Hey all,
I've just about had it with Tivoli Storage Manager. I won't go into the what's and why's. Do any of you have suggestions for an alternative?

We have around 70 linux clients and 10 AIX lpars. We mostly do incremental filesystem backups each night and have a 3494 tape library with 3 3590 ATL tape drives. Other than vaulting tapes each day, nothing fancy.

Are there other products that come close to TSM's basic functionality?

With a 3494, nope.
Get used to it, or hasle IBM to make it work for you.
IBM make such a lot of noise about linux and they own AIX and Tivoli and the 3494, just raise a critsit for every problem until they make it all work for you as it should.

Thanks for your response. Problem is, Tivoli's support is just as nebulous as their documentation. In fact the documentation is so lacking that all support does is spin their wheels deeling with simple questions about how the damn product works.