Tivoli® Storage
Manager FastBack provides
several functions for backing up and restoring data with snapshots.
All data is backed up at the disk block level in full
and incremental snapshots. After data is backed up, data can be restored
back to a disk, or mounted as a virtual volume for an individual file
restore.
Tivoli Storage
Manager FastBack provides
these services with three primary services: FastBack Client, FastBack Server,
and FastBack Mount. FastBack Manager is the graphical
user interface that you can use from a supported Windows or Linux operating
system to manage the FastBack Server.
FastBack Client is
a service that runs on client systems (production servers) and backs
up used or changed disk blocks. FastBack Client is
not an application in the sense of having a GUI or actions that you
can initiate. Most activity is controlled by FastBack Server.
The server hosts a repository that stores all backed up data that
is received from the client systems. The server also initiates snapshot
backups, scheduled backups, and defines all options for the backup
process. You can also restore data from the server. Access to the FastBack Server is
to be restricted to IT personnel.
Tivoli Storage
Manager FastBack provides
the following functionality:
- Full snapshots of entire disks, and incremental snapshots of entire
disks. A defined set of disks to be backed up concurrently is called
a client group. A client group can contain multiple disks from multiple
clients.
- (Windows only) Incremental Forever backup functionality
allows for incremental snapshots even after a graceful operating
system restart.
- Advanced scheduling features of backup. Schedules
are combined with client groups to create policies. A policy can contain
several client groups but you can assign only one job scheduler to
the policy. Client group, schedule, and policy creation are all controlled
by using FastBack Server.
- All snapshots use Copy-On-Write. Copy-On-Write ensures snapshot
integrity and accuracy while a snapshot is being taken by copying
blocks from a disk just before they are to be overwritten by an application.
- (Windows only)
Schedules can optionally provide Continuous Data Protection (CDP).
CDP can run a point-in-time restore by backing up changed blocks in
real time, between snapshots. CDP is configured per schedule.
- Data can be restored in the following ways:
- File-level recovery.
- Volume restore, initiated by the FastBack Server.
A volume restore restores an entire volume from a specific snapshot.
- Instant restore. An Instant Restore is part
of FastBack Mount. Like
volume restore, entire volumes are restored to existing volumes. In
addition, data can be accessed near-instantaneously while an Instant Restore is in progress.
- Mount a snapshot to a virtual volume through FastBack Mount. This virtual
volume can be its own disk, with its own drive letter, or it can be
a directory within an existing real volume. File systems on virtual
volumes can be accessed and traversed as if the volume was a local
disk. In this way, files can be restored individually to a separate
real volume.