IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.9.000 fix pack readme files

The following readme files are available for the components in this release:

• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 8.1.9.000
• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect device support Fix Pack 8.1.9.000
• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center Fix Pack 8.1.9.000

   

The IBM Spectrum Protect server provides backup, archive, and space management services to clients. You can set up multiple servers in your enterprise network to balance storage, processor, and network resources.

Fix history
To view APARs that were resolved in this fix pack, see technote 291555.

Compatibility with earlier versions
For compatibility with earlier versions, see technote 660949.

System requirements
For server system requirements, see technote 84861.

Obtaining the server installation package
Download this fix pack from Fix Central or Passport Advantage.

The server package on Fix Central does not contain the license. If you are upgrading the server from V8.1.0 or later, the installed license is compatible with this fix pack.

If you are installing the IBM Spectrum Protect server for the first time or are upgrading from V6 or V7, download the IBM Spectrum Protect Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 server package from Passport Advantage.

For more information about how to download the server package, see the download document for IBM AIX and Linux® or the download document for Microsoft® Windows.

Installing and upgrading

 Because of the security updates in recent product releases, installation and upgrade procedures have changed significantly. To help avoid issues, follow the installation and upgrade procedures in the product documentation. For the latest hardware and software requirements, see technote 84861.

To install the server, follow the procedure for your operating system:

• AIX
• Linux
• Windows

To upgrade the server, follow the procedures in Upgrading to V8.1.

After you install or upgrade the server, ensure that you have followed the instructions to prepare the server for database backup operations:

• AIX
• Linux
• Windows

Updates, limitations, and known problems

Updates, limitations, and known problems are documented in the form of technotes in the Support knowledge base at the Support Portal. As problems are discovered and resolved, IBM Software Support updates the knowledge base. By searching the knowledge base, you can find workarounds or solutions to problems.

Updates

For a list of new product features and updates, see What's new. Also, review the following updates:

Restoring a database with the DSMSERV RESTORE DB utility

Attention: If you plan to run the DSMSERV RESTORE DB utility to restore a database, you can specify the PASSWORD parameter on the command line. The password is used to protect the database backup. However, by specifying the password on the command line, you increase the risk of unauthorized access to the password.

Limitations and known issues

The following table lists limitations and known issues for this fix pack:

 

Issue	Description
When you run the DEFINE STGRULE command to obtain data deduplication statistics, a restriction applies.	When you run the DEFINE STGRULE command to obtain data deduplication statistics, you cannot designate a cloud-container storage pool as the target pool.
Issues can occur when source and target replication servers are at different levels.	If you define a new target replication server that is using a version earlier than Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 to a server that is using Fix Pack 8.1.9.000, subsequent replication and storage pool protection operations fail. To prevent these errors, ensure that both the source and target replication servers have Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 installed. This issue is related to the whole-file hashing algorithm. For more information, see the previous section, "Taking advantage of enhanced performance for container storage pool server-side data deduplication".
Compatibility issues can occur when the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client and server are installed on the same Windows operating system.	If the IBM Spectrum Protect Fix Pack 8.1.6.000 or later server and a backup-archive client are installed on the same computer, and the computer is running on the Windows operating system, the backup-archive client must be Fix Pack 8.1.6.000 or later. This requirement must be met to ensure that the backup-archive client is compatible with the IBM Spectrum Protect Fix Pack 8.1.6.000 client application programming interface (API), which is installed by the server. If the API and backup-archive client are incompatible, backup-archive client operations fail.
Updates in the command-line help for Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 can be viewed in English, but not in other languages.	In the server command-line help, updates for Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 can be viewed only in English. If you access the command-line help in a language other than English, information for Fix Pack 8.1.7.000 is displayed. In cases where the command-line help includes a new topic for Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 and you attempt to view the topic in a language other than English, an error message is displayed.
In IBM Knowledge Center, the documentation is available only in English.	The product documentation for IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 8.1.9.000 is available only in English. You can display a topic in a different language by going to the lower-right corner of the documentation topic and clicking the required language. However, the documentation is at the 8.1.7.000 level.
The DEFINE DEVCLASS (Define a 3592 device class) and the UPDATE DEVCLASS (Update a 3592 device class) topics require updates.	For the FORMAT parameter, the following additional values can be specified: 3592-6 3592-6C A value of 3592-6 specifies the uncompressed format, which can be used with IBM TS1160 drives. The default estimated capacity is 5 TB for uncompressed (basic) format JM tapes and 20 TB for uncompressed (basic) format JE/JV tapes. A value of 3592-6C specifies the compressed format, which can be used with IBM TS1160 drives. The default estimated capacity depends on the compressibility of the data. The 3592-6C recording format can be used with compressed format JM tapes and compressed format JE/JV tapes.
In some cases, processes that were initiated by the servermon component are not terminated correctly.	To monitor the IBM Spectrum Protect server, the servermon component initiates operating system commands. In some cases, when the servermon component requests the termination of command processing, the processes are not terminated correctly. For example, you might see a message that indicates that an iostat process is still running: The user tsminst1 is currently used by process 470151 [root@kiwi9 ~]# ps -ef | grep 470151 root     298210 207698  0 16:41 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto 470151 tsminst1 470151      1  0 00:00 ?        00:00:20 iostat -xtk 30 If this issue occurs, take the following steps: 1. To determine whether the servermon component is enabled, issue the following command: query opt alwaysonservermon   2. If the servermon component is enabled, update the server options file to temporarily disable the component: alwaysonservermon off 3. Manually stop any running processes. For example, to stop the previously mentioned iostat process, you would issue the following command: kill -9 470151 4. Restart the IBM Spectrum Protect server.   5. To re-enable the servermon component, update the server options file: alwaysonservermon on 6. Restart the IBM Spectrum Protect server.
To use the storage area network (SAN) discovery feature on a Linux on Power Systems (little endian) operating system, you must install an appropriate host bus adapter (HBA) application programming interface (API) library.	Contact the HBA vendor to obtain the API library. Then, install the library by following the instructions in technote 712281.
To use the SAN discovery feature on a Linux x86_64 server with the Ubuntu Server LTS operating system, you must install an appropriate HBA API library.	Contact the HBA vendor to obtain the API library. Then, install the library by following the instructions in technote 711781.
In the configuration wizard, some fields might be distorted.	If you run the configuration wizard (dsmicfgx) by using a Unicode locale (such as EN_US or DE_DE), fields for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) entries might be distorted. The fields are smaller in height than other fields in the user interface. No action is required to resolve this issue. You can enter values in the fields, and the values are processed. Alternatively, to work around the issue, you can run the configuration wizard by using a non-Unicode locale such as en_US or de_DE. Tip: Ensure that you set the language of the server to the correct locale. By default, the configuration wizard uses the operating system's locale. For more information, see technote 720087.
The Russian-language configuration wizard does not support uppercase letters and special characters.	This issue occurs only on the AIX operating system when the Russian-language locale is specified. In the configuration wizard, if you press the Shift key to enter uppercase or special characters, the expected uppercase or special characters are not displayed. To resolve the issue, switch to another locale and then use the configuration wizard. For instructions, see technote 875156.
The output of QUERY and SELECT commands might not be displayed correctly if the characters were created in a code page that is different from the system locale of the IBM Spectrum Protect server.	This issue occurs only if the IBM Spectrum Protect server is installed on a Windows operating system. If the characters in free text fields were created in a code page that is different from the system locale of the server, values in the free text fields might not be displayed correctly, for example: register node node01 node01Pw contact="經理' If a user enters text in a language that differs from the system locale, the issue can also occur. For example, the system locale is English, but the user defines a retention rule by entering French characters for the DESCRIPTION parameter: define retrule rule1 NODE01 retention=150 description="Çàâ" startdate=12/20/2018 starttime=01:00:00 schedstyle=classic frequency=weekly dayofweek=saturday If the QUERY RETRULE command is issued, the output does not display the French characters (Çàâ) correctly. This issue affects only the display of text and does not affect server operations. This issue is not limited to Fix Pack 8.1.9.000.
Restrictions apply to the REMOVE STGPROTECTION command.	Review the restrictions: If you issue the PROTECT STGPOOL or REPAIR STGPOOL command on a source server, you cannot simultaneously run the REMOVE STGPROTECTION command on the corresponding storage pools on the target server. If you issue the REMOVE STGPROTECTION command on a source server, you cannot simultaneously run the REPAIR STGPOOL command on the corresponding storage pools on the target server.
Restrictions apply to the operations and storage pool types that are supported for network data management protocol (NDMP) operations.	Review the restrictions: Data deduplication is supported only with NetApp file servers and only if the file servers do not use SnapMirror to Tape backup operations. Container storage pools are supported only with NetApp file servers and only if the file servers do not use SnapMirror to Tape backup operations. For more information about the operations and storage pool types that are supported for different brands of file servers, see Storage pool types for NDMP operations.
Restrictions apply when you specify the DEFRAG parameter on the MOVE CONTAINER command.	To avoid possible issues, do not run the MOVE CONTAINER command with the DEFRAG=YES option during data ingestion, backup, or delete operations.
Caching policy for storage systems might cause data corruption.	For storage systems that have aggressive caching policies in which data is confirmed as written before it is committed to permanent storage, data corruption can occur if a power outage or other event prevents the write cache from being committed. The write cache typically has a battery to prevent loss of data from the cache during short power outages. If a power outage occurs and no battery is available, or the battery cache is full, or the length of the power outage exceeds battery capacity, or another event occurs that prevents the write cache from being committed, any data that IBM Spectrum Protect is managing can become corrupted. This data includes the location of data, the size of the volumes to which data was written, and data deduplication information that links data to multiple objects. For more information about requirements for committing cached data to permanent storage, see technote 330991.
Network connection to a NetApp file server becomes unresponsive during a logical interface (LIF) failover.	When IBM Spectrum Protect is configured for network data management protocol (NDMP) operations in a NetApp clustered environment, the network connection to the NetApp file server might become unresponsive during backup operations. You might experience this issue when a LIF failover occurs in the NetApp cluster. IBM Spectrum Protect does not support LIF failovers for NDMP operations.
IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager is not available in IBM Spectrum Protect V8.1 product releases.	The Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager component is not delivered in IBM Spectrum Protect V8 product releases. Instead, you can monitor your storage environment by using the Operations Center, a web-based user interface. For instructions, see Installing and upgrading the Operations Center. Tip: In limited lab testing, Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager V7 was used to monitor an IBM Spectrum Protect V8 server and to generate reports. For instructions about installing and configuring Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager, see technote 233995.

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The following information is for devices that are supported by IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 8.1.9.000.

Fix history

To view APARs that were resolved in Fix Pack 8.1.9.000, see technote 285607.

Supported devices

For information about the devices and hardware that you can use with IBM Spectrum Protect, see the support website for your operating system:

• AIX and Windows
• Linux

  Configuring storage or the IBM Spectrum Protect Tape Solution Guide.

The following table provides actions that you can take to more efficiently manage your devices and to avoid device configuration issues.
 

Action	Description
Ensure that HBAs meet requirements.	For best results, connect tape drives and tape libraries to the system on their own host bus adapter (HBA). Do not share the HBA with other device types, such as DISK.
Do not exceed the maximum number of devices that are supported by IBM Spectrum Protect.	For information about the maximum number of devices that you can use with IBM Spectrum Protect device drivers on each operating system, see technote 383063.
Review the support information for Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) device support.	SAS devices can be used with some operating system versions and architectures. For information about operating systems versions and architectures for SAS devices, see technote 394713.
Review requirements for running the IBM Spectrum Protect passthru driver with a non-root user ID on Linux operating systems.	For information about how a non-root user ID can use devices with the IBM Spectrum Protect passthru driver on Linux, see technote 360121. To ensure that non-root user IDs can use devices that are configured with the IBM Spectrum Protect passthru driver, specify option -g or -a in the device autoconf utility. To add read and write permissions for groups to the SCSI generic driver (sg) device files, specify option -g. To add read and write permissions for all users to the sg device files, specify option -a.
Ensure that libraries meet requirements.	IBM Spectrum Protect Extended Edition is required for a library with more than four drives or more than 48 storage slots. For a library with multiple drives, a drive element address is required for the DEFINE DRIVE and UPDATE DRIVE commands. However, if the library reports drive serial numbers, you can specify ELEMENT=AUTODETECT, and the element address is not required. Alternatively, you can automatically associate a library with its drives by issuing the PERFORM LIBACTION command, and specifying ACTION=DEFINE.

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The Operations Center is a web-based interface that you can use to manage your IBM Spectrum Protect environment.

Fix history

To view APARs that were resolved in this fix pack, see technote 291549.

Compatibility with the IBM Spectrum Protect server

For information about Operations Center compatibility with the IBM Spectrum Protect server, see technote 496593.

System requirements

For Operations Center system requirements, see technote 499473.

Obtaining the Operations Center installation package

Download this fix pack from Fix Central.

To learn about updates in Operations Center Fix Pack 8.1.9.000, see Operations Center updates.

Limitations and known issues

For a list of known issues, see technote 1079529.

 

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