Re: Best Practice Question

Flashcopy is SAN based.
Regarding pure direct attached storage, as far as I've understood, the "migrate while the system runs" thing (TM), to copy an onprem system to cloud, should work also with only *SYSBAS , and I have heard that this tech is being extended also for the reverse thing or in any case agnostic, I don't know if someone have some insights.
With PowerHA is indeed possible to mirror an internal storage without-SAN, but to my best knowledge it should be an *I*ASP (switchable ASP).

On Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 03:34:09 PM GMT+2, Jim Oberholtzer <midrangel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The answer to your last question is yes, there will be objects not in tape that were on the partition during the save. 

That said, IBM marks objects to not back up it knows the system can recreate. 

A better way to look at it is an object can be built be the OS and used by the OS is an IBM object, I refer to them as “IBM objects”.  Any object that might contain “user data” meaning not created and maintained by the OS is a “User Object” (meaning not IBMs) something that needs to be saved.  This holds true regardless of its storage location and it it is structured or unstructured data. 

IBM does create objects that get user data in them (ie: http configuration files) and those are “user data” objects. 


Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects

On Aug 21, 2025, at 8:12 AM, Patrik Schindler <poc@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hello Rob,

Am 21.08.2025 um 13:23 schrieb Rob Berendt <robertowenberendt@xxxxxxxxx>:

If you want everything on DASD at a point in time you could try FlashCopy. On three of our more critical LPARs we do a flashcopy 12 hours after the saves.  We also do one each quarter after we bring the system into restricted state but before applying PTF's, etc.
We started this to have copies in case of malware attacks. Look up Safeguarded Copy Tool Kit from IBM.  I think it's now part of the bundles.  We got it from IBM Lab Services.  It's kind of a special offering.  One of these years it should be certified for IBM i 7.6. It takes mere seconds to create a copy.

Thanks. I'll have a look. Meanwhile: Isn't that a function of the SAN?

Do I get this straight: When using the IBM i provided backup application (Save/Restore 21), it is no longer guaranteed that after a Restore 21 of a Save 21 into a pristine LPAR all (non-temporary) objects in the IFS are restored? (Note: I don't care for temporary objects in /tmp.)

To put in other words… after a Restore 21 of a Save 21 into a pristine LPAR, are there any IBM provided or user provided, non-temporary objects missing due to them being excluded with a default setting of ATR(*ALWSAV) VALUE(*NO)?

:wq! PoC


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