1. Starting the TSM Scheduler

In order for the TSM client to perform an automatic scheduled backup, the TSM Scheduler must be running on the client machine during the allotted scheduled window. As all scheduled windows at OUCS occur overnight, between 18:00 and 06:00, this means that the client machine must be running the TSM scheduler and the machine left switched on overnight on the night(s) of the schedule window.

This is achieved by running the TSM Scheduler as a daemon.

Running the TSM Scheduler process causes output to be written to several log files. These, by default, are located in /var/log.

1.1. Enabling the scheduler

During the installation of the TSM software you may have been given the option to enable the scheduler. If you didn't answer yes to this you, or you have subsequently disabled the scheduler, you can enable the scheduler by running 

/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/HFSscheduler on
This will both start the scheduler and configure the system to start it at boot time.

1.2. Disabling the scheduler

To disable the scheduler run 

/opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/HFSscheduler off
This will both stop the scheduler and configure the system not to start it at boot time.

1.3. Log files

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

  • 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.

1.4. Checking there is a schedule

The logfile /var/log/dsmsched.log should contain output similar to:

            
03-12-2009 08:19:13 --- SCHEDULEREC QUERY BEGIN
03-12-2009 08:19:13 --- SCHEDULEREC QUERY END
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Next operation scheduled:
03-12-2009 08:19:13 ------------------------------------------------------------
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Schedule Name:         WEEKDAILY_OUCS
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Action:                Incremental
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Objects:
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Options:
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Server Window Start:   00:00:00 on 04-12-2009
03-12-2009 08:19:13 ------------------------------------------------------------
03-12-2009 08:19:13 Schedule will be refreshed in 12 hours.

If the next schedule window is more than 12 hours away the last line will say "Schedule will be refreshed in 12 hours" as above. If sooner it will say something like "Command will be executed in 5 hours and 27 minutes".

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 

02-12-2009 18:36:28 Normal File-->               539 /var/log/exim4/mainlog.9.gz [Sent]
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Normal File-->                 9 /var/spool/anacron/cron.daily [Sent]
02-12-2009 18:36:28 ANS1802E Incremental backup of '/' finished with 3 failure
        
02-12-2009 18:36:28 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS BEGIN
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects inspected:  184,395
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects backed up:      995
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects updated:         26
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects rebound:          0
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects deleted:          0
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects expired:        782
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of objects failed:           3
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Total number of bytes transferred:   498.21 MB
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Data transfer time:                   39.90 sec
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Network data transfer rate:        12,786.00 KB/sec
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Aggregate data transfer rate:      3,470.37 KB/sec
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Objects compressed by:                    0%
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Elapsed processing time:           00:02:27
02-12-2009 18:36:28 --- SCHEDULEREC STATUS END
02-12-2009 18:36:28 --- SCHEDULEREC OBJECT END WEEKLY_18_30 02-12-2009 18:30:00
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Scheduled event 'WEEKLY_18_30' completed successfully.
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Sending results for scheduled event 'WEEKLY_18_30'.
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Results sent to server for scheduled event 'WEEKLY_18_30'.
          
02-12-2009 18:36:28 ANS1483I Schedule log pruning started.
02-12-2009 18:36:28 ANS1484I Schedule log pruning finished successfully.
02-12-2009 18:36:28 TSM Backup-Archive Client Version 6, Release 1, Level 0.2
02-12-2009 18:36:28 Querying server for next scheduled event.

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. 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 the 'dsmc sched' process is running. If it has stopped, please examine the dsmsched.log and 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/dsmsched.log
  /var/log/dsmerror.log
  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys
  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt