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Tivoli Storage Manager for Windows Backup-Archive Clients Installation and User's Guide


Do You Want to Back Up or Archive Files?

When the backup-archive client backs up or archives a file, it sends a copy of the file and its associated attributes to the server; however, backups and archives have different goals.

Backups protect against file damage. The server maintains a sequence of backup versions for each file that you back up, and older versions are deleted as newer versions are made. The number of backup versions the server maintains is set by your administrator.

Note: If you need to frequently create archives for the same data, consider using instant archives (backup sets) instead. Frequent archive operations can create a large amount of metadata in the server database increasing database growth and decreasing performance for operations such as expiration. See Restoring Data from a Backup Set for more information on how backup sets can be generated and restored.

Archive copies are more permanent. They maintain a file in a particular state indefinitely, (although your administrator can limit how long archives are kept). The server can store an unlimited number of archive versions of a file. Archives are useful if you need to go back to a particular version of your files, or you want to delete a file from your workstation and retrieve it at a later time, if necessary. For example, you might need to save spreadsheets for tax purposes, but because you are not using them, you do not want to leave them on your workstation. See Chapter 6, Archiving and Retrieving Files for more information about archiving and retrieving files.

Use backups to protect against unforeseen damage to your files, and use archives for maintaining more permanent versions of your files.


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