Customer environment
IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot (hereafter named SPS) version 8.1.4 is configured for an application (DB2, Oracle or SAP on Oracle) that is running on a host or a host cluster using a supported operating system. A typical environment where IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R HyperSwap (herafter named HS) is used would be two IBM Power Systems servers running AIX in a PowerHA cluster.
IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot is configured with two DEVICE_CLASS sections in the SPS profile. Each of the two DEVICE_CLASS sections is configured for one of the two IBM FlashSystem A9000 and A9000R.
Such SPS profiles are very similar to a AIX configuration with AIX LVM mirroring in place instead of HyperSwap.
Setup:
2x A9000 running software version 12.1 or 12.2
- one A9000 is the HS primary storage
- the other one is the HS secondary storage
NOTE: Primary and secondary can be exchanged with the 'HyperSwap - Switch Roles' command on the IBM Hyper-Scale Manager GUI.
The volumes on the primary A9000 are mapped to the host or host cluster.
The corresponding (HS-relation) volumes on the secondary are also mapped to the host or host cluster.
A HS-relation exists and is active for each of the volumes, that belong to the protected application, on primary and secondary A9000.
Create a SPS snapshot backup on the primary or secondary A9000
With the above setup and SPS configuration SPS can create independent snapshot backups on both A9000. A typical scenario would be to alternately create snapshot backups on one or the other A9000 on a daily basis. In case of a disaster with having a storage outage of one A9000 the snapshot backups taken on the other A9000 are still available if a restore would be required.
To start SPS snapshot backups on a dedicated A9000 the DEVICE_CLASS name representing this A9000 must be specified when executing the SPS backup command.
Use the SPS command '-f backup -s <device_class_name_of_primary>
Use the SPS command '-f backup -s <device_class_name_of_secondary>
The actual SPS command differs for the different applications:
- For Oracle in an SAP environments use the -S <device class> option in the util_options parameter in SAP BR*Tools configuration profile (.sap).
- For DB2 environments use the DB2 backup command line option OPTIONS DEVICE_CLASS=<device class>
- For Oracle environments use the command line option -s <device class> on the acsora -f backup command.
- For Custom Application environments use the command line option -s <device class> on the fcmcli -f backup command.
NOTE:
- The SPS backup using the DEVICE_CLASS of the secondary A9000 requires an active HS relation (created and activated).
- In case of a HS fail-over from primary to secondary A9000, SPS backups can afterwards no longer be performed on the former A9000 primary but only on the new A9000 primary after fail-over until the reason for the fail-over is fixed and the HS relation is re-established and re-activated.
- During a SPS backup operation snapshots of the source volumes are created in the A9000 which is selected by the DEVICE_CLASS. The A9000 snapshots are not mirrored or replicated to the other A9000.
Restore a snapshot on the primary or secondary A9000
NOTE: A SPS snapshot restore can only be executed for a backup that was done on the A9000 system which is the current HyperSwap primary.
Before starting the SPS restore, determine if the backup to be restored is located on the HyperSwap primary or secondary. Use the SPS 'inquire_details' command to display all available snapshots. The DEVICE_CLASS name shown for each backup in the inquire_details output should help to identify the A9000 storage system. Additionally check with the Hyper-Scale Manager GUI in which role the selected A9000 is currently running.
If the identified A9000 is the HyperSwap secondary then a role switch needs to be executed first before a SPS restore can be started for the selected backup.
On Hyper-Scale Manager GUI: HyperSwap -> Switch Roles for all volumes that were included in the snapshot backup.
Afterwards the roles of both A9000 are exchanged and the SPS restore can be executed on the HyperSwap primary.
NOTE: A SPS restore does NOT work if a HS-relation exists for the volumes to be restored. The HS-relation has to be deleted prior to the restore.
To be able to delete a HS relation first all volumes on the secondary A9000 must be unmapped from all hosts or host clusters with the Hyper-Scale Manager GUI or with xcli command unmap_vol using either cluster or host keyword depending on your host or cluster mapping:
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <ip_of_secondary> -x unmap_vol vol=<name_of_volume> cluster=<name_of_host_cluster>
or
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <ip_of_secondary> -x unmap_vol vol=<name_of_volume> host=<name_of_host>
Afterwards all HS relations for all volumes must be deactivated and deleted:
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <ip_of_primary> -x ha_deactivate vol=<name_of_volume> -y
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <ip_of_primary> -x ha_delete vol=<name_of_volume> target=<name_of_secondary> -y
Now the normal SPS 'restore' command can be used to restore the snapshot backup.
The actual SPS command can vary depending on the protected application. For SAP Oracle the brrestore or brrecover command needs to be used.
Once the restore is finished the HS relation for all volumes can be re-established:
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <ip_of_primary> -x ha_create vol=<name_of_volume> create_slave=no init_type=offline remote_pool=<pool_name> target=<name_of_secondary>
(the parameters 'create_slave=no init_type=offline' allow the reuse of the previously
existing HS relation secondary volumes without the need to format the HS secondary volume.)
./xcli -u <userid> -p <password> -m <name_of_primary> -x ha_activate vol=<name _of_volume>
Finally all volumes on the secondary A9000 can be mapped to all hosts or host clusters using Hyper-Scale Manager GUI or xcli command map_vol.
Switch the roles in the A9000 (secondary becomes primary and vice versa) if needed.
The original configuration is re-established (as described in 'Setup') and normal SPS backup processing can continue on both A9000.
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