6. Archive und Retrieve

Long-term storage

ISP understands archiving as the long-term storage of a file. However, longer term does not mean forever. 
At the LRZ, the preset retention period is 10 years. After 10 years, calculated from the time the data was entered into the archive and backup system, the data is automatically and irrevocably deleted.

If the storage period is not sufficient for a project in individual cases, longer periods can be agreed upon upon request at the LRZ-Servicedesk (long-term storage). 
 Attention: This must be done BEFORE the data is archived. The exact regulations are described in the usage guidelines.

What distinguishes archiving from data backup?

The primary purpose of data protection (backup) is to protect against data loss. The hope is that the backup data will never have to be restored. In the backup a certain number of different versions of a file is kept. 
Archiving does not know versions. If the same file is archived n times, n versions of a file are stored for at least 10 years.
The archive function of ISP must not be misused for regular data backup. This would lead to an irresponsible increase in the amount of data stored.

Archiving a file

A file is archived with the following command:

archive -description=beschreibung datei

Example:

dsmc archive -description="Statistik Bananenkruemmung 1995" ./banane

The "Description" is kept together with the archived file by TSM and displayed in overview lists. 
It can also be used as selection criterion when retrieving the file (the option then acts as an additional restricting selection criterion besides the pattern for the file name).

After archiving, the file continues to exist in the source directory. If the same file is archived multiple times (with or without intermediate changes), multiple archive copies also exist.
Thus, later archiving does not overwrite the earlier archiving. 
Dealing with such multiple copies is not always easy, so it is better to use unique file names or, even better, to delete the obsolete copies.

Display of archived files

You can get an overview of the archived files with :

Query ARchive -SUBdir=yes datei

where "datei" may be a wildcard expression. Often you will choose "*" to get all archived files displayed. Without the option "subdir" you will only get the files in the selected directory, but not in its subdirectories. In addition, the search can be limited to a time interval in which the archive file was created.

Example:

dsmc query archive -subdir=yes -fromdate=30/12/1995 "*" 

Retrieve a file

A file is retrieved with the following command:

retrieve ursprungsdateipfad neuerdateipfad 

Example:

Retrieve the file to the old directory (The file banane.jpg will be overwritten in c:\ if it already exists!):

dsmc retrieve c:\banane.jpg

Retrieve the file "banane.jpg" into a new folder "neuerordner" with renaming banane.jpg to bananeneu.jpg:

dsmc retrieve c:\banane.jpg c:\neuerordner\bananeneu.jpg

Retrieve an entire folder without subdirectory to the "neuerordner" folder:

dsmc retrieve c:\banane\* c:\neuerordner\


Retrieve the C: directory including subdirectories to the "neuerordner" folder:


dsmc retrieve c:\* -subdir=yes c:\neuerordner\


Retrieve all files with the desc. "Image" in the C: directory including subdirectories to the "neuerordner" folder:


dsmc retrieve c:\* -subdir=yes -description="Bild" c:\neuerordner\

You can find more examples and options here: TSM-Retrieve

Delete the archive copy of a file

If you are interested in a deletion authorization, please contact the LRZ-Servicedesk.

The long-term archiving

If you are interested in long-term archiving (storage of data for longer than 10 years), please contact the LRZ-Servicedesk.