We use Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, there are a several more vendors that offer the same functionality (Acronis, Commvault).
We have a mix of both virtual and physical servers, all backed up using the same software, all can be restored from the same management console.
It was extremely cheap compared to the hardware solutions we have at our disposal on the IBM i. Everyone wants to sell you a SAN !
-----Original Message-----
From: rob@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:59 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
How are you backing these up? With some solution like Carbonite, Tivoli Storage Manager, etc? Or are these servers served by vmware or something of that genre and backed up from that?
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Matt Olson <Matt.Olson@xxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 01/22/2013 02:34 PM
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Our bare metal backups on our non-IBM i servers allow you to do both. File
level restores (drag and drop even), or it can be used to restore on a
completely brand new box (even with dissimilar hardware).
-----Original Message-----
From: rob@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:24 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
What's your idea of a bare metal save? One that can restore individual
files or one that is limited to restoring the server as a whole?
A SAN wasn't the only option I presented.
BTW, I remember the term now that I was looking for in SANs: FlashCopy.
Not that you're interested in this but some links:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rzaue/rzaueflashcopy.htm
BRMS flashcopy support
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/brms/flashcpy.htm
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail
to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Matt Olson <Matt.Olson@xxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 01/22/2013 02:18 PM
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
We don't have a SAN on any of our systems. We aren't about to spend
massive quantities of cash on two geo-located SAN's just to fix an issue
that shouldn't need to be fixed, it should be part of the base OS like it
is on other platforms.
This is a perfect design change request / enhancement request if I have
ever heard of one for the IBM i. One that a lot of shops could benefit
from I'm sure.
-----Original Message-----
From: rob@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:rob@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:01 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
Are you comfortable enough with this?
Using save-while-active with network server storage spaces
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rzaiu/rzaiusavewhileactivestoragespace.htm?resultof=%22%71%66%70%6e%77%73%73%74%67%22%20
With that in mind you should be able to do a save while active of a
guested lpar.
I'm no SAN guru on doing back up's that way (if possible).
Isn't there some newer BRMS feature to work with a snapshot of the system?
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail
to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Matt Olson <Matt.Olson@xxxxxxxx>
To: "'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'"
<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 01/22/2013 01:46 PM
Subject: RE: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
I'm still amazed we can't do "bare metal" backups without bringing the
system into restricted state. Our windows servers have been doing that
for close to a decade. This is the only reason why the uptime on our IBM
i server can't be on par with our Windows boxes!
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Oberholtzer [mailto:midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 12:01 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted time
The graphical and character based BRMS interfaces being different is one
of my largest issues with BRMS, albeit a small one in comparison to the
positives BRMS brings to the table. The good news is the graphical
interface at V7 is very good when compared to prior versions, and it's
much faster with the new improvements included with Navigator for IBM i.
(HTTP group 16+) Why the character based interface is not compatible
with the updated data structures etc, the graphical interface uses is
beyond my ability to understand, but it's been that way for some time.
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects
On 1/22/2013 9:35 AM, Jeff Crosby wrote:
So noted. When I look at TESTIFS control group via green screen, it
no longer says *BKUPCY all over the place. All the *BKUPCY have been
replaced by whatever the *BKUPCY policy value was at the time I saved
it in iNav.
Odd, but I think I can live with it.
On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 9:58 AM,<rob@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
<snip>
When I went to change it in iNav I got this big warning that the
control group was not properly formatted for the graphical
interface and to click OK if I wanted it to be formatted
properly.
</snip>
This was a concern of mine earlier. Just searched again for
documentation...
BRMS interface differences
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v7r1m0/topic/rzai8
/rzai8compat.htm
However, changing control groups created on the character-based
interface using the BRMS graphical interface is not recommended
unless you understand the following:
The BRMS graphical interface backup and archive control
groups are designed to be independent of each other. Thus, if you
make changes to one control group, it does not affect the others.
To ensure this independence, control groups that are updated with
the BRMS graphical interface will have all references to the
character-based interface system policy (*SYSPCY), archive policy
(*ARCPCY), and backup policy (*BKUPCY) removed.
These references are resolved and replaced with the actual values
when the backup control group is saved by the BRMS graphical
interface. Changes to the archive policy, backup policy, or system
policy in the character-based interface do not affect backup or
archive control groups that are created or edited by the BRMS
graphical interface. The exceptions to this are the network
function, sign-off exceptions, and the subsystem to check controls in
the system policy, which are used by the BRMS graphical interface.
There is nothing specified on this at the FAQ page at
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/wikis/home?lang
=en#/wiki/IBM%20Backup%2C%20Recovery%20and%20Media%20Services%20%28
BRMS%29%20for%20i/page/FAQ%20%26%20Data%20areas
Maybe they figure they've said it once.
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept
1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Jeff Crosby<jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Midrange Systems Technical
Discussion<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 01/22/2013 09:26 AM
Subject: Re: BRMS - full save with least amount of restricted
time
Sent by:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
On Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 2:20 PM, Jeff Crosby
<jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> I looked at several of the files in /QIBM/UserData/OS/OSGi.
They all > seem related to Eclipse. And I did have it open on
my PC. Wonder what > would happen if I tried a *LINK SWA backup
when not in RDP? I will try > that tomorrow. That's 40 of the 49
missed objects right there.
>
Tomorrow is now today and I tried it. STRBKUBRM CTLGRP(TESTIFS)
SBMJOB(*YES) so it would go to batch. Then looked at QSYSOPR to
see what was happening and saw this: Job 841991/QTCP/QTFTP00117
was ended by user JEFF. Uh oh. That's not good. Sure enough,
TCP/IP ended. Thankfully this was at 7:15am and I was the only
office employee here at the time.
OK, what did I miss? No subsystems were to be ended and
interactive users were allowed to stay on. When it finished 20
minutes or so later, I looked at the control group and paged all
the way down to the last page and there it was. End TCP/IP *YES
(among others). But I couldn't change it. I have another
control group where End TCP/IP is *NO, so there's got to be a way
(or else it's inherited from some policy somewhere).
I finally read that you can only change the items on this last
screen via the graphical interface. That info was in the extended
help as I couldn't seem to find it in the manual. When I went to
change it in iNav I got this big warning that the control group
was not properly formatted for the graphical interface and to
click OK if I wanted it to be formatted properly. I said OK, made
the changes, and saved it. I wondered if I would still be able to
update it on green screen and I can. (An aside question to IBM:
if you can display these options on the green screen, why can't
you change it? Obviously the green screen has access to the
setting and can interpret it properly.)
Anyway, only 2 items couldn't be saved. The Standguard AV log and
fax file that didn't work Saturday. Everything else saved, but
since TCP/IP was down, it wasn't a good test. So I will try again
on Thursday morning, since I have been summoned for jury duty
tomorrow.:)
--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com
--
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