Just wondering: there are a couple of instances within the university
where a system has large filesystems with a large number of small
files. (eg: our mail spools have a single file for each email
message ...) This is, obviously, a worst-case scenario for both
backups and restores. I notice in the documentation for the 5.1 TSM
client that snapshots are supported on Linux-x86, with the Linux
Logical Volume Manager; unfortunately, these systems are running
Solaris, not Linux.

In short: fssnap creates a new device entry, which it prints to
stdout, named /dev/fssnap/N (N being a number) for the block device
(raw device is /dev/rfssnap/N). Reads from this device are redirected
to a combination of the original filesystem and a backing store
(which is where the old data is captured before being overwritten; it
is defined during the execution of fssnap). Backups should then
proceed from this device image, rather than the original volume. I'm
guessing that this image is a consistent filesystem based at the time
of the fssnap command (even if not, it would be preferable to backing
up a raw, mounted, filesystem.).

The ideal solution would be to use TSM's image backup facility in
conjunction with fssnap. If this is not possible, an alternative
would be to forcibly backup that device (with all the headaches that
likely would then ensue should the device name change between
invocations of fssnap). I'm not sure at this stage whether we would
be using image backups in conjunction with standard incrementals, but
I suspect that we will in most cases; there's at least one case where
this will not be useful, though.

So the questions:
 * Does anybody have any experience with this type of backup, and
have any suggestions regarding pitfalls, etc.?
 * Is there any likelihood of TSM supporting fssnap for image
backups in the near future?
 * Any general advice from those who haven't dealt with this
specific scenario before, but who do have some idea of the problems
we're likely to encounter with image backups?
 * Comments relating to the possibility that the raw device fssnap
provides may differ from invocation to invocation?
 * Suggestions for alternative backup methods? We're also looking at
using the FastT900's snapshot capability, which I imagine would have
similar problems in large to using fssnap.

Many thanks for any and all tips and pointers. A quick Google doesn't
bring up much, and none of it seems to be useful. :(