Do you recommend TMS as a enterprise backup solution? 3

[phantom80]

We are currently looking at TMS and CommVault as a enterprise backup solution. We as like everyone else in this industry, have a very small staff with a lot of responsiblities so a solution with a small learning curve window is essential.

I get the feeling that the learning curve for TMS is much greater than CommVault and that TMS, while the sales rep aren't saying, is more command line driven than GUI?

I realize that it will be difficult to find a person with both TMS and CommVault expertise, but if you would please just drop a note of pros or cons of your flavor of backup solution please let me know.

Thanks.....

 

[andyman1070]

Approximately 18 months ago, I performed due diligence on the following enterprise backup software: Legato, TSM, Veritas, ARCServe and CommVault. Based on our internal criteria, TSM and CommVault scored the highest, with Veritas a close second. At the time, CommVault did not have very mature UNIX agents whereas TSM basically supports ANY AND ALL operating systems. CommVault probably needs a few more years/releases to really compete. Since we also had problems with Veritas (Backup Exec, not NetBackup), we wound up with TSM 5.1. In my environment, we backup NT, 2000, 2003, Red Hat Linux, Novell, Oracle, SQL, Exchange, and HP/UX. The only reason we didn't include OS/400 is because we'd gain no advantage over our current BRMS 3590E backups.

Tivoli has done a nice job packaging the more menial adminstrative tasks into a GUI interface. At the end of the day, the real power is at the command line. TSM does have a huge learning curve, especially on topic like progressive-incremental backups, reclamantion, co-location, etc. Basically, forget everything you've learned regarding conventional backup schemes.

Tivoli support for the product is top-notch. Several of the Level 1 folks appear to be well-trained, and it is fairly easy to escalate to Level 2

I recommend TSM if you have staff, or plan on having staff, with a UNIX background. IBM clearly offers the most complete enterprise backup solution (i.e. TSM on an AIX server plus a 3584 library with LTO drives). Find yourself an IBM partner with a strong TSM presence, let them prove to you the power of this solution.

 

[gsavy]

We have just implemented a new TSM solution. I was used to work with Veritas Legato Commvault CA, DataProtector,Atempo.

TSM is so different. It 's very *amazing* at the beginning. You can't say "ok I know Veritas I will learn TSM" it tooks us quite a long time to make it works. We need to write scripts for a lot a things that other softwares are able to do. For me it was really difficult to get into this product. After some month I like it, but still thinking this product is ok if you have a dedicated person to work on it.

I 'd prefer Commvault, but only if your environment is fully Windows! (this is not our case)

 

[TunaAdmiral]

TSM is a mixed bag!
The progressive incremental backup methodology saves a great deal of backup time day to day. Restores of single files can be performed very easily from the comfort of the client's machine.

However, because of the progressive incremental methodology, data for a machine tends to be spread over dozens, or even hundreds of tape volumes. This can spell trouble in a situation in which a single client (or all of our clients!) are destroyed. It could take days or weeks to recover all of your data. Careful consideration needs to be taken to ensure that your business-critical machines' data is no fragmented over a zillion tapes.

Also, TSM tends to require a large number of tape operations, since expiration of data on offsite tape volumes is highly irregular. In more traditional setups, all of the data on an entire tape volume is expired at the same time. Not so with TSM. Some files on a tape volume may be expired every few days, while others may sit there for years. CAREFUL PLANNING IS THE KEY!

GOOD LUCK!

 

[skeeter66]

We have had TSM 5.1 for a little over one year. We are mostly a Windows 2000 and 2003 server shop. TSM is running on Windows 2003. We have two HP-UX server clients. TSM has been great. There was a steep learning curve. I had the advantage of being new to backup technology so I did not have to first "forget everything I knew about traditional backups". I did take the three suggested courses from IBM for TSM. They were a big help. If you take the courses make contacts. It always helps to be able to call someone for a quick answer.
We purchased our TSM system from a vendor who installed it as well a set up several clients. The vendor spent a week with me installing and providing me with hands on training.
TSM has a very good GUI for back ups and restores. FOr the day to day administrative task I use the command line but it is made simpler by many scripts which run most of it behind the scenes.
Not having a background in back up systems I can not comment on other systems but have been very pleased with IBMs TSM.