TSM Backup Service

TSM backup, previously known as ADSM backup, is designed for people who want to maximize backup reliability while minimizing the need for local backup equipment and handling of tapes. Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is a software package that provides automated, centrally managed, reliable backup facilities for a variety of workstations. Daily backups are done automatically over the network to a backup server residing in the CITES machine room. To cover the cost of the backup server hardware, data storage media, operations, and system support, there is an extra charge for the TSM backup option.

Pricing for TSM storage is based on four options:

• How much is being backed up
• How many previous backups are kept
• The retention period for previous backups
• Whether additional backups will be stored offsite

The monthly billing rates are based solely on the amount of data stored on the TSM server (onsite plus offsite). Unlike previous billing methods, there is no difference in price between onsite and offsite backups.

Pricing for TSM is $0.01 per gigabyte stored per day or $3.50 per gigabyte per year. For people using less than 70GB of storage, there is a minimum charge of $20 per month.

Your choice of backup profile and frequency of file changes are what will actually determine how much data you have stored on the TSM server.

Under the Basic profile, one additional version of your backup is kept along with your current version. The retention period is seven days, meaning that a deleted file is available for recovery for up to one week from the backup media.

The Enhanced profile offers extended protection in the form of two backup versions in addition to the current backup and a retention period of 30 days.

The Basic+ and Enhanced+ profiles are identical to the Basic and Enhanced profiles, but with the added security of offsite backup storage.

Once you have chosen a backup profile, it is up to you to decide what you want actually backed up. Unlike many backup options, TSM is fully incremental, meaning that you are not limited to backups by filesystem and after the initial backup, only those files that have changed will need to be overwritten.

It is also important to remember that you will be charged only for space on the tape itself, not on the client machine. Because tape usage may vary over the course of a month, CITES will take daily snapshots of the number of GB used by each customer. These snapshots will then be averaged at the end of the billing period in order to represent the customer's TSM usage more accurately.

It is also important to remember that it is possible to have more data in storage than is physically available on the client machine. If, for example a customer were to back up a particularly large file system using the Basic+ backup profile, that customer would be charged for gigabyte usage on both tape copies -- a number that may well be larger than the actual physical disk the data was taken from.

Advantages

• Four backup configurations are available to suit your budget and storage needs.
• Backups are made incrementally and can be fine-tuned down to individual files.
• The backup system and tapes reside in a secure machine room with climate control and power supply backup.
• The machine room is staffed around the clock by operations personnel who monitor the backup system.

Disadvantages

• There is an added cost beyond the basic contract fee.