IBM Db2 database backup and restore requirements: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.8

Preventive Service Planning

Abstract

This document details the IBM Db2 database backup and restore requirements for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Version 10.1.8.

Content

This document is divided into linked sections for ease of navigation. Use the following links to navigate to the section of the document that you require:

General
Configuration
Software
Connectivity
Authentication and privileges
- Authentication
- Privileges
Prerequisites and operations
- Prerequisites
- Operations
Ports
Hardware

General

Beginning with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.2, support was added for backing up and restoring Db2 database data.

Before you register a Db2 database with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, ensure that the system environment meets the following requirements.

Configuration

Application versions

**Table 1.** Coverage matrix for application levels supported by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	Db2 V10.5* Enterprise Edition	Db2 V11.1* Enterprise Edition	Db2 V11.5* Enterprise Edition
V10.1.2			--
V10.1.3			--
V10.1.4			--
V10.1.5
V10.1.6
V10.1.7
V10.1.8

* The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

Operating systems

**Table 2.** Coverage matrix for supported operating systems on IBM PowerPC
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	IBM AIX 7.1*	IBM AIX 7.2*
V10.1.2
V10.1.3
V10.1.4
V10.1.5
V10.1.6
V10.1.7
V10.1.8

* The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

**Table 3.** Coverage matrix for supported Linux® x86_64 operating systems
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	RHEL 6.8*	RHEL 7.0*	RHEL 8.0*	SLES 11.0 SP4*	SLES 12.0 SP1*	SLES 15.0*
V10.1.2			--			--
V10.1.3			--			--
V10.1.4			--			--
V10.1.5			--			--
V10.1.6			--			--
V10.1.7			--
V10.1.8

*The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

**Table 4.** Coverage matrix for supported operating systems on Linux on Power Systems (little endian)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus	RHEL 7.1*	RHEL 8.0*	SLES 12.0 SP1*	SLES 15*
V10.1.4		--		--
V10.1.5		--		--
V10.1.6		--		--
V10.1.7		--		--
V10.1.8

*The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

Restrictions

The Db2 pureScale feature is not supported.
Ensure that your Db2 logical volume setup does not include nested mount points.
Ensure that the protected Db2 database does not share the same local database directory with other Db2 databases.
Note: The snapshot backup will fail if an Db2 database is not unique within within its volume directory, this an DB2 restriction.
If you plan to protect multiple partitions, Db2 must be in parallel backup mode. Parallel backup mode can be enabled by editing Db2 registry variables. For more information, see Prerequisites for Db2
The DB2_PARALLEL_ACS registry variable is available only in certain fix pack levels of Db2. If the DB2_PARALLEL_ACS variable is not available in your version, you can meet the requirement by specifying DB2_WORKLOAD = SAP.

Software

The bash and sudo packages must be installed. Sudo must be version 1.7.6p2 or later. Run sudo -V to check the version.
Tip: The required bash and sudo packages are included in the supported Linux x86_64 and Linux on Power Systems (little endian) operating system installation packages.
Install the most recent Db2 patches and updates in your environment.
Ensure that the supported version of Linux x86_64, Linux on Power Systems (little endian), or AIX is installed with the most recent patches and updates.
The International Components for Unicode (libicu) RPM package corresponding to the operating system must be installed.
Ensure that the user limit value ulimit -f is set to unlimited, for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user and the Db2 instance user. Alternatively, set the value sufficiently high to allow copying of the largest database files in your backup and restore jobs. If you change the ulimit setting, restart the Db2 instance to finalize the configuration.
In a Linux environment, depending on your version or distribution, ensure that the Linux utility package util-linux-ng or util-linux is current.
RHEL users: To ensure that the util-linux-ng or util-linux package is current, run the following command:
```
    yum update package_name
```
where package_name is the name of the Linux utility package.

Connectivity

Ensure that your system environment meets the following connectivity requirements:

The secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) subsystem for Secure Shell (SSH) is enabled.
The SSH service is running on port 22 on the proxy host server.
Firewalls are configured to allow IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to connect to the Db2 server by using SSH.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol to mount storage volumes for backup and restore operations:
- On Linux, ensure that the native Linux NFS client is installed on the Db2 server.
- On AIX, ensure that NFS communication is configured with reserved ports by using the following command:
```
    nfso -p -o nfs_use_reserved_port=1
```
All servers, proxies, applications, and hypervisors that are added to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus environment must be registered by using a Domain Name System (DNS) name or Internet Protocol (IP) address.
If DNS names are used, they must be resolvable over the network by the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server and the vSnap server. All IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components must also be resolvable by their DNS names.
If DNS is not available, you must add the server to the /etc/hosts file on the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus by using the command line.

Authentication and privileges

Authentication

The Db2 server must be registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus by using an operating system user who exists on the Db2 server. The user is then referred to as the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user.
Ensure that the root user password is correctly configured and that the user can log in without other prompts, such as prompts to reset the password.

Privileges

To use a Db2 database, an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user must have the following permissions:

Privileges to run commands as the root user and as a Db2 software owner user by using sudo. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires these privileges for various tasks such as discovering storage layouts, mounting and unmounting disks, and managing databases.
- The sudoers configuration must allow the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user to run commands without a password.
- The !requiretty setting must be specified, as described in Setting sudo privileges for Db2
Privileges to read the Db2 inventory by using the db2ls command in the /usr/local/bin directory. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires these privileges to discover and collect information about Db2 instances and databases.

Prerequisites and operations

Prerequisites

Ensure that the Software, Connectivity, and Authentication and privileges requirements are met.

The following prerequisites must be met before you start protecting your resources:

Db2 archive logging is activated and Db2 is in recoverable mode.
Sufficient space is available in the Db2 database management system, in the volume groups for the backup operation, and on the target volumes for copying files during the restore operation. For more information about space requirements, see Space requirements for Db2 protection
- Before you back up Db2 databases, ensure you have enough free disk space on the target and source hosts, and in the vSnap repository. Extra free disk space is required in the volume groups on the source host for creating temporary Logical Volume Manager (LVM) snapshots of the logical volumes that the Db2 database and log files are stored on. To create LVM snapshots of a protected Db2 database, ensure that the volume groups with Db2 data have sufficient free space.
  - For AIX®, no more than 15 snapshots can exist for each Enhanced Journaled File System (JFS2). Internal and external JFS2 snapshots cannot exist at the same time for the same file system. Ensure that no internal snapshots exist on the JFS2 volumes, as these snapshots can cause issues when the Db2 agent is creating external snapshots.
  - For every LVM or JFS2 snapshot logical volume that contains data, allow at least 10% of its size as free disk space in the volume group. If the volume group has enough free disk space, the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Db2 agent reserves up to 25% of the source logical volume size for the snapshot logical volume.
- When you are restoring data to an alternative location, allocate extra dedicated volumes for copy and restore processes. The data paths for table spaces and logs on the target host are the same as the paths on the original host. This setup supports the copying of data from the mounted vSnap server to the target host. Ensure that the protected Db2 database does not share the same local database directory with other Db2 databases.
Logical volumes holding Db2 table spaces (data and temporary table spaces), the local database directory, and Db2 log files are managed by the Logical Volume Management system (LVM2) on Linux or by JFS2 on AIX. LVM2 on Linux and JFS2 on AIX are used for creating temporary volume snapshots. As long as the snapshot exists, the logical volume grows in size as the data changes on the source volume. For more information, see LVM2 and JFS2

Operations

Before you start a backup or restore operation, take the following actions:

Ensure that the application servers that host the Db2 databases that you want to back up are registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
A service level agreement (SLA) policy is configured.
Assign appropriate roles and resource groups to users who will be running backup and restore operations. Grant users access to resources and roles by using the Accounts pane.

Review the following information about creating backup and restore jobs:

Define regularly scheduled Db2 backup jobs to protect your data. You can also enable continuous backup operations for archive logs so that you can restore a point-in-time copy with rollforward options if required. For instructions, see Backing up Db2 data
To restore Db2 data from the vSnap repository, define a job that restores data from either the newest backup or an earlier backup copy. You can restore data to the original instance or to an alternative instance on a different client host. For instructions, see Restoring Db2 data

For an overview about protecting Db2 databases with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, see Protecting Db2

Ports

The following ports are used by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent users.

**Table 5.** Communication ports when the target is an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent
Port	Protocol	Initiator	Target	Description
22	Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)	IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server	Db2	Provides access to troubleshoot and maintain remote proxy host servers running guest application components by using the SSH protocol

**Table 6.** Communication ports when the initiator is the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent
Port	Protocol	Initiator	Target	Description
111	TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP)	Db2	vSnap server	Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations
2049	TCP and UDP	Db2	vSnap server	Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations
20048	TCP and UDP	Db2	vSnap server	Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations

Hardware

**Table 7.** Minimum hardware requirements
System	Disk space
Compatible hardware that is supported by the operating system and Db2 database server	A minimum of 500 MB under /tmp and 800 MB under /opt is required for product installation.

Related Information

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus - All Requirements Doc

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