Tivoli fix for "number of unavailable volumes too high" issue

I get this error once in a while on my TSM 5.5 server:

“The number of unavailable volumes is too high Condition (3 > 2) Recommendation: Issue: Q LIBVOL F=D at a TSM command prompt for details.”

Resolution:

q vol * acc=unava for the list of the unavailable volumes… if you want to update their access status to readw;
upd vol volumename acc=readw for each unavailable volume or
upd vol * whereacc=unava acc=readw for all

If those 2 volumes are to an offsite location or vault then:
upd vol xxxxx access=offsite

See ADSM.org for more info.

How IBM Tivoli Storage Manager works with Microsoft VSS

This is a great article from IBM on how TSM operates with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS):

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/tivoli/library/t-tsm-vss/index.html

IBM Tivoli command reference

This is a compiled list of command commands for administering Tivoli Storage Manager 5.5. First, have a look at this library at IBM:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v1r1/index.jsp

Here are some commands that I use on a daily basis:

CHECKIN LIBVOLUME TAPELIB search=BULK checklabel=barcode status=SCRATCH WAITTIME=0

q vol st=full stg=vtapedata – lists full vols from the storagepool vtapedata

move data (volumename) – moves data from a low-utilized drive to another drive in the same storage pool to free up the space on that drive and convert to scratch

update (volumename) acc=readw – changes a drive that is “unavailable” to read/write status

q copy – shows each policy domain, mgt class and versions of data exist and retention.

q mgmt – shows your management classes

q drm – what’s going to the offsite vault

q event * * – shows the current state of all node backups (real-time process stats)

q mount – what tapes are mounted in drives

q san – shows your libraries and drives

q assoc – shows associations of nodes to schedules

q occ %nodename% – queries the stored backup data occupancy (size, date, etc)