Backing Up Oracle - Computing at Cornell

A backup object that is the active version or in the active state will never be
purged from TSM storage that is, it never expires. It must first be inactivated
by the TSM client program. The TSM client program can do this by manually
deleting the backup object or sending a new version of the backup object.
When a backup object becomes inactive or moves into the inactive state, it is
still accessible by the TSM client. A main difference between active and
inactive is that an active object becomes inactive due to a client operation. An
inactive object becomes expired automatically by the TSM server as soon as
it exceeds its retention criteria. Changing from inactive to expired does not
require a client operation. There is no way for a backup object to change back
to the active state once it has become inactive.
When a backup archive object moves into the expired state, it is no longer
accessible by the TSM client. Additionally, there is no way for the backup
object to change back to the inactive state once it has become expired.
If the retention for the backup object is set to retain zero inactive
objects(retextra=1,verdel=0) or to retain inactive copies for zero
days(retextra=0, retonly=0), the active backup object will change to the
expired state as soon as the active backup is inactivated.
What a unique backup object is to TSM
Both backup and archive objects can be manually deactivated by the client
program that initially backed them up. A key difference between backup and
archive objects is that a backup object changes states when a newer version
of the backup object is sent to the TSM server.
This brings up the question: How does the TSM determine what a unique
version is? A backup object is considered “unique” based on NODE_NAME,
FILESPACE_NAME, HL_NAME, LL_NAME. These fields and how to view
them were discussed in Section 4.5.2.1, “Viewing the description of a backup
object” on page 37. When a backup data object is sent to the TSM server, if it
has the same NODE_NAME, FILESPACE_NAME, HL_NAME, LL_NAME as
an existing backup data object. The new data object becomes the
ACTIVE_VERSION, and the older version changes state and becomes an
INACTIVE_VERSION.
Many API products use a unique value for the LL_NAME based on a
timestamp or a random non-recurring value. Because of this unique value for
the LL_NAME, the backup object only changes states from active to inactive
when the API product manually inactivates (deletes) the backup object. An
active object is not subject to retention settings until it is inactivated. You
must run the appropriate command from the API product to inactivate these
backups objects, or else they will remain forever on the TSM server.
46 Backing Up Oracle using Tivoli Storage Management