Select a management class for directories

If the management class in your active policy set containing the longest "Retain only version" (RETONLY) setting meets your backup requirements for directories, it might not be necessary to take any action to associate directories with that management class. Tivoli® Storage Manager does it automatically when it backs up your directories.

If there is more than one management class with the longest RETONLY setting, the Tivoli Storage Manager client selects the management class whose name is last in alphabetical order.

If the default management class does not meet your requirements, select a management class with an adequate retention period specified by the retain only version parameter. For example, if the management class happens to back up data directly to tape, but you want your directory backups to go to disk, you must choose a different management class. You should keep directories at least as long as you keep the files associated with those directories.

For backup directories, use the dirmc option to specify the management class to which directories are bound.

For archive directories, use the archmc option with the archive command.

You can use these methods to view the available management classes and their attributes:

Note: During expiration processing on a Tivoli Storage Manager server, if an archived directory is eligible for expiration, the server checks if any existing archived files require the archived directory to remain. If so, the archived directory is not expired and the Tivoli Storage Manager client updates the insert date on the archived directory to ensure that the directory is not expired before the files under it.