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Administrator's Guide


Concepts for Working with a Network of Servers

To manage a network of servers, you can use the following capabilities of Tivoli Storage Manager:

In a network of TSM servers, a server can play a number of different roles. For example, a server may send volumes to be archived on another server and also receive routed commands from another server. In the following descriptions, when a server sends data it is sometimes referred to as a source server, and when a server receives data it is sometimes referred to as a target server. In other words, one TSM server may be both a source and a target server. At the same time, any TSM server can still provide backup, archive, and space management services to clients.

Configuring and Managing Servers: Enterprise Configuration

The enterprise configuration functions of the Tivoli Storage Manager make it easier to consistently set up and manage a network of TSM servers. You set up configurations on one server and distribute the configurations to the other servers. You can make changes to configurations and have the changes automatically distributed.

Figure 67 illustrates a simple configuration. To use enterprise configuration, you first select the TSM server that is to act as the configuration manager. You may want to dedicate a new server for this purpose. At the configuration manager, you define the details of the server configurations that you want to distribute. For example:

In one or more profiles, you point to the definitions of the configuration information that you want to use to manage other servers.

On each server that is to receive the configuration information, you identify the server as a managed server by defining a subscription to one or more profiles owned by the configuration manager. All the definitions associated with the profiles are then copied into the managed server's database. Things defined to the managed server in this way are managed objects that cannot be changed by the managed server. From then on, the managed server gets any changes to the managed objects from the configuration manager via the profiles. Managed servers receive changes to configuration information at time intervals set by the servers, or by command.

See Setting Up an Enterprise Configuration for details.

Figure 67. Enterprise Configuration

A configuration manager has profiles to which a managed server subscribes

Performing Tasks on Multiple Servers

When you connect to the configuration manager via a Web browser, you are presented with the enterprise console . From the enterprise console you can perform tasks on the configuration manager and on one or more of the managed servers. You can also connect to another server to perform tasks directly on that server. As long as you are registered with the same administrator ID and password, you can do this work on many servers without having to log on each time. See Using Tivoli Storage Manager Enterprise Logon.

From the command line of the administrative Web interface or from the command-line administrative client, you can also route commands to other servers. The other servers must be defined to the server to which you are connected. You must also be registered on the other servers as an administrator with the administrative authority that is required for the command. See Routing Commands.

To make routing commands easier, you can define a server group that has servers as members. See Setting Up Server Groups. Commands that you route to a server group are sent to all servers in the group.

Central Monitoring

TSM provides you with several ways to centrally monitor the activities of a server network:

Storing Data on Another Server

TSM lets one server store data in and retrieve data from the storage pool of another server. This data, stored as virtual volumes, can include database and storage pool backups, disaster recovery plan files, and data that is directly backed up, archived, or space managed from client nodes. The data can also be a recovery plan file created by using Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager (DRM). The source server is a client of the target server, and the data for the source server is managed only by the source server. In other words, the source server controls the expiration and deletion of the files that comprise the virtual volumes on the target server.

To use virtual volumes to store database and storage pool backups and recovery plan files, you must have the Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager product and register a license for its use. See Licensing Tivoli Storage Manager.

For information on using virtual volumes with DRM, see Chapter 23, Using Tivoli Disaster Recovery Manager.

Example Scenarios

The functions for managing multiple servers can be applied in many ways. Here are just two scenarios to give you some ideas about how you can put the functions to work for you:

Managing Tivoli Storage Manager Servers from One Location

Enterprise management allows you to set up and manage the servers in your network from one location, the enterprise console . For example, suppose you are an administrator responsible for TSM servers at your own location plus servers at branch office locations. Servers at each location have similar storage resources and client requirements. You can set up the environment as follows:

After you complete the setup, you can manage many servers as if there was just one. You can do any of the following tasks:

Managing Servers from Any Server

Enterprise management allows you to manage the servers in your network from many locations. For example, suppose you are an administrator responsible for servers located in different departments on a college campus. The servers have some requirements in common, but also have many unique client requirements. You can set up the environment as follows:

After setting up in this way, you can manage the servers from any server. You can do any of the following tasks:


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