1. Starting the TSM Scheduler

The schedule backups work by having a lightweight process (dsmcad) which will pick up your scheduled backup slot, then count down to the event. This is refered to as the Client Acceptor Daemon (CAD). When the schedule backup slot is due, this will then start a separate process to perform the schedule backup.

During the installation of the TSM software you may have been given the option to install the scheduler. If you answered yes to this prompt then you can skip to: 1.3. Checking the CAD has a schedule

1.1. Installing the Scheduler Manually

In order to run the CAD manually, first check that the file /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys contains the line 

ManagedServices    Schedule

adding it to the end of the file if necessary.

Now run the script to install the CAD: 

/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/HFSsched-install.sh

1.2. Log files

The CAD and TSM scheduler write to the following log files in /var/log (unless the variable DSM_LOG is set at run time to specify an alternative location)

  • dsmwebcl.log - the logfile of the CAD output.
  • dsmsched.log - the log of the all scheduled backups. This file lists the details of each file processed in the most recent scheduled backups, the summary results of the most recent scheduled backups and the time of the next scheduled backup.
  • dsmerror.log - lists any errors encountered in any manual or scheduled backup.

1.3. Checking the CAD has a schedule

You can check that the CAD is managing the scheduler by examining the latest entry in the /var/log/dsmwebcl.log file. It should look similar to below. 

24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) IBM Tivoli Storage Manager
24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) Client Acceptor - Built Nov 28 2006 09:17:34
24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) Version 5, Release 4, Level 0.0
24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) Dsmcad is working in    Schedule   mode.
24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) Command will be executed
in 1 minute.
24-05-2007 10:18:09 (dsmcad) Time remaining until execution:
Executing scheduled command now.
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Next operation scheduled:
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) ------------------------------------------------------------
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Schedule Name:         WEEKLY_OUCS
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Action:                Incremental
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Objects:
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Options:
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Server Window Start:   18:00:00 on 29-05-2007
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) ------------------------------------------------------------
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Command will be executed
in 8 hours
 and 30 minutes.
24-05-2007 10:19:10 (dsmcad) Time remaining until execution:

Note that there is a Schedule Name - usually starting WEEKLY_ or WEEKDAILY_ followed by a shortened department or college name.

Checking in /var/log/dsmsched.log the output will look similar to below. 

24-05-2007 10:19:09 Next operation scheduled:
24-05-2007 10:19:09 ------------------------------------------------------------
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Schedule Name:         WEEKLY_OUCS
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Action:                Incremental
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Objects:               
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Options:               
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Server Window Start:   18:00:00 on 29-05-2007
24-05-2007 10:19:09 ------------------------------------------------------------
24-05-2007 10:19:09 Scheduler has been stopped.

Note that the last line 'Scheduler has been stopped' is normal and refers to the TSM scheduler being managed (stopped and started) by the CAD.

Note that if the next schedule window is more than 24 hours away the CAD process will count down for 24 hours and then re-launch the TSM Scheduler to query the TSM server for its next schedule. You can query the schedule window from the command line as below: 

dsmc query schedule

2. Checking the Scheduled Backup has worked

Output from the Scheduler process is appended to the end of the dsmsched.log file and any errors are written to the dsmerror.log file. It is important to regularly examine the schedule log for details of the latest scheduled backups. The TSM Scheduler will have written summary information of the last scheduled backup similar to below

The first thing is to look for whether the schedule completed successfully or not. A 'completed successfully' message indicates that most, if not all, of your files have been successfully backed.

Next, it is important to determine if any files have failed to backup. If the 'Total number of objects failed' is greater than zero then scroll up the file for the next occurrence of the word 'fail' to determine which file(s) this affects. The most common reason for a file failing to be backed up is that it is held open (locked) by another program. In this case, the choice is either to close the program before the backup, or exclude the file from the backup process. Examples of how to do this can be found in our page on how to exclude files and folders from backup.

Note that files failing to backup because they are held open by other processes do not preclude a backup schedule completing successfully.

Other failures and errors will be accompanied by an error message and a corresponding entry in the dsmerror.log file.

Note that the schedule log file does not grow endlessly, but is pruned of entries older than the setting of the SchedlogRetention option in the dsm.sys file. By default this is set to 30 days. See the entry in the TSM client online Help for possible values for this option.

3. Removing the TSM Scheduler

To remove the scheduler from automatically running, or to clean up previous schedulers run the following script. 

/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/HFSsched-remove.sh

This will remove any startup scripts from /etc/init.d/ with the following names; dsmcad, dsmcad-init, dsmsched. It will also remove the run level symbolic links and stop any running dsmcad process.

4. Troubleshooting

The two main reasons for scheduled backups to fail or miss are:- a misconfiguration of the TSM Client options and/or the TSM Scheduler not running.

The first of these can be determined by running a manual backup via the TSM Backup program. If this works then there is probably no configuration problem. If you get an error running the TSM Backup program, then please review the steps involved in installing and configuring the TSM Client software.

Check that either a 'dsmcad' (the CAD) or 'dsmc schedule' process is running. If it has stopped, please examine the dsmwebcl.log dsmsched.log dsmerror.log files for an explanation. Try repeating starting the TSM Scheduler as detailed in the Starting the TSM Scheduler section.

If the above fails, bundle the log and configuration files listed below and send these as an attachment to hfs@oucs.ox.ac.uk with a subject line containing 'TSM Schedule'. 

  /var/log/dsmwebcl.log
  /var/log/dsmsched.log
  /var/log/dsmerror.log
  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys
  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt