Backing and restoring IBM Storage Fusion CRs to alternate cluster

IBM Storage Fusion and IBM Storage Fusion HCI System can backup IBM Storage Fusion and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog on cluster A and restore them to cluster B.

1. Back up IBM Storage Fusion on Cluster A:
   1. Create a backup storage location.
      For the procedure to create backup storage locations, see Adding a location.
      In this example, you create the following two backup storage locations:

      • spp-catalog that is used to backup and restore IBM Storage Fusion.
      • cpd-br to back up and restore other applications on IBM Storage Fusion, such as IBM Cloud Pak for Data.
   2. Create a IBM Storage Fusion backup policy and assign that policy to the IBM Storage Fusion application.
      For the procedure to, add a backup policy, see Adding backup policy. For the procedure to, assign the backup policy to an IBM Storage Fusion application, see Setting up backup policies from Applications list page.
   3. Create and assign IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog policy.
      Create the policy of type Catalog to Object Store and name the policy as catalog-s3. For the complete procedure to create a backup policy from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface, see IBM Spectrum Protect Plus documentation.
   4. Go to Manage Protection > IBM Spectrum Protect Plus > Backup.
   5. Select the policy that you created and click Save.
      The policy gets listed under the SLA Policy Status. If you want to run an on-demand backup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog now, then click Actions > Start.
   6. In the Jobs and Operations page, go to Job History tab.
      You can see two successful backups that are completed, namely IBM Storage Fusion and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog.
2. Restore the IBM Storage Fusion and IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog on Cluster B.
   1. Log in to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface. Create a storage location to access the backup storage location that you used to back up the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog.

      You must use the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus UI and the BSL must not exist with in the IBM Storage Fusion UI. The reason for this is that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus must create annotations and other data in IBM Storage Fusion, and it is not possible if the BSL exists in IBM Storage Fusion.

      A fresh installation of IBM Storage Fusion exists in cluster B.
   2. To restore the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog from the user interface, go to Manage Protection > IBM Spectrum Protect Plus > Restore. Select the last backup of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog and click Restore.
      The following message gets displayed:

      IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog restore has been initiated. Please close this browser window.

      Restore can take more than twenty minutes. You can see the following message in the login page until the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is ready.

      Server is being brought up. Wait…” 

   3. Log in with the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus password of cluster A.
      Note: Use the password of cluster A because the configurations are restored based on the backup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus on cluster A.
   4. Optional: Go to Accounts > Users > isfadmin and change the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus password back to the password of cluster B.
      At this point, cluster A is registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus due to the configuration of the restored cluster A. This registry of cluster A with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus must be removed.
   5. Go to Containers > OpenShift and click Manage Clusters. Delete baas-rest-spp-agent.baas.svc to unregister cluster A.
   6. Register cluster B:
      1. Restart baas-transaction-manager to get the cluster B registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
      2. Log in to OpenShift® user interface and go to Workloads > Pods.
      3. Filter for the Baas namespace and click the ellipsis menu. Select Delete Pod in one of the baas-transaction-manager pods. This triggers the registration of cluster B. Registration of cluster B takes one minute to complete.
   7. After the registration completes, check whether you can see cluster B in the OpenShift Backup of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface.
   8. To restore the IBM Storage Fusion applications using IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, go to the Actions menu and click Test and Inventory options to refresh the connection and inventory data.
      Inventory refresh shows up as a job. It takes two minutes to complete.
   9. Click Create job and go to Restore > Container > OpenShift.
      A job to restore the IBM Storage Fusion application.
   10. In the Source snapshot page, select From Copy and select on-demand from the list.
       A list of backups shows up.
   11. Select the last backup from the list and click Next.
   12. Select the Restore to original cluster option if you want to restore it to the same cluster as a backup. Otherwise, select Restore to alternate cluster option and click Next.
   13. In the Jobs and Operations page, go to Running Jobs tab to check the status of the restore job.
       The restore job takes about five minutes to complete.
   14. After it completes, open IBM Storage Fusion user interface and check whether you can see the backup storage locations and policies.
       Note: Ensure that policies are not assigned to the applications.
   15. In the Jobs and Operations page of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface, go to Schedule and click Release all schedules.
   16. Ensure that the schedule status is Idle and not Held.
   17. Assign policies to the applications at this time in the IBM Storage Fusion user interface. The target or alternate cluster is now ready, and it provides the same data protection as the source or cluster A.
       Note: This policy assignment is required because the binding does not get restored.