Re: BRMS 'moves'

Marc Rauzier wrote:

Le mer. 12 janv. 2005 15:36:49, Jeff Crosby écrivait:

Now that I have been using BRMS a week or so, I really like it.

I have allways thought that it is a great product. You will appreciate it again and again if you test a disaster recovery or implement advanced function like archiving, using network, or using incremental backup and so on.

And I discovered yesterday that I now know enough to be dangerous.

But it needs to be implemented carefully and with method and rigour.

All the tapes showed a location of *HOME. I didn't like that
(being anal-retentive and all). Two of the tapes are stored at 2
different offsite locations and the rest are stored in a data safe
in the computer room. So I decided to set up some locations and
move policies. The result was the control group CHANGES wouldn't
run yesterday afternoon, even though it's been running for a week.
It said the tape volume TUE001 that was in the drive could not be
used. I had to open a supportline call and while waiting, figured
it had to be the move policies I had put in. I removed those and
by the time the guy came on the line I had the control group running. Supportline said yes it was the move policies. The fact
the tape was physically in the drive was immaterial, it had to
"logically" be in the drive (ie, BRMS had to "think" it was
there). The end of the move policy had to put the tape back into
the drive. The redbook examples were not very detailed nor
extensive nor explained well.

In fact, BRMS wants to use expired tapes located in the same location of the tape.

What I want to happen with the onsite tapes is 1) They get used
for backup, 2) then go in the data safe for a week, and 3) then
get used for backup again. I set up a move policy NORMAL for this
that look like this:

Move policy  . . . . . . . . . :  NORMAL

Home location . . . . . . . . . *ORIGIN
Use container . . . . . . . . . *NO
Verify moves . . . . . . . . . . *NO
Calendar for working days . . . *ALLDAYS
Calendar for move days . . . . . *ALLDAYS
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Normal computer room storage
Type choices, press Enter.
Seq Location Duration

10 DATASAFE 6
20 *HOME *EXP

I would think that the 20 sequence is not necessary. The move policy should keep the tapes at the DATASAFE location during 6 days then, bring them back in the *ORIGIN location the 7th day.

And I set up one for the tape stored at my house like this:

Move policy . . . . . . . . . : JEFF Home location . . . . . . . . . *ORIGIN
Use container . . . . . . . . . *NO *YES, *NO
Verify moves . . . . . . . . . . *NO *YES, *NO
Calendar for working days . . . *ALLDAYS Name, *ALL
Calendar for move days . . . . . *ALLDAYS Name, *ALL
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Offsite at Jeff's house

Type choices, press Enter.

Seq Location Duration
10 JLCHOUSE 6
20 *HOME *EXP

Same comment that for the NORMAL move policy.

Am I on the right track? Location *HOME shows both TAP01 and
TAP02. And by doing move policies, am I opening up other issues
like I need to run some kind of move report every day? What are
best practices? Move manually or have the system do it somehow? I basically want it hands off, but the operator should know what
tape to load what day.

It is important to un a BRMS maintenance every day after the backup (STRMNTBRM EXPMED(*YES) MOVMED(*YES)). This command expires the media and performs the logical moves for BRMS. It prints the move media reports for your operators.

(Oh, and the other issue is I want to change from using the tape
devices TAP01 and TAP02 to using the tape libraries TAPMLB01 and
TAPMLB02.  I thought the move policies would be an easier thing to
tackle, but should I do the MLB switcheroo first?)

In this case, you will have (or maybe you already have these) to create storage locations TAPMLB0x for the MLB, and of course fill these locations with medias (both physically and logically for BRMS, you can use the WRKMLMBRM command for that). If you don't have the 20 sequence in your move policies, they can apply to these locations.