Setting the compression option

There are several ways to determine the compression for applications that use the IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager application programming interface (API).

You can determine the compression by using one of the following methods:
  • An administrator during registration who can:
    • Require that files are compressed
    • Restrict the client from compressing files
    • Allow the application user or the client user to determine the compression status
  • The client options file. If an administrator does not set compression on or off, Tivoli Storage Manager checks the compression status that is set in the client options file. The client options file is required, but the API user configuration file is optional.
  • One of the object attributes. When an application sends an object to the server, some object attributes can be specified. One of the object attributes is a flag that indicates whether or not the data has already been compressed. If the application turns this flag on during either a backup or an archive operation, then Tivoli Storage Manager does not compress the data a second time. This process overrides what the administrator sets during registration.

For more information on setting options for the API and on controlling compression, see IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Using the Application Program Interface