Question & Answer
Question
Does the deletion of the adsm.sys directory affect the ability for FlashCopy Manager to restore a VSS backup that is saved on the Tivoli Storage Manager server? What if the meta data stored on the Tivoli Storage Manager server is deleted?
Cause
During a VSS restore of a backup that is stored on the Tivoli Storage Manager server, the process will first check for the existence of the specific meta data that is needed for this restore. If this information does not exist in the adsm.sys directory, the processing will restore the specific files that contain the meta data to this machine from the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
Answer
When FlashCopy Manager is used to perform a VSS backup to store the data on the Tivoli Storage Manager server, meta data is also saved on the local machine. Within the adsm.sys\vss_staging directory structure, meta data that pertains to VSS backups is written to a .xml file. This meta data is also stored on the Tivoli Storage Manager server. If the meta data is not available in the adsm.sys\vss_staging directory structure for a restore operation, FlashCopy Manager can obtain it from the Tivoli Storage Manager server. So, if the adsm.sys directory is deleted or if you are restoring to an alternate machine, the meta data can be accessed and a restore of the VSS backups saved on the Tivoli Storage Manager server can still be performed.
However, if the meta data portion of the VSS backup is inadvertently removed from the Tivoli Storage Manager server, the data cannot be rewritten to the Tivoli Storage Manager server, even if the data still exists within the adsm.sys directory of the local machine. Thus, a loss of data from the Tivoli Storage Manager server can be prohibitive for a restore of the VSS backup.
Product Synonym
TSM
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Document Information
Modified date:
17 June 2018
UID
swg21576693