IBM Storage Protect scheduler overview
The IBM® Storage Protect central scheduler allows client operations to occur automatically at specified times.
To understand scheduling with IBM Storage Protect, several terms need to be defined:
- schedule definition
- A schedule definition on the IBM Storage Protect server specifies critical properties of an automated activity, including the type of action, the time the action should take place, and how frequently the action takes place. Numerous other properties can be set for a schedule. For information about the DEFINE SCHEDULE, see the IBM Storage Protect server documentation.
- schedule association
- A schedule association is an assignment to a specific schedule definition for a client node. Multiple schedule associations allow single schedule definitions to be used by many client nodes. Because schedule definitions are included with specific policy domains, it is only possible for nodes that are defined to a certain policy domain to be associated with schedules defined in that domain.
- scheduled event
- A scheduled event is a specific occurrence of when a schedule is run for a node. The following
conditions must be met before automatic scheduled events take place for a client:
- A schedule definition must exist for a specific policy domain.
- A schedule association must exist for the required node, which belongs to that policy domain.
- The client scheduler process must be running on the client system.
When creating a schedule definition on the IBM Storage Protect server, schedule actions that you can take
include incremental, selective, archive, restore, retrieve, image backup (does not apply to Mac OS
X), image restore (does not apply to Mac OS X), command, and macro. The scheduled action that is
most frequently used is incremental with the objects parameter left undefined.
With this setting, the backup-archive client performs a domain incremental backup of all file
systems defined by the client domain option. A schedule definition using the
command action allows an operating system command or shell script to be
executed. When automating tasks for IBM Storage Protect
for Data Protection clients, you must use command action schedule definitions,
which invoke the command-line utilities for those applications.
When creating a schedule definition on the IBM Storage Protect server, schedule actions that you can take
include incremental, selective, archive, restore, retrieve, imagebackup, imagerestore, command, and
macro. The scheduled action that is most frequently used is incremental with the
objects parameter left undefined. With this setting, the IBM Storage Protect client performs a domain incremental backup of
all drives defined by the client domain option. A schedule definition using the
command action allows an operating system command or shell script to be
executed. When automating tasks for IBM Storage Protect
for Data Protection clients, you must use command action schedule definitions,
which invoke the command-line utilities for those applications.
define schedule standard test1 action=incremental starttime=12:00:00 period=1
perunits=hour dur=30 duru=minutes
Event | Window start | Window end | Actual start (just an example, times vary) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 12:00:00 | 12:30:00 | 12:05:33 |
2 | 13:00:00 | 13:30:00 | 13:15:02 |
3 | 14:00:00 | 14:30:00 | 14:02:00 |
and so on |
The variation in actual start times is a result of the randomization feature provided by the IBM Storage Protect central scheduler which helps to balance the load of scheduled sessions on the IBM Storage Protect server.