The following diagram provides an example of how the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Data Collector could be deployed in your environment.

For each TSM Instance, the Data Collector will establish connections to the database using the command, dsmadmc. The Data Collector Configuration file contains all the connection information for each TSM Instance including such parameters as the TSM user name and password for login, the TSM Instance name, IP address of the TSM Host Server, and the TSM Port.

The Data Collector will use various QUERY and SELECT commands via dsmadmc to obtain its information from each separate TSM Instance. The information is then sent via http(s) to the Portal. A user can then launch a web-browser to use the Portal to see a global view of all of their TSM Host Servers and TSM Instances.

TSM Host Server - The TSM Host Server is the physical system that is running the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager server software. This system will be known by its hostname or IP address.

TSM Instance- The TSM Instance is a separate instance of the TSM server software that is running on a TSM Host Server. A single TSM Host Server can run multiple TSM Instances. This is normally implemented by setting up a separate set of client and administration ports for each TSM Instance. In the architecture example in , there are two TSM Host Servers—one has a single TSM Instance running on it and the other Host Server has two TSM Instances running on it.