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28 March 2015

Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments (TSM VE) Introduction - Components and Features

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Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments (TSM for VE) otherwise known as Tivoli Data Protection for VMware (TDP VMware) is used to backup & restore of the virtual machines which are on the ESXI servers. TDP VMware eliminates the impact of running backups on a VM by offloading backup workloads from a VMware ESX or ESXi-based host to a vStorage Backup server. 

Data Protection for VMware works with the Tivoli Storage Manager backup-archive client which is installed on the vStorage Backup server  to complete full and incremental backups of VMs. The client node installed on the vStorage Backup server is called the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node. This node "moves" the data to the Tivoli Storage Manager server for storage, and for VM image-level restore at a later time. Instant restore is also available at the disk volume level and full VM level. In addition, protection of vApps and organization vDCs in a vCloud Director environment is also available.

Data Protection for VMware Components

There are several TDP VM components which are available in this product to help protect the entire VMware infrastructure. The purpose of these components must be understood before protecting the VMware setup. The below figure shows the TSM VE components.

TSM for VE components

Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI

This component is a graphical user interface (GUI) that accesses VM data on the VMware vCenter Server. This GUI can be accessed in two ways. This GUI can be accessed as a vCenter Server extension in the Solutions and Applications panel of your vCenter Server System or in a stand-alone web browser GUI. 

You can install this Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI on any system that has access to Vmware storage and this GUI resource requirements are minimal as it does not process I/O data transfers. But the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI must have network connectivity to the following systems
  • vStorage Backup Server
  • Tivoli Storage Manager server
  • vCenter Server

This is the main component of the TSM for VE through which all the backup configuration and restore activities are performed.Installing the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI on the vStorage Backup Server is the most common configuration. Through this Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI, you can
  • Initiate a backup of your VMs to a Tivoli Storage Manager server, or schedule a backup for a later time.
  • Initiate a full recovery of your VMs from a Tivoli Storage Manager server.
  • Generate reports about the tasks, the most recent events that completed, backup status, and space usage.

In a multiple VM datacenters environment, you can also register multiple Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUIs to a single vCenter Server to reduce the number of VM datacenters  that are managed by a single VMware Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI. Managing a subset of all available datacenters with multiple Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI's will reduce the query and processing time that is required by the plug-in to complete operations. The advantages of multiple Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUIs to a single vCenter Server are
  • Each datacenter can be managed by only one installed Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI.
  • A unique VMCLI node name is required for each installed Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI.
  • Using unique data mover node names for each installed Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI simplifies managing the nodes.

Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent

With this Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent component, you can mount any snapshot volume from the Tivoli Storage  Manager server storage. You can view the snapshot locally, with read-only access, on the client system, or use an iSCSI protocol to access the snapshot from a remote computer. In addition, the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent provides the instant restore function. A volume used in instant restore processing remains available while the restore process proceeds in the background. 

The Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent is accessed with the Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent GUI or command-line interface. The Data Protection for VMware Recovery Agent component does not support operations in a LAN-free environment

Data Protection for VMware command-line interface

The Data Protection for VMware CLI is a full-function command-line interface that is installed with the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI. Although the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI is the primary task interface, the Data Protection for VMware CLI provides a useful secondary interface. We can do all backup, restore and schedule activities through Data Protection for VMware CLI.

Data Protection for VMware vCloud GUI

This GUI is used to protect vApps and organization vDCs in a vCloud Director environment. This GUI can be accessed through a URL bookmark to the GUI web server.  The Data Protection for VMware vCloud GUI is the primary interface from which
to complete these tasks
  • Run immediate or schedule incremental forever backups of specific vApps, or vApps contained in an organization vDC to Tivoli Storage Manager server storage.
  • Restore single or multiple vApps.
  • Generate reports and status of backup and restore.

Data Protection for VMware Nodes

Data Protection for VMware communicates to VMs during backup, restore, and mount operations through Tivoli Storage Manager nodes.A node represents a system on which the Tivoli Storage Manager backup-archive client, Data Protection for VMware, or other application client is installed. Each node will have a unique node name that is used to identify the system to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.  You can use the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI configuration wizard or configuration notebook to set these nodes in a vSphere environment.

vCenter node 

The virtual node that represents a vCenter.

Data Mover Node

In a Data Protection for VMware vSphere production environment, the most basic node is the data mover node. This node represents a specific Tivoli Storage Manager backup-archive client (data mover) that "moves data" from one system to another. In a basic vSphere environment, where VMs are backed up by a single client, the VM data is stored directly under the data mover node. Each data mover node requires its own Tivoli Storage
Manager client acceptor and scheduler service.

Data Center Node

It is the virtual node that maps to a data center which holds the data. In some scenarios, several data movers are used to back up a complete virtual environment, such as a VMware datacenter. In this scenario, since the backup work is distributed among multiple data movers, the VM data is stored in a shared node instead of a specific data mover node. This shared node is called the datacenter node. Thus, in this large system vSphere environment, the data mover nodes store VM data into the datacenter node.

VMCLI Node

Finally, in a large vSphere virtual environment, where multiple data movers and datacenters are operative, a third node is used to communicate among the nodes and Tivoli Storage Manager server. This node connects the Data Protection for VMware command-line interface to the Tivoli Storage Manager server and the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node. Unlike the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node, the VMCLI node does not require its own Tivoli Storage Manager client acceptor or scheduler service.

Similarly, for VMware vCloud Director production environment, we have 
  • vCloud Director Node which represents the vCloud Director and is the top-level node.
  • Provider VDC Node which represents a provider vDC for vCloud environment.
  • Organization VDC Node which represents an organization vDC for vCloud environment.
  • Data Mover Node which represents a backup-archive client and is associated with a single provider vDC and all of its organization vDCs. It is authorized to do operations for all organization vDCs that belong to the provider vDC.
  • VMCLI Node which connects the Data Protection for VMware vCloud GUI to the Tivoli Storage Manager server and the other nodes.

Protecting VM templates and vApps

Data Protection for VMware supports backing up and restoring of both VM templates and
vApps. 
  • A VM template is a master image of a VM. This template can include an installed guest operating system and a set of applications. By using TDP VM software you can also backup these VM templates for the disaster recovery. VM templates can be restored to the original VM template, or to an alternative VM template and data store location.
  • A vApp is a logical entity that consists of one or more VMs. By using a vApp, you can specify and include all components of a multitier application. VMs that are contained in a vApp can be backed up and restored. By using TDP VM software you can also backup these vApps for the disaster recovery.

Automatic Client Failover

Starting from version TSM VE v7.1, Data Protection for VMware can automatically fail over to the secondary TSM server for data recovery when there is an outage on the primary Tivoli Storage Manager server. The Tivoli Storage Manager server that the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node connects to during normal production processes is called the primary server. When the primary server and data mover node are set up for node replication, the client data on the primary server can be replicated to another Tivoli Storage Manager server, which is the secondary server.

During normal operations, connection information for the secondary server is automatically sent to the data mover node from the primary server during the logon process. The secondary server information is automatically saved to the client options file on the data mover node. No manual intervention is required by you to add the information for the secondary server.

Each time the data mover node logs on to the server, it attempts to contact the primary server. If the primary server is unavailable, the data mover node automatically fails over to the secondary server, according to the secondary server information in the client options file. In failover mode, you can restore any replicated client data. When the primary server is online again, the data mover node automatically fails back to the primary server the next time the data mover node connects to the server.

Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager for VMware 

Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager for VMware is a data management solution that you can use to streamline storage management in a VMware vSphere environment. It simplifies the backup, restore, and disaster recovery operations of virtual machines in a VMware environment. When you use Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager for VMware with Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments, you can store VMware image backups on Tivoli Storage Manager server storage. You can back up, restore, and implement disaster recovery solutions for virtual machines in a VMware environment. 

Tivoli storage Flash copy manager for vmware


With Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager for VMware, you can create non-disruptive off-host backups for VMware virtual machines in a vSphere environment. This off-host approach facilitates faster backup operations. This method enables block level incremental backups when VMware change block tracking feature is enabled. You can protect and back up virtual machines at the datastore level. With this feature, you can also restore a single virtual machine and virtual disk to its original location or to an alternative location. In addition, you can restore an entire datastore or datastores.
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1 March 2015

Other types of TSM backups which can be used to reduce backup window timings

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File List backup

Use filelist option during backup to control which files are to be backed up. The Tivoli Storage Manager client opens the file you specify with this option and processes the list of files within according to the specific command. You can use the filelist option with the following commands. ---- archive, backup group, delete archive, delete backup, expire, incremental, query archive, query backup, restore, retrieve, selective

For example:

selective -filelist=/home/filelist.txt

How it works
  • An application creates a list of files for backup and passes the list to the client.
  • The client runs a selective backup of the files that are specified in the list.
When to use
  • The scheduled backups are not completing within the allotted time.
  • The list of changed files is known.
Advantages

Selective backup eliminates the query of the server database and the scan of local file system.

Disadvantages
  • You must find a way to create the file list.
  •  You must explicitly specify the files. You cannot use wildcard characters or directory recursion in the file list.

Backup of Virtual Mount Points

Use virtual mount points to back up large, balanced, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris file systems that can be efficiently divided into logical partitions.. You can save processing time when you define a virtual mount point within a file system because it provides a direct path to the files that you want to back up.

If the directory that you want to specify as a virtual mount point is a symbolic link, set the followsymbolic option to Yes. If that option is set to no (the default), you are not permitted to use a symbolic link as a virtual mount point. Also, if you back up a file system, then add a virtual mount point, and then do another incremental on the file system, the files and directories in the virtual mount point directory are expired, because they are logically contained within the virtual mount point directory and not the file system.

When you specify a virtualmountpoint option, the path that it specifies is added to the default backup domain (domain all-local). The virtualmountpoint path is always considered a local "mount point" regardless of the real file system type it points to. 

virtualmountpoint /tmp/userfile/home/username

How it works
  • Instead of backing up an entire file system to a single file space on the server, you can logically partition a large file system into smaller file systems, and then define mount points for backup processing.
  • The file system that are represented by the mount points can be managed as separate file spaces on the server.
Advantages

Backup processing of virtual mount points provides a balanced approach to the backup of large file systems by effectively dividing them into  smaller file systems. It is more efficient than defining the file system with the domain  option, and then specifying the exclude  option to exclude the files you do not want to back up.

Disadvantages
  • This method of backup processing is not appropriate for a single directory that contains a large number of files.
  • Virtual mount points are static and cannot be changed.
  • This method requires monitoring to ensure that new directories are still backed up in one of the virtual mount points, along with other processing that is required to maintain the virtual mount point definitions.
  • Command-line restore operations require the use of braces ( { } ) to delimit the virtual mount point name in the file specification.
  • This method is only available for AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris operating systems.


Snapshot Differential Backup

If you are backing up NetApp filer or vFiler volumes or N-Series file server volumes, you can use a snapshot differential backup to streamline the incremental backup process. Using the snapdiff option with the incremental command streamlines the incremental backup process. The command runs an incremental backup of the files that were reported as changed by NetApp instead of scanning all of the volume for changed files.

incremental -snapdiff -diffsnapshot=latest /data/datafile

How it works
  • The first time that you run an incremental backup with the snapdiff option, a snapshot is created (the base snapshot) and a traditional incremental backup is run by using this snapshot as the source. The name of the snapshot that is created is recorded in the Tivoli Storage Manager database.
  • The second time an incremental backup is run with the snapdiff option, a newer snapshot is either created, or an existing one is used to find the differences between these two snapshots. The second snapshot is called diffsnapshot. The client then incrementally backs up the files that are reported as changed by NetApp to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
When to use
  • Use this method to back up NetApp filer or vFiler volumes or N-Series file server volumes on Windows, AIX 64-bit, and Linux x86/86_64 clients.


Advantages
  • Snapshot differential backup processing can save you time by not having to scan the whole volume for changed files.


Disadvantages

Snapshot differential backup processing has the following limitations:
  • On Windows systems, it does not work for any of the NetApp predefined shares, including C$, because the client cannot determine their mount points programmatically.
  • You must periodically take a new base snapshot with the createnewbase option to back up any files that might have been skipped.
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21 February 2015

Different types of VMWare backups available in TSM for Virtual Environments and their advantages and disadvantages

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You can take different types of virtual machines backups by using TSM BA client and TSM for VE softwares. From BA client command line,  Backup VM command can be used to back up both Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines and VMware virtual machines. One or more virtual machines can be backed-up using the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node. Data mover node is the name given to a configuration where the Backup-Archive Client runs on a vStorage backup server and is configured to protect the virtual machines in a Virtual Center or ESX/ESXi server. You can also use the -vmbackuptype and -mode options to indicate how the backups are to be performed. 

-vmbackuptype

Use the -vmbackuptype option with the backup VM command  to specify the type of virtual machine backup to complete. You can also place this option in the client options file (dsm.opt), or on the command line. Different options available for this parameter are

FIle
Specifies a file-level backup to be performed.

FUllvm
Specifies that a full VM backup to be performed. This is the default backup type.

HYPERVFULL
Required for Hyper-V systems. Specifies a full virtual machine backup of all virtual machines that are defined on the Hyper-V host machine. If the vmbackuptype=hypervfull option is specified, most of the other options associated with backing up files from a vStorage backup server are not allowed, they are ignored.


-mode

Use -mode option with the backup VM command to indicate how the VM backups are to be performed. Different types of parameters available are

Full 
Full mode specifies that you want to perform an image backup of all objects on a VMware virtual machine’s disks. 

Incremental
Incremental mode specifies that you want to create an image backup of only the objects that have changed since the last backup. You must have license to use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments to use this mode.

IFFull 
IFFull stands for incremental forever full VM backup. In this mode, a snapshot of all used blocks on a VMware virtual machine’s disks are backed up to the server. You must have license to use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments to use this mode.

IFIncremental
IFIncremental stands for incremental forever, incremental. In this mode, a snapshot is created of the blocks that have changed since the last backup. You must have license to use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments to use this mode.

Virtual machines full backups

Full virtual machine backup processing backs up a virtual machine from a virtual machine-based host. A full VM backup stores a backup copy of all virtual disk images and configuration information for a virtual machine. Full VM backups enable a complete restore of a virtual machine, but they take more time and more server space than a file-level or incremental backup. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname -vmbackuptype=fullvm -mode=full

How it works ?

Full virtual machine backup processing stores a backup copy of all virtual disk images and configuration information for a virtual machine.

Advantages

With full virtual machine backup processing, you get faster data movement than a file-level backup.

Disadvantages
  • Backups are not granular.
  • Full virtual machine backup operations enable a complete restore of a virtual machine, but they take more time and more server space than a file-level or incremental backup.
  • You can restore individual files from a full virtual machine backup only with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments.
  • This method is only available on Linux and Windows clients.

VMware incremental backup

You can run an incremental backup of a virtual machine from a VMware ESX or ESXi-based host. Incremental backup processing requires a Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments license. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname -vmbackuptype=fullvm -mode=incremental

How it works ?

An incremental backup of a virtual machine backs up all changes that occurred since the previous backup of the virtual machine, whether the backup was a full backup, or another incremental backup.

Advantages

Incremental backup processing backs up changes to virtual machines between full virtual machine backups.

Disadvantages
  • The size of incremental backups can increase if you do not run a full backup regularly.
  • It is inefficient to restore data from incremental backups because the process must automatically complete the following tasks:
                   – Restore the most recent full backup.
                   – Restore each incremental backup up to the specified recovery point.
  • This method is available only on Linux and Windows clients.


Virtual machine incremental-forever-full backup

Incremental-forever-full virtual machine backup processing backs up all the used blocks on a virtual machine's disks. To run this type of backup, the system that hosts the Hyper-V server must run Windows Server 2012 R2 or a newer Windows Server operating system. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname -vmbackuptype=fullvm -mode=IFFull

How it works ?

The following processes occur during incremental-forever-full virtual machine backup processing
  • A full virtual machine backup is required only one time.
  • Data from incremental backups is combined with data from the full backup to create a synthetic full backup image. This type of full backup is called a synthetic backup because it is created from the data that is stored on the server and not from reading the used blocks on the production disks.
  • Each incremental-forever-full virtual machine backup operation reads and copies all of the used blocks, whether the blocks are changed or not since the previous backup.
Advantages
  • Periodic full backups are no longer necessary.
  • During a restore operation, you can specify options for a point in time and date to recover data. The data is restored from the original full backup and all of the changed blocks that are associated with the data.
Disadvantages
  • If one or more of the progressive incremental backups is corrupted on the server, you might not be able to fully recover a virtual machine. To ensure that you can fully recover a virtual machine, periodically run a full virtual machine backup.
  • This method is available only on Linux and Windows clients.

Virtual machine incremental-forever-incremental backup

Incremental-forever-incremental backup processing backs up only the disk blocks that have changed since the last backup. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname -vmbackuptype=fullvm -mode=IFincremental

How it works ?

The following processes occur during incremental-forever-incremental backup processing of a virtual machine
  • A full virtual machine backup is required only one time.
  • A full virtual machine backup operation copies all of the used disk blocks that are owned by a virtual machine to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
  • After the initial full backup, all subsequent backup operations of the virtual machine are incremental-forever-incremental backups.
  • This method copies only the blocks that changed since the previous backup, regardless of the type of the previous backup.
  • The server uses a grouping technology that associates the changed blocks from the most recent backup with data that is already stored on the server from previous backups.
  • A new full backup is then effectively created each time changed blocks are copied to the server by an incremental-forever-incremental backup.
Advantages
  • Periodic full virtual machine backups are no longer necessary.
  • This method reduces the amount of data that goes across the network.
  • This method reduces data growth because all incremental backups contain only the blocks that changed since the previous backup.
  • No comparison with the backup target is required since only changed blocks are identified.
  • Impact to the client system is minimized.
  • The length of the backup window is reduced.
  • Data restore operations are simplified.
  • This method optimizes data restore operations.
Disadvantages
  • If one or more of the progressive incremental backups is corrupted on the server, you might not be able to fully recover a virtual machine. To ensure that you can fully recover a virtual machine, periodically run a full virtual machine backup.
  • It is available only on Linux and Windows clients.

VMware file-level backup on Windows

On Windows systems, you can use the backup-archive client to create file-level backups of VMware virtual machines. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname -vmbackuptype=file

How it works ?

The following processes occur during file-level backup processing of a virtual machine
  • A VMware snapshot is taken of the virtual machine to be backed up.
  • The file systems of the virtual machine are remotely mapped to the vStorage backup server.
  • A file-level progressive incremental backup is run for all of the file systems.
  • The data is stored under the node name that matches the host name of the virtual machine.
  • The data for each virtual machine is stored in the node that is associated with the virtual machine.
  • The file system mappings are removed and the snapshot is removed.
When to use ?

Use file-level virtual machine backup processing if you want to restore individual files from a virtual machine but you do not have a license for Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments.

Advantages
  • You can use include and exclude rules to identify the files to back up.
  • Files are backed up as individual files rather than as an image backup.
Disadvantages
  • File-level restores must be made from a backup-archive client that is installed directly on a virtual machine guest.


Parallel backups of virtual machines

You can improve performance of virtual machine backups by running parallel backups of multiple virtual machines by using a single instance of the backup-archive client. For example

dsmc backup vm vmname1,vmname2 -vmbackuptype=file

How it works ?

The following processes occur during parallel backup processing of virtual machines
  • A single Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node can be used to concurrently back up multiple virtual machines.
  • When the backups are initiated, the client establishes parallel sessions to copy the data to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
Advantages
  • You can optimize the backups so that they do not adversely affect the servers that are hosting the virtual machines.
Disadvantages

You must optimize the parallel backups. The number of virtual machines that you can back up in parallel depends on the following factors
  • The processing power of the server that the Tivoli Storage Manager data mover node runs on.
  • The performance of I/O between the client and the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
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18 February 2015

How to take TSM Database backup when the TSM Server is down

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You can take TSM DB backup by using DB2 commands even after TSM server is down. There are many situations where you need to take TSM DB backup offline to start the TSM server. For example some of the reasons are if
  • You havent took TSM DB backup for while and your TSM server got crashed.
  • Your TSM server got crashed while taking TSM DB backup.
  • If your DB backup command gets hanged you need to manually restart TSM server.

In the above situations if  you try to restart your TSM server with dsmserv command, it does not start and might show you the below error

ANR7801I Subsystem process ID is 4117.
ANR0900I Processing options file /home/tsminst1/dsmserv.opt.
ANR7814I Using instance directory /home/tsminst1.
ANR4726I The ICC support module has been loaded.
ANR0990I Server restart-recovery in progress.
ANR0172I rdbdb.c(2356): Error encountered performing action ActivateDatabase.
ANR0162W Supplemental database diagnostic information:  -1035:SQLSTATE 57019: The statement
was not successful, because of a problem with a resource.
:-1035 (SQL1035N  The database is
currently in use.  SQLSTATE=57019

and in the db2diag.log file, it will show the following error message. The location of the log is /home/tsminst1/sqllib/db2dump directory.

2015-02-17-18.40.11.234235+330 I35531942E481       LEVEL: Event
PID     : 2515                 TID  : 140736896952064PROC : db2sysc 0
INSTANCE: tsminst1             NODE : 000
EDUID   : 1                    EDUNAME: db2sysc 0
FUNCTION: DB2 UDB, base sys utilities, sqeAppServices::ExecuteStopForce, probe:1000
DATA #1 : String, 47 bytes
[Force]->Number of applications to be forced :
DATA #2 : Hexdump, 4 bytes
0x00007FFFDCBEF1D4 : 0200 0000                                  ....
[tsminstn@DCMBACKUP db2dump]$ tail -20 tsminstn.0.nfy
ADM10502W  Health indicator "Database Backup Required" ("db.db_backup_req") is
in state "Manual backup required" on "database" "tsminst1.TSMDB1  ".

2015-02-17-18.00.44.237755   Instance:tsminst1   Node:000
PID:2509(db2star2)   TID:3969238816   Appid:none
base sys utilities  DB2StartMain Probe:911


In the above situation, you cannot restart your TSM server unless you take the DB backup. and we dont have any dsmserv utilities to take the TSM DB backup offline. 

Solution:

Since TSM uses DB2 database, you can take TSM DB backup using DB2 commands offline and then restart your TSM server. Please note that this backup cannot be used for DRM purpose, and you have to take TSM DB backup as soon as the server starts running fine. So here are the simple steps which might help you

1) First connect to DB2 database through command-line, Go to /home/tsminst1/sqllib/db2dump directory and run 

$ db2start
02/17/2015 18:42:59     0   0   SQL1063N  DB2START processing was successful.
SQL1063N  DB2START processing was successful.

2) Now, you have to take the DB backup by using the following command, in the below command tsmdb1 is the DB name and DBBACKUP2/dbb2 is the location where backup will be stored. make sure you have enough place for the backup to be stored in the directory.

$ db2 backup db tsmdb1 to /DBBACKUP2/dbb2

Backup successful. The timestamp for this backup image is : 20150217184833

3) After the backup is successfully completed, you can run the dsmserv command to start the TSM server as usual.

$ su - tsminst1
$ /opt/tivoli/tsm/server/bin/dsmserv

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11 February 2015

Different types of image backups and their advantages and disadvantages

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Different types of Image backup techniques in TSM

If the different variations of progressive incremental backups and file backup operations do not complete successfully or do not reach your SLA requirements, consider running an image backup to reduce the backup window. Just as we have different variations of incremental backups, we also have different types of TSM image backups.

Normal Image Backup

Image backup processing backs up your file system as a single object.

How it works ?

During image backup processing, the client sends a logical block image of a file system to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.

When to use ?
  • When you cannot resolve system memory problems or progressive incremental backup is otherwise unusable.
  • There are too many changes in the file system (greater than 1,000,000 objects) for journal-based backup.
  • Most of the file system contains small files (average size less than 1 MB).
  • You must have a faster recovery time than what can be achieved with file-level restore.
  • For AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris clients:
            - When the file system is at least 60% full.
            - Online (tdp) image backup cannot be taken, and you can unmount the file system.

Advantages
  • Backups are faster.
  • No scan time is required to determine what changed.
  • Overall data movement is faster.
  • Restore times are faster.
Disadvantages
  • You cannot restore individual files directly from the Tivoli Storage Manager server
There are 3 different variations of image backups available in TSM

Offline (static) image backup processing
  • The volumes to be backed up are mounted read-only.
  • This method is available for AIX, HP-UX, Linux x86, Solaris, and Windows operating systems.
  • This method is the most effective backup method for FlashCopy operations.

Online (dynamic) image backup processing
  • The volumes to be backed up remain online.
  • Fuzzy backup processing occurs when the data is changed during the image backup processing.
Online image backup by using snapshots
  • The volumes to be backed up remain online.
  • The image backup is made at a single point in time.
  • It is available only for AIX JFS2, Linux x86, and Windows operating systems

Image plus incremental-by-date image backup

Image backup plus incremental-by-date image backup processing is one of two methods that you can use to run efficient incremental backups of your file system.

How it works ?

The following processes occur during image plus incremental-by-date image backup processing
  • During a full image backup (for example, when you issue the dsmc backup image command), the client sends a logical block image of a file system to the server.
  • Subsequent backups are incremental-by-date image backups (for example, when you issue the dsmc backup image -mode=incremental command), in which the client queries the server for the last backup of the entire file system.
  • The server sends the time stamp of last backup of the entire file system to the client.
  • The client scans and compares the time stamp with the local file system, and backs up the new and changed files.
During an image plus incremental-by-date restore operation, the following processes occur:
  • The client requests an incremental image restore.
  • The server sends the base image to the client.
  • The server returns more files that must be applied to the base image to satisfy the recovery point.
When to use

Run image plus incremental-by-date image backup processing in the following situations
  • You need faster backups.
  • You must be able to restore files to a specific point in time.
Periodically run full image backups to maintain a file system image that is close to what existed at the time of the last incremental-by-date image backup. When you periodically run a full image backup, it can also improve restore time.

Advantages
  • Backups are faster.
  • No scan time is required to determine what changed.
  • Overall data movement is faster.
  • Restore times are faster.
  • Protection of files that changed after the image backup was created.
  • In some cases, recovery time and recovery point objectives are improved.
Disadvantages

Image plus incremental-by-date image backup processing has the following limitations:
  • This method reduces the flexibility of the scope of the backup operation. You must back up the entire file system.
  • The files are not backed up if the changes do not affect the date (for example, attribute, mode, ACL, rename, copy, move, and security changes).
  • The deleted files are not expired on the server.
  • Policy rebinding does not take place.
  • The entire file system must be scanned.
  • This method cannot be used if the client and server clocks are set to different times or are not in the same time zone.
  • Deleted files are not reconciled. Deleted files are not expired on the server. Therefore, when you restore an image with the incremental option, files that were deleted after the original image backup are present after the restore.
  • More storage space is required on the Tivoli Storage Manager server.

Image plus incremental backup

Image backup plus file system incremental backup processing is the second method that you can use to run efficient incremental backups of your file system.

How it works ?

The following processes during image plus incremental backup processing:
  • During a full image backup (for example, when you issue the dsmc backup image command), the client sends a logical block image of a file system to the server.
  • Subsequent backups are progressive incremental backups in which the client queries server for the active backup version metadata.
  • The server returns list of active backup versions for the entire file system.
  • The client scans and compares the list with the local file system.
  • The client backs up the new and changed files.
During an image plus progressive incremental restore operation, the following processes occur:
  • The client requests an incremental image restore.
  • The server returns the base image.
  • The server returns more files that must be applied to the base image to satisfy the recovery point.
  • The server optionally returns the list of files that must be deleted from the base image.
 When to use ?
  • When you need faster backups.
  • When you want to restore files to a specific point in time.
  • When you want to be able to reconcile deleted files.
Run incremental backups of the file system periodically to ensure that the server records additions and deletions accurately. Run an image backup periodically to ensure faster restores.

 Advantages
  • Backups are faster.
  • No scan time is required to determine what changed.
  • Overall data movement is faster.
  • Restore times are faster.
  • Protection of files that changed after the image backup was created.
  • In some cases, recovery time and recovery point objectives are improved.
 Disadvantages
  • More time is required to periodically create image backups.
  • More storage space is required on the Tivoli Storage Manager server.

Snapshot differential backup

If you are backing up NetApp filer or vFiler volumes or N-Series file server volumes, you can use a snapshot differential backup to streamline the incremental backup process.

How it works ?

The following processes occur during snapshot differential backup processing:
  • The first time that you run an incremental backup with the snapdiff option, a snapshot is created (the base snapshot) and a traditional incremental backup is run by using this snapshot as the source. The name of the snapshot that is created is recorded in the Tivoli Storage Manager database.
  • The second time an incremental backup is run with the snapdiff option, a newer snapshot is either created, or an existing one is used to find the differences between these two snapshots. The second snapshot is called diffsnapshot. The client then incrementally backs up the files that are reported as changed by NetApp to the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
When to use ?

Use this method to back up NetApp filer or vFiler volumes or N-Series file server volumes on Windows, AIX 64-bit, and Linux x86/86_64 clients.

Advantages

Snapshot differential backup processing can save you time by not having to scan the whole volume for changed files.

Disadvantages

Snapshot differential backup processing has the following limitations:
  • On Windows systems, it does not work for any of the NetApp predefined shares, including C$, because the client cannot determine their mount points programmatically.
  • You must periodically take a new base snapshot with the createnewbase option to back up any files that might have been skipped
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