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The server comes with many defaults set so that clients can begin using its services immediately. The amount and importance of the data protected by Tivoli Storage Manager, your business process requirements, and other factors make it likely that you need to adjust and customize the server's behavior. Your changing storage needs and client requirements can mean on-going configuration changes and monitoring.
The server's capabilities are extensively described in this
guide. To get an introduction to the tasks available to an
administrator of Tivoli Storage Manager, read the following sections:
Interfaces to Tivoli Storage Manager |
Configuring and Managing Server Storage |
Managing Client Operations |
Maintaining the Server |
Protecting the Server |
Tivoli Storage Manager has the following types of interfaces:
For the clients, there are graphical user interfaces for the backup-archive client and the space manager client (if installed, on supported operating systems). For information about using the interfaces, see the online information or see Quick Start.
The administrative Web interface allows you to access Tivoli Storage Manager server functions from any workstation with a Web browser that has the appropriate support for Java(R). The interface also allows Web access to the command line. See Quick Start for information about the administrative Web interface.
The Web backup-archive client (Web client) allows an authorized user to remotely access a client to run backup, archive, restore, and retrieve processes. The Web browser must have the appropriate support for Java. See Backup-Archive Installation and User's Guide for requirements.
For information about using the command-line interface of the administrative client, see Administrator's Reference. For information about using the command-line interface of the backup-archive client and other clients, see Backup-Archive Installation and User's Guide for that client.
For more information, see Tivoli Storage Manager Using the Application Program Interface.
Server options allow you to customize the server and its operations. Some examples of what these options affect are:
Server options are in the server options file. Some options can be changed and made active immediately by using the command, SETOPT. Most server options are changed by editing the server options file and then halting and restarting the server to make the changes active. In this book, specific server options are discussed where they are applicable. See Administrator's Reference for details about the server options file and reference information for all server options.
Configuring and managing storage for efficiency and capacity are important tasks for an administrator.
The server uses its storage for the data it manages for clients. The storage can be a combination of devices:
The devices can be locally attached, or accessible through a SAN. Key decisions in configuring and managing the storage include:
For an introduction to key storage concepts, see Chapter 2, Introducing Storage Devices.
Hard disk devices can be used with Tivoli Storage Manager for two purposes:
The server can store data on hard disk by using random access volumes (device type of DISK) or sequential access volumes (device type of FILE).
The Tivoli Storage Manager product allows you to exploit disk storage in ways that other products do not. You can have multiple client nodes back up to the same disk storage pool at the same time, and still keep the data for the different client nodes separate. Other products also allow you to back up different systems at the same time, but only by interleaving the data for the systems, leading to slower restore processes.
If you have enough disk storage space, data can remain on disk permanently or temporarily, depending on the amount of disk storage space that you have. Restore process performance from disk can be very fast compared to tape.
You can have the server later move the data from disk to tape; this is called migration through the storage hierarchy. Other advantages to this later move to tape include:
For information about setting up storage pools on disk devices, see Chapter 3, Using Magnetic Disk Devices. For information about setting up a storage hierarchy, see Overview: The Storage Pool Hierarchy.
Removable media devices can be used with Tivoli Storage Manager for the following purposes:
For information about configuring your removable media devices, see Chapter 4, Attaching Devices to the Server System and Chapter 5, Configuring Storage Devices.
A device class represents a set of storage devices with similar availability, performance, and storage characteristics. You must define device classes for the drives available to the Tivoli Storage Manager server. You specify a device class when you define a storage pool so that the storage pool is associated with drives.
For more information about defining device classes, see Chapter 8, Defining Device Classes.
Routine removable media operations including the following:
For information about removable media operations, see Chapter 7, Managing Removable Media Operations.
Backed-up, archived, and space-managed files are stored in groups of volumes that are called storage pools. Because each storage pool is assigned to a device class, you can logically group your storage devices to meet your storage management needs.
You can establish a hierarchy of storage pools. The hierarchy may be based on the speed or the cost of the devices associated with the pools. Tivoli Storage Manager migrates client files through this hierarchy to ensure the most efficient use of a server's storage devices.
The following are other examples of what you can control for a storage pool:
You manage storage volumes by defining, updating, and deleting volumes, and by monitoring the use of server storage. You can also move files within and across storage pools to optimize the use of server storage.
For more information about storage pools and volumes and taking advantage of storage pool features, see Chapter 9, Managing Storage Pools and Volumes.
IBM High Availability Cluster Multi-Processing for AIX (HACMP) detects system failures and manages failover to a recovery processor with a minimal loss of end-user time. You can set up a Tivoli Storage Manager server on a system in an HACMP cluster so that, if the system fails, the Tivoli Storage Manager server will be brought back up on another system in the cluster. In both failover and fallback, it appears that the Tivoli Storage Manager server has crashed or halted and was then restarted. Any transactions that were in progress at the time of the failover or fallback are rolled back, and all completed transactions are still complete. Tivoli Storage Manager clients see this as a communications failure and try to reestablish their connections. See Quick Start for details.
Because the key task of the server is to provide services to clients, many of the server administrator's tasks deal with client operations. Tasks include the following:
A very basic administrative task is adding client nodes, giving the systems that the nodes represent access to the services and resources of the Tivoli Storage Manager server. The Tivoli Storage Manager server supports a variety of client nodes. You can register the following types of clients and servers as client nodes:
When you register clients, you have choices to make about the following:
Other important tasks include the following:
Among the options that can be in a client option set are the include and exclude options. These options control which files are considered for the client operations.
For more information, see Chapter 11, Managing Client Nodes.
For more information, see Chapter 13, Managing Data for Client Nodes.
For more information, see Chapter 13, Managing Data for Client Nodes.
For more information, see Chapter 10, Adding Client Nodes and Chapter 11, Managing Client Nodes.
Tivoli Storage Manager includes security features for user registration and passwords.
Registration for clients can be closed or open. With closed registration, a user with administrator authority must register all clients. With open registration, clients can register themselves at first contact with the server. See Registering Nodes with the Server.
You can ensure that only authorized administrators and client nodes are communicating with the server by requiring the use of passwords. You can also set the following requirements for passwords:
See Managing Passwords.
You can control the authority of administrators. An organization may name a single administrator or may distribute the workload among a number of administrators and grant them different levels of authority. For details, see Managing Levels of Administrative Authority.
As the administrator, you define the rules for client backup, archive, and migration operations, based on user or business requirements. The rules are called policies. Policies identify:
In Tivoli Storage Manager, you define policies by defining policy domains, policy sets, management classes, and backup and archive copy groups. When you install Tivoli Storage Manager, you have a default policy that consists of a single policy domain named STANDARD.
The default policy provides basic backup protection for end-user workstations. To provide different levels of service for different clients, you can add to the default policy or create new policy. For example, because of business needs, file servers are likely to require a policy different from policy for end users. Protecting data for applications such as Lotus Domino also may require a unique policy.
For more information about the default policy and establishing and managing new policies, see Chapter 12, Implementing Policies for Client Data.
Scheduling client operations can mean better protection for data, because operations can occur consistently without user intervention. Scheduling also can mean better utilization of resources such as the network. Client backups that are scheduled at times of lower usage can minimize the impact on user operations on a network.
You can automate operations for clients by using schedules. Tivoli Storage Manager provides a central scheduling facility. You can also use operating system utilities or other scheduling tools to schedule Tivoli Storage Manager operations.
With Tivoli Storage Manager schedules, you can perform the operations for a client immediately or schedule the operations to occur at regular intervals.
The key objects that interact are:
The client can specify a management class for a file or group of files, or can use the default management class for the policy domain. The client specifies a management class by using an INCLUDE option in the client's include-exclude list or file. You can have central control of client options such as INCLUDE and EXCLUDE by defining client option sets on the server. When you register a client, you can specify a client option set for that client to use. See Modifying Client Option Files for details.
Clients are assigned to a policy domain when they are registered. To automate client operations, you define schedules for a domain. Then you define associations between schedules and clients in the same domain.
Schedules that can automate client operations are associated with a policy domain.
The scheduled client operations are called events. The Tivoli Storage Manager server stores information about events in its database. For example, you can query the server to determine which scheduled events completed successfully and which failed.
The management class contains information that determines how Tivoli Storage Manager handles files that clients backup, archive, or migrate. For example, the management class contains the backup copy group and the archive copy group. Each copy group points to a destination, a storage pool where files are first stored when they are backed up or archived.
For a schedule to work on a particular client, the client machine must be turned on. The client must either be running the client scheduler or must allow the client acceptor daemon to start the scheduler when needed.
To learn more:
After you have created schedules, you manage and coordinate those schedules. Your tasks include the following:
For more information about these tasks, see Chapter 15, Managing Schedules for Client Nodes.
To keep the server running well, you have access to these tasks:
If you manage more than one server, you can ensure that the multiple servers are consistently managed by using the enterprise management functions of Tivoli Storage Manager. You can set up one server as the configuration manager and have other servers obtain configuration information from it.
There are a variety of tasks associated with managing server operations:
Other tasks that are needed less frequently include:
See Licensing Tivoli Storage Manager. For suggestions about the day-to-day tasks required to administer the server, see Chapter 16, Managing Server Operations.
Repetitive, manual tasks associated with managing the server can be automated through Tivoli Storage Manager schedules and scripts. Using schedules and scripts can minimize the daily tasks for administrators.
You can define schedules for the automatic processing of most administrative commands. For example, a schedule can run the command to back up the server's database every day.
Tivoli Storage Manager server scripts allow you to combine administrative commands with return code checking and processing. The server comes with scripts that you can use to do routine tasks, or you can define your own. The scripts typically combine several administrative commands with return code checking, or run a complex SQL SELECT command. Scripts can also be scheduled.
For more information about automating Tivoli Storage Manager operations, see Chapter 17, Automating Server Operations.
The Tivoli Storage Manager database contains information about registered client nodes, policies, schedules, and the client data in storage pools (metadata). The information about the client data, also called metadata, includes the file name, file size, file owner, management class, copy group, and location of the file in server storage. The database is key to the operation of the server.
The server records changes made to the database (database transactions) in its recovery log. The recovery log is used to maintain the database in a transactionally consistent state, and to maintain consistency across server start-up operations.
You can tune database and recovery log performance automatically or manually. You can set up triggers so that additional space is automatically added to the database and recovery log as needed.
For more information about the Tivoli Storage Manager database and recovery log and about the tasks associated with them, see Chapter 18, Managing the Database and Recovery Log.
Tivoli Storage Manager provides you with many sources of information about server and client status and activity, the state of the server's database and storage, and resource usage. By monitoring selected information, you can provide reliable services to users while making the best use of available resources. Daily checks of some indicators are suggested.
You can use Tivoli Storage Manager queries and SQL queries to get information about the server. An ODBC interface is available.
You can set up automatic logging of information about Tivoli Storage Manager clients and server events.
See the following sections for more information about these tasks.
You may have a number of Tivoli Storage Manager servers in your network, at the same or different locations. Some examples are:
Servers connected to a network can be centrally managed. Tivoli Storage Manager provides functions to help you configure, manage, and monitor the servers. An administrator working at one Tivoli Storage Manager server can work with servers at other locations around the world.
When you have a network of Tivoli Storage Manager servers, you can simplify configuration and management of the servers by using Enterprise Administration functions. You can do the following:
As conditions change, you can move data from one server to another. You can export part or all of a server's data so that you can then import the data to another server. The export process writes the data to sequential media, such as tape or a file on hard disk. For example, you can balance workload among servers by moving client nodes from one server to another.
For more information about moving data between servers, see Chapter 21, Exporting and Importing Data.
Because the server is protecting client data, it is important to protect the server itself.
Tivoli Storage Manager provides a number of ways to protect and recover your server from media failure or from the loss of the Tivoli Storage Manager database or storage pools. Recovery is based on the following preventive measures:
In addition to taking these actions, you can prepare a disaster recovery plan to guide you through the recovery process by using the Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager. Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager is an optional product that assists you in the automatic preparation of a disaster recovery plan. You can use the disaster recovery plan as a guide for disaster recovery as well as for audit purposes to certify the recoverability of the Tivoli Storage Manager server.
The disaster recovery methods of Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager are based on taking the following measures:
For more information about protecting your server and for details about recovering from a disaster, see Chapter 22, Protecting and Recovering Your Server.