IBM Storage Protect task scheduler

Review these guidelines when you define an IBM Storage Protect™ schedule.

  • If you use the IBM Storage Protect-prompted scheduling mode, ensure that the Data Protection for Exchange Server option file specifies the tcpclientaddress and tcpclientport options. If you want to run more than one scheduler service, use the same tcpclientaddress. However, you must use different values for tcpclientport in addition to the different node names. As an example, you might want to run more than one scheduler service when you schedule Data Protection for Exchange Server and the regular Windows™ backup client.

    You can use server-prompted scheduling only when TCP/IP communication is used. By default, Data Protection for Exchange Server uses the client polling schedule mode.

  • If you make any changes that affect the scheduler in the Data Protection for Exchange Server options file, restart the scheduler to activate the changes. For example, the IBM Storage Protect server address, the schedule mode, or the client TCP address or port can affect the scheduler. To restart the scheduler, issue the following commands:
      net stop "Data Protection for Exchange Server Scheduler"  
      net start "Data Protection for Exchange Server Scheduler" 
  • The default IBM Storage Protect scheduler log file (dsmsched.log) contains status information for the IBM Storage Protect scheduler. In this example, the file is in this path:
    d:\Program Files\Tivoli\TSM\TDPExchange\dsmsched.log

    You can override this file name by specifying the schedlogname option in the Data Protection for Exchange Server options file.

  • Data Protection for Exchange Server creates a log file with statistics about the backed up database objects when the /logfile parameter is specified during the tdpexcc command. Outputs from the scheduled commands are sent to the scheduler log file (dsmsched.log). After scheduled work is completed, check the log to verify that the work is completed successfully.
    When a scheduled command is processed, the scheduler log might contain the following entry:
      Scheduled event eventname completed successfully
    This result indicates that IBM Storage Protect successfully issued the scheduled command that is associated with the eventname. No attempt is made to determine whether the command succeeded or failed. To assess the success or failure of the command, evaluate the return code from the scheduled command in the scheduler log. The scheduler log entry for the command return code is prefaced with the following text:
      Finished command. Return code is:

    If any scheduled backups fail, the scheduler script exits with the same error code as the failed backup command. A non-zero error code means that the backup failed.

  • If passwordaccess generate is not specified in the dsm.opt file, then the IBM Storage Protect password must be specified on the tdpexcc command. To specify the password, use the /tsmpassword parameter in the command file that is run by the scheduler (excfull.cmd). You can also specify the password on the Data Protection for Exchange Server command line. For example:
    tdpexcc query tsm /tsmnode=mars1 /tsmpassword=newpassword