Using the Backup-Archive Clients


Chapter 3. Backing Up and Restoring Files

Use TSM to maintain a set of backup versions of your file system or raw logical volumes on your workstation. You can recover these older file versions in the event those files are lost or damaged. This chapter covers different ways to back up files, and how to restore these files when you want them, and the difference between backing up and archiving files. The following table contains tasks in this chapter:

Task Page
"Using the AFS/DFS Backup Clients" "Using the AFS/DFS Backup Clients"
"Using an Include-Exclude Options File to Control Processing" "Using an Include-Exclude Options File to Control Processing"
"Backing Up Files and Directories" "Backing Up Files and Directories"
"Saving Access Permissions" "Saving Access Permissions"
"Setting a Virtual Mount Point" "Setting a Virtual Mount Point"
"Sorting Lists of Files" "Sorting Lists of Files"
"Performing Estimates" "Performing Estimates"
"Performing Backups Using a GUI" "Performing Backups Using a GUI"
"Backing Up Using Search or Filter" "Backing Up Using Search or Filter"
"Logical Volume Backup" "Logical Volume Backup"
"Back up Using Commands" "Back up Using Commands"
"Do You Want To Restore an Active or Inactive Backup?" "Do You Want To Restore an Active or Inactive Backup?"
"Restoring From the GUI Using A Directory Tree" "Restoring From the GUI Using A Directory Tree"
"Performing Point-in-Time Restores" "Performing Point-in-Time Restores"
"Authorizing Another User to Restore/Retrieve Your Files" "Authorizing Another User to Restore/Retrieve Your Files"
"Restoring or Retrieving Another User's Files" "Restoring or Retrieving Another User's Files"
"Restore Using Commands" "Restore Using Commands"
"Restore or Retrieve Files to Another Workstation" "Restore or Retrieve Files to Another Workstation"
"Restoring a Disk In Case of Disk Loss" "Restoring a Disk In Case of Disk Loss"
"Performing Large Restore Operations" "Performing Large Restore Operations"
"Deleting File Spaces" "Deleting File Spaces"

All backup and restore procedures in this chapter also apply to the Web client, except those identified in "Using the Web Backup-Archive Client".

See "Starting A Web Client Session" for information about starting and using the Web client.


Do You Want to Back Up or Archive Files?

When TSM backs up or archives a file, it sends a copy of the file and its associated attributes to the server; however, backups and archives have different goals.

Backups protect against file damage. A sequence of backup versions is kept for each file on your workstation (the number of backup versions is set by your administrator), and older versions are deleted as newer versions are made.

Archive copies are more permanent. They maintain a file in a particular state indefinitely (although your administrator can limit how long archives are kept). They are useful if you need, for example, to go back to a particular version of your files, or if you want to delete a file from your workstation and retrieve it if necessary. For example, you might need to save some spreadsheets for tax purposes, but because you are not using them, you do not want to leave them on your workstation . See Chapter 4, Archiving and Retrieving Files for more information about archiving and retrieving files.

Use backups to protect against unforeseen damage to your files, and archives for maintaining more permanent versions of your files.


Using the AFS/DFS Backup Clients

Root User

The AFS/DFS backup clients are available on AIX workstations. TSM includes executable files for the graphical user interface and the command-line interface in non-AFS/DFS, AFS, and DFS versions.

If you perform a command-line backup of AFS or DFS files using the non-AFS/DFS versions, TSM backs up the files and saves standard UNIX access permissions and extended permissions, but does not back up AFS or DFS access control lists for directories. If you want TSM to back up AFS or DFS access control lists, or to recognize AFS or DFS virtual mount points, you must use the AFS or DFS versions of the executable files.

For more information see AFS/DFS Backup Clients, SH26-4085.


Using an Include-Exclude Options File to Control Processing

There may be files on your file systems you do not want to back up. These files may be core files, local caches of network file systems, operating system or application files that could be easily recovered by installing the program again, or any other files that you could easily rebuild.

A TSM authorized user on your workstation can use the exclude and include options in your include-exclude options file to tell TSM which files to exclude from backup processing.

If you have the TSM space manager client installed on your workstation (formerly called hierarchical storage manager), the exclude option excludes a file from both backup and space management services. Use the exclude.backup option to exclude a file from backup services only. Use the exclude.spacemgmt option to exclude a file from space management services only.

TSM honors the include-exclude options file whether you are doing an incremental or selective backup. TSM backs up any file that is not explicitly excluded from backup. You do not need to use an include option to include specific files unless those files are in a directory you want to exclude.

The include and exclude options can also be specified in the dsm.sys file. For more information on creating an include-exclude options file, see Chapter 7, Creating an Include-Exclude File.


Backing Up Files and Directories

Your administrator might have set up schedules to back up files on your workstation automatically. See Chapter 5, Automating TSM Tasks for information on checking and running the schedules available to you. The following sections discuss how to back up files without using a schedule.

There are two types of incremental backup: full incremental and partial incremental.

Note:UNIX socket files are skipped during back up.

Full Incremental

A full incremental, or incremental backup, initially backs up all specified drives, directories and files, and thereafter, all new and changed files, thus maintaining current server storage of your workstation files according to your storage management policies. See Chapter 6, "Understanding Storage Management Policies" for more information about storage management polices.

To perform a full incremental backup select the Incremental (complete) option from the type of backup pull-down menu on the TSM backup window, or use the incremental command. You must specify one or more file systems to include in the back up.

During a full incremental, the client queries the server to determine the exact state of your storage as of your last incremental. TSM uses this information to:

Partial Incremental

A partial incremental backs up new and changed files but does not expire or rebind files on the server, and it ignores the frequency attribute of the copy group. There are two types of partial incremental backup:

Full Incremental Versus Partial Incremental

Both full and partial incrementals back up new and changed files. An incremental-by-date takes less time to process than a full incremental, and requires less memory. However, unlike a full incremental, an incremental-by-date does not maintain current server storage of all your workstation files because:

For these reasons, it is recommended that if you have limited time during the week to perform backups, but extra time on the weekends, you can use a partial incremental backup on weekdays, and a full incremental backup on weekends to maintain current server storage of your workstation files.

Saving Access Permissions

When you back up your files, TSM also saves standard UNIX access permissions assigned to the files. Depending on your operating system, it also saves extended permissions. For example, for files on an AIX workstation, TSM saves access control lists.

If you use the AFS or DFS versions of the dsm and dsmc commands (dsmafs and dsmcafs for AFS, dsmdfs and dsmcdfs for DFS) to back up AFS or DFS files (on an AIX workstation only), TSM also saves the access control lists that exist for each AFS or DFS directory. If you perform a command-line backup of AFS or DFS files using the non-AFS/DFS versions, TSM backs up the files and standard UNIX access permissions, but does not save the AFS or DFS access control lists for directories. See Using the AFS/DFS Backup Clients for more information.

Note: If a TSM authorized user backs up files for a user, the user owns the backup versions of the files in storage. The TSM authorized user does not need to grant the user access to the backup versions.

Setting a Virtual Mount Point

If you want TSM to consider files for backup beginning with a specific directory within a file system, a TSM authorized user can define that directory as a virtual mount point (see Virtualmountpoint).

Defining a virtual mount point within a file system provides a direct path to the files you want to back up, thus saving processing time. It is more efficient than defining the file system with the domain option, and then using an exclude option in your include-exclude options file to exclude the files you do not want TSM to consider for backup. It also lets you store backups and archives for specific directories in separate file spaces in storage.

Note:The backup-archive client does not recognize AFS/DFS volume mount points. You must install the AFS/DFS client.

Sorting Lists of Files

You can sort any list of files by name, directory, size, or modification date. Sorting files by the last backup date is very useful in determining what date and time to use for the point-in-time function (see "Performing Point-in-Time Restores").

To sort a file list, select one of the Sort by items from the View menu bar. Or, click the appropriate column heading in the file list portion of the window.

Performing Estimates

You can use the Estimate function to estimate the amount of time it takes to process files and directories. The estimated time is a rough calculation of the time it takes to transfer your data and is based on previous transfers of data between your workstation and the current server. The actual transfer time could be longer or shorter than the estimate due to factors like network traffic, system load on your workstation, or system load on the server.

Performing Backups Using a GUI

Perform backups using the following instructions:

  1. Click Backup from the main window. The Backup window displays.

  2. Expand the directory tree. Select the folder icons to display the files in the directory. Select the selection boxes next to the files or directories you want to back up. Select one of the following backup types:

  3. Click Backup. The Backup Task List window displays the backup processing status. Transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Displaying Backup Processing Status

When TSM backs up or archives a file space or other set of files, it attempts to improve performance and load balancing by using multiple sessions. This can result in as many as five sessions running at one time to read files and send them to a server.

The Web client and backup-archive client GUI provide a Task List window you can display to see information about files that are processing. In addition, a Task Report window shows the details for a particular task, such as the number of files backed up, transfer rates, any files that failed, and so forth. This window displays automatically when a task completes.

The command line displays the name of each file after it is sent to the server. If a file is not sent immediately, a progress indicator shows the file's progress.

Note:The transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Backing Up Using Search or Filter

Filtering a directory tree displays only files matching the filter criteria. You can also search to find the files you want to back up. Run backups using the procedure below:

  1. Click Backup files and directories from the main window. The Backup window displays.

  2. Expand the directory tree. Select the directory or file you want to backup.

  3. Click the Search icon from the tool bar. The Find Files window displays.

  4. Enter your selection criteria in the Find Files window.

    To Search:

    1. Click Search. The Matching Files window displays.

    2. Click the selection boxes next to the files you want to back up. Click Edit; then click Close to exit. The files selected in the search window display in the tree.

    To Filter:

    1. Click Filter. The selected files do not display in the backup tree.

    2. Click the selection boxes next to the files you want to back up.

  5. Click Always Backup from the Type of Backup list.

  6. Click Backup. The Backup Task List window displays the backup processing status. Transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Logical Volume Backup

Root User

TSM enables you to back up an entire file system or raw logical volume as a single object from your local machine. TSM views this as a logical volume (or image) backup. An image backup can be useful if you want to do any of the following:

Image backup is supported on AIX 4.3 or higher, Solaris 2.6 (Solaris 7) and HP 11.0.

Image Backup Considerations

The server stores and manages image backups in the same way as other objects are stored and managed. However, a unique object type is used to distinguish image backups.

With image backups, the whole image (not individual files) is assigned a management class. If you do not specify a management class, the default class is used for the entire file system. You can define policy sets, management classes and copy groups for an image, as well as exclude specific file systems from the image.

Use the backup image and restore image commands to perform backup and restore operations on a single volume.

Place an include.image entry in your include-exclude list to assign a management class to the image. Place an exclude.image entry in your include-exclude list to exclude a file system from being backed up.

Incremental-by-Date of Last Image Backup

You can perform an incremental-by-date image backup to back up files that have changed since your last image backup. The following restrictions apply:

For more information on commands and options related to image backups, see Chapter 10, "Using Commands" and Chapter 8, "Setting Common Options".

Before You Perform a Backup

If copy serialization is static, ensure that no one is using the file system when you perform an image backup. If the file system is in use when TSM attempts to unmount it, the backup will fail. To ensure a consistent image, TSM remounts the file system in read-only mode before starting the backup. After the backup completes, TSM remounts the file system to its original state.

System files should not be included in an image backup because they cannot be unmounted.

Important: If your mounted file system has nested mount points, unmount them before attempting a back up or restore. Image backups cannot be performed on nested mount points.

Backing Up an Image Using the GUI

To create an image backup of your file system or raw logical volume, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Backup from the main window. The Backup window displays.

  2. Expand the directory tree.

    incremental backup

    incremental-by-date backup

  3. Click Backup. The Backup Task List window displays the backup processing status. Transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Image Backup Example

Following is an example of how an image backup might work.


Client Server
Monday Files 1, 2 and 3 reside here An image backup is performed. (Assume a full incremental was also performed.) A list of files in the image is created on the server.
Tuesday File 4 is created. Daily incremental is performed - including incremental for file 4.
Wednesday File 2 is deleted; file 3 is changed. Daily incremental is performed - including incremental for file 3; list of files in image backup shows file 2 was deleted.
Thursday File 1 is deleted. Daily incremental is performed; list of files in image backup shows file 1 was deleted.

Suppose you want to use the image created on Monday to restore your file system as it appeared just after Thursday's incremental backup. TSM would use the following process:

  1. The server sends the image backup to the client. This image replaces the current content of the target filespace. The file system now contains files 1, 2 and 3. File 4 has been lost because it was not part of the original image.

  2. Based on the information from the server about subsequent incremental backups, the client removes files 1 and 2.

  3. The client restores file 4.

  4. The client restores the latest version of file 3.

Backup: Advanced Considerations

This section discusses some advanced considerations for using incremental and selective backup. You do not need to understand this information in order to use TSM for basic work.

Understanding How TSM Stores Files in File Spaces

When you back up and archive files, TSM stores the backups and archives in a file space in storage that has the same name as the file system or virtual mount point from which the files originated.

For example, if you have a file system named /home, and you back up a file named doc1 in the /home/monnett directory, TSM stores the file in a file space named /home. If a TSM authorized user later defines /home/monnett as a virtual mount point, any files you back up from the /home/monnett directory, such as doc2, are stored in a file space named /home/monnett. If you enter this command:

  dsmc query backup "/home/monnett/*"

TSM looks for files in the /home/monnett file space. It always looks for a file in the file space with the longest name that matches the file specification you include in a command. It finds the file named doc2 that was backed up after the virtual mount point was defined. However, it does not find the file named doc1 because that file was backed up before the virtual mount point was defined, and the backup was stored in the /home file space.

To list or restore the doc1 file using a command, you must specify the file space name explicitly by enclosing it in braces. For example:

   dsmc query backup "{/home}/monnett/*"
   dsmc restore {/home}/monnett/doc1

If the TSM authorized user subsequently removes the /home/monnett virtual mount point, and you then back up additional files in the /home/monnett directory, the backups are once again stored in the /home file space. For example, if you now back up a file named doc3 in the /home/monnett directory, it is stored in the /home file space. It is not stored in the existing /home/monnett file space.

However, because the /home/monnett file space already exists, when you try to query or restore the doc3 file, TSM looks in the /home/monnett file space for the file unless you specify the correct file space name. For example:

   dsmc query backup "{/home}/monnett/*"
   dsmc restore {/home}/monnett/doc2

Note: You must specify the file space name explicitly only when there can be more than one resolution to the file specification.

For example, if the following file spaces exist in storage:

   /home
   /home/monnett
   /home/monnett/project1
   /home/monnett/project1/planning

Then enter:

   dsmc query backup "/home/monnett/project1/planning/*"

TSM looks for files only in the /home/monnett/project1/planning file space, even if one or more of the other file spaces contains a path with the same name. But, when you enter one of the following:

   dsmc query backup "{/home}/monnett/project1/planning/*"
   dsmc query backup "{/home/monnett}/project1/planning/*"
   dsmc query backup "{/home/monnett/project1}/planning/*"

TSM looks for files only in the /home file space, the /home/monnett file space or the /home/monnett/project1 file space, depending on which form you use.

Back up Using Commands

You can use the selective or incremental command to perform a backup. When the incremental and selective commands complete, TSM provides statistics similar to those shown in the GUI's Task List window. Similar statistics are produced by the archive command. Statistics also display in the schedule log for scheduled commands. See Incremental and Selective for more information.

Selective: The selective command backs up specific files. Use wildcards to back up more than one file at a time. If you back up a directory, you can use the subdir =yes option to include all the subdirectories under that directory in the backup. For example, to back up the /home/monnett/proj directory and its subdirectories, enter:

   dsmc selective /home/monnett/proj/ -subdir=yes

If a subdirectory is a mounted file system, TSM does not back up the files in that subdirectory when you use the subdir=yes option.

You can use more than one file specification on the selective command. For example, to back up the /home/monnett/h1.doc and /home/monnett/test.doc files, enter:

   dsmc selective /home/monnett/h1.doc /home/monnett/test.doc

Incremental: You can run an incremental backup from the command-line using the incremental command. For example, to back up the /home file system, enter:

   dsmc incremental /home 

If you do not select the file systems to back up, TSM uses your default domain (see Setting Your Default Domain Using a GUI). Add file systems to the default domain with the domain option. For example, if your default domain contains file systems /home and /usr, back up those file systems plus the /mfg file system using:

   dsmc incremental -domain="/mfg"

To start an incremental-by-date, add the incrbydate option:

   dsmc incremental -incrbydate

Setting Your Default Domain Using a GUI

When you start TSM, click Backup Domain from the Actions menu bar, or use the incremental command without indicating file systems, to automatically select the file systems in your default domain as the file systems to process. Your default domain is set with the domain option in your client user options file (see Domain). If you do not have the domain option set, the default domain is all local file systems.

What Does TSM Consider a Changed File

For full incrementals, TSM considers a file changed if any of these items are different from the last backup taken:

Which Files Are Backed Up

When you request an incremental or selective backup, TSM backs up a file if all of the following requirements are met:

When you perform an incremental backup of your files, TSM also checks the following:

When you run an incremental or selective backup, TSM also backs up all directory information that is not already backed up. You can exclude a directory or files within a directory from backup services. Directories are counted in the number of objects backed up.

How Files are Assigned to Management Classes

TSM uses management classes to determine how to manage your backups on the server. Every time you back up a file, the file is assigned a management class. The management class used is either a default selected for you, or one assigned to the file by a TSM authorized user with an include option in the include-exclude options file. The selected management class must contain a backup copy group in order for the file to be backed up. See Chapter 5, Automating TSM Tasks and Chapter 6, Understanding Storage Management Policies for more information on management classes, how a TSM authorized user assigns management classes to files, and storage management policies.

Understanding How Symbolic Links Are Handled

A UNIX symbolic link is a file that contains a pointer to another file or directory. TSM handles symbolic links differently than it does regular files and directories. In some operations, such as a backup, only the path information that the symbolic link contains is backed up. In other operations, such as archive, the file to which the symbolic link points is archived, but under the name of the symbolic link. For more information on how symbolic links are handled during an archive operation, see Archsymlinkasfile.

For directories, most operations are affected by the setting of the subdir option. If the subdir option is set to no, only the directory and the files it contains are affected. If the subdir option is yes, TSM recursively processes all files and directories in the directory tree.

Incremental backup
-- When you run an incremental backup, TSM backs up only the path information to a file or directory to which a symbolic link points. The contents of the file or the contents of files in the directory are not backed up.

Selective backup
-- When you run a selective backup on a symbolic link that points to a file, TSM backs up only the path information to that file. The contents of the file are not backed up.

Restore
-- When you restore a symbolic link that originally pointed to a file, the symbolic link is restored, regardless of whether the file it points to still exists. If you restore a symbolic link that originally pointed to a directory:

The following table shows symbolic link backup and restore functions and the action taken:

Figure 3. Symbolic Link Management Table for Backup and Restore

Function Action Taken
Selective backup of a file. Backs up the symbolic link only, the file is not backed up.
Selective backup of a directory. Backs up the directory only, the symbolic link is not backed up.
Incremental backup. Backs up the symbolic links only, files and directories pointed to are not backed up.
Incremental backup with subdir=no. Backs up the symbolic links only, files and directories pointed to are not backed up.
Incremental backup with subdir=yes. Backs up the symbolic links and directories and files they point to.
Restore a symbolic link that points to a file. The symbolic link is restored, regardless of whether the file the symbolic link points to still exists.
Restore a symbolic link that points to a directory. The symbolic link is restored, regardless of whether the directory the symbolic link points to still exists.
Restore a symbolic link that points to a directory with subdir=yes, the directory still exists. The symbolic link and files in the directory and subdirectories are restored.
Restore a symbolic link that points to a directory with subdir=yes, the directory and symbolic link no longer exists. A directory is created in the directory that the symbolic link resides and all files and subdirectories are restored to that directory, the symbolic link name is used as the new directory name.

Understanding How Hard Links Are Handled

A hard link is established when two files point to the same data file. When you back up a file that contains a hard link to another file, TSM stores both the link information and the data file on the server. If you back up two files that contain a hard link to each other, TSM stores the same data file under both names, along with the link information.

When you restore a file that contains hard link information, TSM attempts to reestablish the links. If only one of the hard-linked files is still on your workstation, and you restore both files, TSM hard-links them together.

The one exception to this procedure occurs if you back up two files that are hard-linked together, and then break the connection between them on your workstation. The two files then contain separate data files. If you restore the two files from the server, TSM will respect the current file system and not restore the hard link.

Problems can occur if you back up only one file of a hard-linked pair. For example, files texta and textb contain a hard link to each other. You back up texta, then edit textb and make some changes. If you restore texta, the changes you made to textb will be lost.

To ensure that hard-linked files remain synchronized, always back up all files that have hard links to each other at the same time, and restore those same files together.

Understanding How NFS Hard and Soft Mounts are Handled

When TSM connects a backup-archive client to an NFS file system, you can use either a hard mount or a soft mount. TSM uses the nfstimeout option setting to determine how long to wait for an NFS system call to respond before timing out, this applies to hard and soft mounts. The default is 10 seconds.

You should be aware of the consequences of hard and soft mounts if the mount becomes stale (for example, if the server for the file system is not available).

Hard mount
-- If the NFS file system is hard mounted, the NFS daemons will try repeatedly to contact the server. The NFS daemon retries will not time out, will affect system performance, and you cannot interrupt them, but control will return to TSM when the nfstimeout value is reached.

Soft mount
-- If the NFS file system is soft mounted, NFS will try repeatedly to contact the server until either:

When one of these events occurs, control returns to the calling program.

Backing Up Opened Files

TSM looks for files that have changed between the start and the completion of the file's backup. Some files on your system may be in use, or open, when you try to back them up. Because an open file may change, a backup action might not reflect the correct contents of the file at a given time.

Consider if a file is important. Can you build the file again? If the file is not important, you may not want to back up the file. Or, if the file is important, a root user on your workstation can ensure the file is closed before TSM tries to back it up.

If your backups run on a schedule, a root user can use the preschedulecmd option to enter a command to close the file. For example, if the open file is a database, use the database's quiesce command to shut down the database. A root user can use the postschedulecmd option to restart the application that uses the file after the backup completes. If you are not using a schedule for the backup, ensure that you close the application that uses the file before you start the backup.

TSM can back up the file even if it is open and gets changed during the backup. This is only useful if the file will be usable even if it changes during backup. To back up these files, assign the files a management class with the serialization dynamic or shared dynamic. See Selecting a Management Class for Files and Displaying Information About Management Classes and Copy Groups for information.

Using Wildcard Characters

You can use the operating system's wildcard characters in file specifications with TSM. These characters let you select groups of files that have similar names.

In a command, wildcard characters can only be used in the file name or extension. They cannot be used to specify destination files, file systems, or directories. When using wildcard characters in non-loop mode, as in

dsmc sel "/home/*"

enclose the parameter containing asterisk in quotes to ensure the system does not interpret the wildcard character and produce unexpected results. Wildcard character information is covered in the following table.

* (Asterisk) Zero or more characters that match all files:
*.exe With an exe extension
hm*.* Starting with hm, regardless of extension
hm* Starting with hm, regardless if an extension exists or not
*h*.* With an h somewhere in the file name, regardless of extension

? (Question mark) One character that matches all files with:
?.exe The extension exe that have one, and only one, character in their file name
hm?.exe Three-character names beginning with hm and that have the exe extension

* ? (Asterisk and question mark) Asterisk and question mark combinations matching:
??hm.* All four-character file names ending in hm., no matter what extension they have.

In a path name for a file specification, you cannot specify a directory whose name contains an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?). TSM will recognize those characters only as wildcard characters.


Restoring Files or Directories

Use TSM to restore backup versions of specific files, a group of files with similar names, or entire directories.

Select the files you want to restore using file specification (file path, name, and extension), a directory list, or a subdirectory path to a directory and its subdirectories.

UNIX socket files are skipped during restore, including socket files that were backed up with earlier versions of TSM.

If you have the TSM space manager client installed on your workstation (formerly called hierarchical storage manager), you can set the restoremigstate option to restore migrated and premigrated files to a migrated or resident state (see Restoremigstate).

Do You Want To Restore an Active or Inactive Backup?

Your administrator determines how many backup versions TSM maintains for each file on your workstation. Frequently, the administrator has TSM maintain more than one version of each file. Having multiple versions of a file lets you restore older versions in case the most recent backup is damaged.

TSM considers the most recent backup version to be the active version. The most recent backup version is considered an inactive version if the file was deleted or excluded at the client and an incremental backup was run. Any other backup version is considered an inactive version. If you try to restore both an active and inactive version of a file at the same time, only the active version is restored.

Every time TSM backs up your files, it marks the new backup version the active backup, and it changes what used to be the active backup to an inactive backup. When the maximum number of inactive versions is reached, TSM deletes the oldest inactive version.

Restoring From the GUI Using A Directory Tree

To restore backup versions of individual files or subdirectories:

  1. Click Restore files and directories to your system from the main window. The Restore window displays.

  2. Expand the directory tree. Select the selection boxes next to the files or directories you want to restore.

  3. Click Restore. The Restore Destination window displays.

  4. Enter the information in the Restore Destination window.

  5. Click Restore. The Restore Task List window displays the restore processing status. Transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Performing Point-in-Time Restores

A point-in-time restore restores files to the state that existed at a specific date/time. A file created after that date is not restored; only the changes made before the date/time are restored.

Note: Your administrator must define copygroup settings which permit enough inactive versions of a file to be maintained to guarantee a file can be restored to a specific date/time. If enough versions are not maintained, TSM restores the oldest available version of the file.

A point-in-time restore can eliminate the effect of data corruption, or recover a basic configuration to a prior condition.

To start a point-in-time restore from the GUI, select the Point-in-Time date from the Restore window. A point-in-time restore can be started from the command-line client using the pitdate and pittime command-line options.

A point-in-time restore is supported on the file space, directory, or file level. This type of restore is also supported on image backups. When a point-in-time restore runs, files that were created on the client after the point-in-time date are not deleted.

Perform incremental backups on a Version 3, or higher, server in order to support a point-in-time restore. The server is notified when files are deleted from a client file space or directory during an incremental backup. Selective and incremental-by-date backups do not notify the server about deleted files. Run incremental backups at a frequency consistent with possible restore requirements. A point-in-time restore will restore files deleted after the point-in-time date, but not files deleted before. TSM restores file versions from the most recent backup before the specified point-in-time date. Ensure the point-in-time date and time is not in the middle of a backup.

The point-in-time command-line options, pitdate and pittime, are used with the query and restore commands. For example, when pitdate and pittime are used with the query backup command, the date and time values specified in the pitdate and pittime parameters are used to establish the point-in-time for which file information is returned. When pitdate and pittime are used with the restore command, the date and time values specified in the pitdate and pittime parameters are used to establish the point-in-time for which files are returned. If pitdate is specified without a pittime value, pittime defaults to 23:59:59. If pittime is specified without a pitdate value it is ignored.

To run a point-in-time restore:

  1. Click Point-in-Time from the Restore window.

  2. Select Date, Time, and Use a Point in Time date during restore from the Point in Time Restore window.

  3. Click on OK.

Authorizing Another User to Restore/Retrieve Your Files

You can authorize another user on the same workstation or a different workstation to restore backup versions or retrieve archive copies of your files. This permits you to share files with other people or with other workstations that you use with a different node name. To authorize a user on another workstation to restore or retrieve your files, the other workstation must be running one of the UNIX clients. To authorize another user to restore or retrieve your files:

  1. Click on Utilities from the main window. Click on User Access List. The Authorization List window displays.

  2. Enter the name of the node and user you want to authorize, and the directory and file specification for the file to which you want the user to have access. You can give the user access to backups or archives. You must add separate authorizations for back up and archive access, even if you want to give the same user access to the same files for both. You can authorize all users by using an asterisk (*) for the user name or authorize all nodes by using an asterisk (*) for the node name.

  3. Click on Add to add the user. While you are in the Authorization List window, you can add several users at once, delete users, or change your existing authorizations. All additions, deletions, and changes are processed when you click OK. Click Cancel to exit the authorization list without making any changes.

  4. Click on OK to add the user to the authorization list (the user is not added until you do this).

See Set Access, Query Access, and Delete Access for information on using commands.

Restoring or Retrieving Another User's Files

After users grant you access to their files on the server, you can restore or retrieve those files to your local system. You can display another user's file spaces on the server, restore the other user's backup versions, or retrieve the other user's archive copies to your local file system.

To display another user's file spaces on the server, restore the other user's backup versions, or retrieve the other user's archive copies to your local drives:

  1. Click Utilities from the main window.

  2. Click Access Another User. The Access Another Node window displays.

  3. Enter the user's node name in the Node name field.

  4. Click on Set.

If you are using commands, use the fromnode and fromowner options to indicate the node name and the name of the user who owns the files.

For example, to restore files to one of your own file systems that were backed up from a workstation named Nodeone and owned by a user named Monnett, enter:

   dsmc restore -fromn=nodeone -fromo=monnett "/home/proj/*" /home/gillis/

Use the query filespace command to get a list of file spaces (see Query Filespace). For example, to get a list of file spaces owned by monnett on Nodeone, enter:

   dsmc query filespace -fromn=nodeone -fromo=monnett

See Restore for more information about using the fromnode and fromowner options with the restore command. Also seeRetrieve about the retrieve command.

Restoring an Image

You can use the following procedure to restore an image of your file system or raw logical volume. If you have run progressive incremental backups and image backups on your file system, you can perform an incremental restore of the file system to update the original image with individual files that were backed up after the last image back up. Optionally, if files were deleted after the original backup, the incremental restore can delete those file from the base image.

Note:Incremental backups and restores can be performed only on mounted file systems, not on raw logical volumes.

To restore a backup of your logical volume or raw logical volume image, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Restore from the main window. The Restore window displays.

  2. Expand the directory tree.

  3. Select Image in the tree, and expand it.

  4. Click the selection box next to the image you want to restore.

  5. Click Restore. The Restore Destination window appears.

  6. Fill in the Restore Destination window.

  7. Click the Restore button to begin the restore. The Task List window appears showing the progress of the restore.

    Transfer statistics may not match the file statistics if the operation was retried due to a failure such as a communications failure or session loss. The transfer statistics will show the bytes attempted to be transferred across all command attempts.

Restoring Data from a Backup Set

Your administrator can generate a backup set of your files and copy the backup set onto removable media, such as tapes, cartridges or diskettes. A backup set is a collection of active files in your filespaces that reside on the server. Backup sets are written in a format that can be read directly by the client. If a backup set is created on tape or on a device that is supported by the server and your client machine, you can restore the backup set from the locally attached device on your machine without the use of a server. Alternatively, you can restore a backup set directly from the server.

You might want to restore data from backup sets in situations such as the following:

See Restore Backupset for information on how to use the restore backupset command.

Restoring Backup Sets Using a GUI

Note:Before you begin a restore, be aware that backup sets can contain data for multiple filespaces. If you specify a destination other than the original location, data from all filespaces will be restored to the location you specify.

To restore a backup set, follow the steps below:

Restore: Advanced Considerations

This section discusses some advanced considerations for restoring data. You do not need to understand this information in order to use TSM for basic work.

Restore Using Commands

Use the restore command to restore files. Indicate the file you want to restore and where you want to restore it. If you do not indicate a destination, the files are restored to their original location.

For example, to restore the /home/monnett/h1.doc file to its original directory, enter:

   dsmc restore /home/monnett/h1.doc

To restore it under a new name, use:

   dsmc restore /home/monnett/h1.doc /home/monnett/h2.doc

If the file you want to restore is not on your workstation, and you have run an incremental backup since deleting the file, there is no active backup of the file on the server. In this case, you need to use the latest option to tell the server to restore the most recent backup version. If you do not want the most recent version, use the pick and inactive options to get a list of backups from which you can select.

For example, if you want to restore the latest version of the deleted file /home/monnett/h1.doc, enter:

   dsmc restore /home/monnett/h1.doc -latest

Add the subdir=yes option to the command if you need to restore the files in a directory and all of its subdirectories. For example, if you are recovering an entire file system (the /home file system in this case), you can restore all of the files using:

   dsmc restore /home/ -subdir=yes

When an entire directory or directory tree is restored, and the inactive, latest, pick, todate, and fromdate options are not specified on the restore command, TSM keeps track of which objects have been restored. If the restore process is interrupted for any reason, you can restart the restore at the point of interruption by entering the restart restore command. It is possible to create more than one restartable restore session. Use the query restore command to display a list of your restartable restore sessions in the server database. The existence of a restartable restore inhibits further backups of that file system until the restartable restore is completed using the restart restore command or the restartable restore is dropped using the cancel restore command.

See Restore for more information.

Restore or Retrieve Files to Another Workstation

From a different workstation, you can restore or retrieve files you have already backed up from your own workstation. You must know the TSM password for your original workstation.

To restore or retrieve files to another workstation, use the virtualnodename option to specify the node name of the workstation from which you backed up the files. Virtualnodename cannot be set to the hostname of the machine which TSM is running. You can use the virtualnodename option when you start TSM or update the client user options file. Use the virtualnodename option on the dsm command if you are borrowing someone else's machine so you do not change their configuration.

TSM prompts you for the password for your original workstation. After you enter the correct password, TSM displays all file systems from your original workstation in the File Systems for Restore/Retrieve section of the File System Information window. Then you can restore or retrieve files as if you were working on your original workstation.

Attention: When you use this method to access files, you have access to all files backed up and archived from your workstation. You are considered a virtual root user.

You can use the virtualnodename option in a command. For example, to restore your projx files, enter:

   dsmc restore -virtualnodename=nodeone "/home/monnett/projx/*"

If you do not want to restore or retrieve the files to the same directory name on the alternate workstation, enter a different destination.

The considerations for retrieving files are the same as restoring files.

Restoring a Disk In Case of Disk Loss

TSM can recover your files only if you can run the client. If the file system that contains the client is lost, you must reinstall the client before you can recover your files. If you also lose the file system that contains the operating system and communication software, you must recover them before you can connect to the server.

To protect yourself against these kinds of losses, you need to put together a set of installation media that you can use to restore your system to a state that lets you contact the server and begin recovering data. The installation media should contain:

  1. A bootable operating system that lets you perform basic functions.

  2. A correct configured communication program that lets you establish communications with the server.

  3. A client with appropriate customized options files. You can use the command-line client to complete this task.

The communication package you use determines what files you need. Consult your operating system and communication software manuals to set up your installation media.

If you also have the TSM space manager installed on your workstation (formerly called the hierarchical storage manager), your installation media should include the space manager command line client. For information about restoring migrated files, see Using the UNIX Hierarchical Storage Management Clients.

Note: Your administrator can schedule restore operations which can be very useful when you need to restore a large number of files.

Performing Large Restore Operations

If you need to restore a large number of files, you can get faster performance by using the restore command instead of the GUI. In addition, you can improve performance by entering multiple restore commands at one time.

For example, to restore all the files in your /home file space, enter:

   dsmc restore /home/ -subdir=yes -replace=all -tapeprompt=no

However, if you enter multiple commands for the directories in the /home file space, TSM can restore the files faster.

For example, you could enter these commands:

   dsmc restore /home/monnett/ -subdir=yes -replace=all -tapeprompt=no
   dsmc restore /home/gillis/ -subdir=yes -replace=all -tapeprompt=no
   dsmc restore /home/stewart/ -subdir=yes -replace=all -tapeprompt=no

You can also select to use the quiet option with the restore commands to save processing time. However, you will not receive informational messages for individual files.

Note: If you already have the appropriate values set for the subdir, replace, tapeprompt, and quiet options in your client user options file, you do not need to include those options in the commands.

When you enter multiple commands to restore your files, you must specify a unique part of the file space in each restore command. Be sure you do not use any overlapping file specifications in the commands.

To display a list of the directories in a file space, use the query backup command. For example:

   dsmc query backup -dirsonly -subdir=no /usr/

As a general rule, you can enter from two to four restore commands at one time. The maximum number you can run at one time without degrading performance depends on factors such as how much memory you have and network utilization.

The speed at which TSM can restore the files also depends on how many tape drives are available on the server, and whether your administrator is using collocation to keep file spaces assigned to as few volumes as possible.

For example, if /home/monnett and /home/gillis are on the same tape, the restore for /home/gillis must wait until the restore for /home/monnett is complete. However, if /home/stewart is on a different tape, and there are at least two tape drives available, the restore for /home/stewart can begin at the same time as the restore for /home/monnett.

If your administrator is using collocation, the number of sequential access media mounts required for restore operations is also reduced.

Deleting File Spaces

TSM authorized user

If your TSM administrator gives you authority, you can delete entire file spaces from the server. When you delete a file space, you delete all the files and images, both backup versions and archive copies, that are contained within the file space. For example, if you delete the file space for your /home/monnet file system, you are deleting every backup for every file in that file system, and every file you archived from that file system.

Carefully consider whether you want to delete a file space. You cannot delete individual backup versions that are kept on the server. If you do not need a file space:

  1. Click Utilities.

  2. Click Delete Filespaces. A delete confirmation request prompt displays.

You can also remove a file space using the delete filespace command.


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