Re: Backup Encryption on the i platform

[John Jones <chianime@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jack - I looked in to this a few months ago.  The key manager app is
Java-based and is multi-platform.  There's an older free version for
non-Windows and a pay version for Windows.  It's apparently small and
self-contained so you can simply run it within one directory tree, save it
up, restore it to another machine, and run it from there.  I haven't done
that (we don't use it) but in theory It's Just That Easy (cue infomercial
speak).

So yes, from an application standpoint you can run it on the i.

But you can't run it on the i you might want to run it on for a very
important different reason.  And that reason is that you can't run the
encryption key manager from a system that you're doing encrypted backs for.
After all, how would you recover?  You'd have to restore the system to start
the key manager to read the keys you need to restore the system.  Oops.

The way to avoid the encryption equivalent of a grandfather paradox is to
run it in on a separate (non-hosted) LPAR or separate system.  Maybe run it
on your dedicated HA/BCDR system if you have one.  Failing that, put it on
another OS/platform.  If another platform, make sure said platform doesn't
use any i resources.

BTW IBM recommends more than one instance of the key manager server.  I
agree with this and would have an instance running locally and one running
at the BCDR site.  If you don't have a BCDR site, use any off-site location
that - according to your data center BCDR plan - you can access after the
main data center has burned down.  (If you don't have a BCDR plan, do that
before you worry about encryption.)

After all, if you lose the (encryption) keys, no one, not even IBM, can help
you get your data back.

On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 9:24 AM, Jack Kingsley <iseriesflorida@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> Pete, on the key management software side of it, who would own it, I5 or
> some other back end server.
>
> On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 4:48 PM, Pete Massiello
> <pmassiello-ml@xxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>
> > Software, if you have BRMS it is easy to do, but expect your backup to
> take
> > probably twice as long and it will bury a small CPU.  Also with any
> > encryption twice the amount of tapes that you are using now (Can't
> compress
> > the encrypted data like you would get from unencrypted data).
> >
> > Hardware, is setup once and it's done. No slowdown in speed.  Doesn't
> > require BRMS if you don't have it.  Need Tivoli Life Cycle Key Manager to
> > setup.  Can't do it on internal tapes, only external library attached SAS
> > (Power 6 & 7), or Fibre (Power 5, 6, and 7).
> >
> > Let also not forget Key Management, and going to your Recovery site.
> >
> >        Pete
> >
> > Pete Massiello
> > iTech Solutions
> > http://www.itechsol.com
> >
> > Add iTech Solutions on Facebook:
> > http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126431824120
> > Add iTech Solutions on LinkedIn:
> > http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2206093
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ketzes, Larry
> > Sent: Friday, August 06, 2010 1:56 PM
> > To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> > Subject: Backup Encryption on the i platform
> >
> >
> >
> >  I would like to solicit opinions on various methods of encrypting entire
> > backups on the I platform.  The options I see are:
> >
> >        1) Hardware encryption
> >        2) Software encryption
> >
> > I am assuming that hardware would be easier to implement, but might be
> more
> > expensive, while software would be a little harder to implement, but
> might
> > be a little more lighter on the wallet.
> >
> > Thoughts?
> >
> > Thanks, Larry
> >
> >
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