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Datavetenskap

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tsm_check

At the Department of Computer Science we use IBM:s “Tivoli Storage Management” (TSM) for backup.

TSM is a very solid backup system, but unfortunatley the end user contact is pretty bad. It tells the end user nothing about what happens (or don't happens). Therefore we have developed out own bash-scripts for that. Tomas Richter wrote av script for Linux and I one for Mac clients (which is what this is about).

To install TSM on a Mac is not dealth with on this page (however, a copy of my install-script is here). That script assumed a file server here at CS and will also install Growl. It is, however, not hard to customize for your needs!

How it works

The script, tsm_check, resides in /usr/local/bin and is run by cron every 5 minutes. It looks in the log file (/Library/Logs/tivoli/tsm/dsmsched.log – only root can read it) and looks for certain key phrases, for example “completed successfully”.

When a backup has concluded successfully this is communicated to the user with the help of Growl/growlnotify (which one must have). Additionally, a cuple of files are created in the directory /CS/Backup:
• Backed_up_nodname_date.txt
• Bigfiles_nodname_date.txt
• Errors_nodname_date.txt
• TSM_diary_nodname.txt

These files tell the user which files have been backed up a specific day, which were > 10 MB and which errors that happend (if any). The purpose of these files is to make it possible and simple for the user to see for themself what happens with the backup. 

The diary file loggs which messages are communicated to the user (and when). It also tells about the next feature:

Automatic update

When the script is more than a week old, it checks if there is a new version and then installs that (using checksums to make sure it's correct). 

Additionally, a couple of files are added to the /CS-directory: PDF document that tell the user about the backup system, which files are selected (and not) and how the user restores lost files themselves.

Report

tsm_check normally reports using Growl and growlnotify (command line component of Growl). But  tsm_check can be run interactively in a terminal window – by an admin user.

The following options can be used:
-s: 'sticky', makes the message stick (default)
-n: non 'sticky', the message will go away after 15 seconds
-l: presents a short message that only says 'Backup Successful'
-L: ”Long report”: tells how many files, how many MBytes and how long time it took
-t: mostly for debugging: tell you the time when the message was being showed
-S: speaks the message as well
-u: update the tsm_check scriptet. Must be run by root

Where the script resides

The script can be fetched here:
http://fileadmin.cs.lth.se/intern/Backup-klienter/TSM/Mac/tsm_check

Rights and stuff

We at the Dept. of Computer Science have written it and like to keep the copyright for it, but it's absolutely free to use and improve! :-) If you realize something that should be there, or any error, we are really happy to be informed of it!

Extra information

We have written some extra information that is being delivered to the clients (end up in the /CS directory). As a convenience, they are here as well:

About the TSM Backup

Deselect files from the TSM Backup

How to restore files from the TSM backup

How to restore files from the TSM backup using CLI

TSM and Security

 

Finally: if you need to perform an immediate backup, become root and type:
dsmc incremental
in a terminal window – or run it in the GUI with “TSM for administrators”
(you need to know the admin account/password in both cases)