IT27012: DURING BACKUP, VM SNAPSHOT DELTA FILES CAN BECOME VERY LARGE CAUSING A LONG CONSOLIDATION PROCESS AT THE END OF THE BACKUP

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• IBM Spectrum Protect Plus takes a snapshot of a VM during
  the backup. This process creates a snapshot delta file. Any
  changes written to the VM will write to the delta file. At the
  end of the backup, the snapshot is removed which then merges
  the snapshot delta file back with the file system. The size of
  the snapshot delta file is proportional to the amount of writes
  on the guest during the backup. To minimize the size of the
  snapshot delta file, the VM snapshot should be taken as close
  as possible to the beginning of data transfer.
  IBM Spectrum Protect Plus currently takes a VM snapshot and
  then selects the proxy for the data transfer. If no proxy is
  available to transfer the data, then the duration of the
  snapshot lifecycle is increased, thereby increasing the size
  of snapshot delta file.
  
  No visible errors are reported in the job log for this. The
  consolidation of the VM will take longer which causes the
  overall job to run longer.
  

Local fix

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
  * IBM Spectrum Protect Plus levels  10.1.1 and 10.1.2          *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
  * See ERROR DESCRIPTION.                                       *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  * This issue  is currently projected to be fixed in level      *
  * 10.1.3. Note that this is subject to change at the           *
  * discretion of IBM                                            *
  ****************************************************************
  

Problem conclusion

• The proxy selection has been refactored so that the proxy is
  selected before the snapahsot is taken. The proxy selection
  for the VM was happening after the snapshot
  was taken. If proxy selection took a long time then the
  lifecycle was unnecessarily long. Proxy selection has been
  adjusted to be performed before the VM snapshot is taken.
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Modules/Macros

• VADP
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  SP PLUS

• Fixed component ID

  5737SPLUS

Applicable component levels