you can see enough of the white area.
  • Expand "File Level" and browse through your backed-up directories & files. If you see anything you don't want, put a check mark next to it. Also make a note of the full path & file names so you can Exclude them from future backups (later in this document).
  • Click the Delete button to permanently delete the marked data.
  • Close the "Delete Data Backup" sub-window.
• Management Classes:
  • Go to Utilites -> View Policy Information.
  • In the "Management Class" drop-down menu, select the thing you see in the "Default Mgmt Class" field above.
  • Read through the text in the white window below. This describes how data retention works for your node.
    • Versions Data Exists: This is how many revisions of each "active" file are kept in the Bucky Backup system. An "active" file is one that still exists on your computer & is within the scope of your regular backups.
    • Versions Data Deleted: This is how many revisions of each "inactive" file are kept in the Bucky Backup system. An "inactive" file is one that used to be "active," but isn't anymore. (ex. Files that have been deleted off your computer or are no longer within the scope of your regular backups.)
    • Retain Extra Versions: This is how long the non-current revisions of files are kept in the Bucky Backup system before they are deleted. The current versions of files are always kept in the Bucky Backup system so long as the files remain within the scope of your regular backups.
    • Retain Only Version: This is how long the most current revisions of inactive files are kept in the Bucky Backup system before they are deleted. This number usually matches the previous one.
  • DoIT can create any Management Classes that you'd like. Management Classes can pertain to all of your backed-up data, or can be as granular as only applying to 1 file. If you want any new ones setup, first check through all available Management Classes in the drop-down menu to see if any existing ones will work. If not, send an email to sysops@doit.wisc.edu with the following information: Server, Domain (both found in this Policy Information window), and the desired values for the 4 fields above. Also include your Node name. After new Management Classes are created, you still have to "bind" your files to them (later in this document).
  • Close the "Policy Information" sub-window & the entire GUI window.
• Changing the scope of your regular backups and/or binding files to non-default Management Classes:
  • Open \Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\baclient\dsm.opt in Notepad.
  • Find the DOMAIN statement. If there's an asterisk in front of it, the general scope of your backups is everything on your local hard disks, including any relevant ASR, SYSTEM OBJECT, SYSTEM STATE or SYSTEM SERVICES objects. This is the default configuration. If you want to restrict the DOMAIN, delete the asterisk in front of it and put a whitespace-delimited list of drive letters and/or special Windows objects after DOMAIN. Examples:
    • DOMAIN C: D: This will only consider objects on your C: & D: drives for backup. No special Windows objects or files from other drives will be backed up. Valid on all supported versions of Windows.
    • DOMAIN C: ASR SYSTEMSTATE SYSTEMSERVICES This will only consider objects on your C: drive and will also backup all special Windows objects for Windows Server 2003, including ASR. Valid only on Windows Server 2003.
    • DOMAIN C: SYSTEMOBJECT This will only consider objects on your C: drive and will also backup all (non-ASR) special Windows objects for Windows XP or 2000. Valid only on Windows XP and 2000. (Windows 2000 does not support ASR).
    • DOMAIN C: ASR SYSTEMOBJECT This will only consider objects on your C: drive and will backup all special Windows objects for Windows XP, including ASR. Valid only on Windows XP.
  • You can exclude specific directories or files with EXCLUDE.DIR & EXCLUDE statements. If you deleted any Backup Data in the steps above, you'll want to exclude that data here. Scroll to the bottom of this dsm.opt file and enter appropriate statements with 1 EXCLUDE.DIR or EXCLUDE statement per line. Examples:
    • EXCLUDE.DIR "C:\Documents and Settings" This excludes the C:\Documents and Settings folder, subfolders & all files contained within them from backups. C:\Documents and Settings needs to be enclosed within quotes because it has spaces in it.
    • EXCLUDE.DIR "*:\...\Local Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox" This excludes all folders, subfolders & contained files within any path on any drive that contains a folder structure containing Local Settings\Appliction Data\Mozilla\Firefox. Practically speaking, it excludes everyone's Firefox cache directory.
    • EXCLUDE *:\...\*.log This excludes all files ending with .log in all folders on all drives.
    • EXCLUDE *:\...\* This excludes all files in all folders on all drives. (Not recommended)
  • Note that all EXCLUDE & INCLUDE statements are processed in this order: All EXCLUDE.DIR statements are processed first, then all EXCLUDE & INCLUDE statements are processed from the bottom-up. If you INCLUDE a file in the middle of dsm.opt, but EXCLUDE it at the bottom, the file will be EXCLUDEd because the EXCLUDE statement at the bottom is processed first.
  • Bind files to non-default Management Classes. This requires you to know the exact names of the Management Classes you want to bind to. Examples:
    • INCLUDE "C:\Important Files\...\*" 10_VERSIONS This will bind all files inside the C:\Important Files folder & subfolders to the 10_VERSIONS Management Class, assuming such a Management Class exists in the Policy Domain on the TSM Server that your Node belongs to.
    • INCLUDE "C:\iso\...\*" 1_VERSION This will bind all files inside the C:\iso folder & subfolders to the 1_VERSION Management Class, assuming such a Management Class exists in the Policy Domain on the TSM Server that your Node belongs to.
    • INCLUDE "C:\downloads\*" 1_VERSION This will bind all files inside the C:\downloads folder to the 1_VERSION Management Class, assuming such a Management Class exists in the Policy Domain on the TSM Server that your Node belongs to. If there are any subfolders inside C:\downloads, any files in those subfolder will stay bound to the default Management Class because we didn't use \...\*
  • For more examples & information about syntax, please see Start -> (All) Programs -> Tivoli Storage Manager -> Online Information. Go to the "Contents" tab, expand "Tivoli Storage Manager Online Information", "Books", "Backup-archive Client", "IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Windows Backup-Archive Clients Installation and User's Guide", "Chapter 2. Configuring Tivoli Storage Manager", "Creating an include-exclude list (optional)". Ignore the parts about the GUI and continue to make all your changes directly in dsm.opt.
  • Save dsm.opt, then restart your "TSM Scheduler" service for changes to take effect.
• Monitor your node's occupancy on this site.