Data on client option and feature exploitation

There have been over the years a large number of TSM client options and enhancements whose use is not easily recognized by a TSM server. For example, if a Windows TSM client is using journal-based backups, that�s not obvious to TSM server administrators. Because of this, TSM server administrators have almost no view of which TSM client features are being used, or which could be introduced to the user community by one means or another. It also makes the TSM server administrator very dependent on client administrators to provide correct information when trying to debug client problems. It would be helpful if TSM in some way retained platform-specific information about which options and features were used by clients in the clients� various activities. It would be preferable that information would be kept on a per-session basis so that administrators could determine the exact conditions of a specific backup or restore. � It is recognized that: ��������� such information would be retained for a limited amount of time, perhaps linked to the retention period of the activity log. ��������� some customers may prefer that this feature be disabled by default but could be turned on, perhaps at a server-wide level. ��������� this probably requires an extension to the client-server protocol and thus might not be quickly delivered, nor applicable to current or older clients. � Example: �02/18/2012 22:30:15 Node GDLPC789, Windows, gdlpc789.gdl.ibm.com, selective backup, compression on, encryption used, journaled backup mode� � I�m not sure if the server should report the meaning of each flag or if that meaning of the option/feature flags would be listed in (the back of?) the respective client manual. Given the esoteric nature of some of the API clients, probably the latter, but the protocol might list a few universal features, such as whether compression or LAN-free was used. (This is starting to feel like an extension of the SUMMARY table.) Some flags, such as �encryption used� above, would not be precise; there�s no need (for me, anyway) to list for which files or directories encryption was used, only that it was used in some cases.