IBM Spectrum Protect Version 7.1.7.000 fix pack readme files

The following readme files are available for the components that are associated with this release:

• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 7.1.7.000
• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect device support Fix Pack 7.1.7.000
• Readme file - IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center Fix Pack 7.1.7.000

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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.

The following information is for the IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 7.1.7.000.

Fix history
To view APARs that were resolved in this fix pack, see technote 1678116.

Compatibility with earlier versions
For compatibility with earlier versions, see technote 1053218.

System requirements
For server system requirements, see technote 556913.

Obtaining the IBM Spectrum Protect 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 from Version 7.1 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 you are upgrading from Version 5 or 6, download the IBM Spectrum Protect Version 7.1.7 server package from Passport Advantage. For more information about how to download the server package, see the Passport Advantage download document for Windows or the download document for AIX, Linux®, and UNIX®.

• IBM AIX
• HP-UX
• Linux
• Oracle Solaris
• Microsoft® 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 full list of features and updates that were introduced in this fix pack, see the server updates.

Before you enable the new LDAP authentication method, review the changes that are related to node and password definition:

• With the previous authentication method, if a node name matched a node administrative user ID, two different IDs were recognized for LDAP authentication purposes. With the new authentication method, if a node name matches a node administrative user ID, a single user ID is recognized for LDAP authentication purposes.
  
  For this reason, if you plan to enable the new authentication method and you are defining or updating a node, specify USERID=NONE or specify an administrative user ID that differs from the node name. If the administrative user ID matches the node name, you might see unexpected behavior, such as automatic password changes that update the same password twice. As a result, an updated password might be unknown to the administrative user ID.
• With the previous authentication method, you could specify passwords and password expiration for nodes and administrative user IDs by using the IBM Spectrum Protect server. With the new authentication method, passwords must be managed by using LDAP utilities. For this reason, if you enable the new authentication method by specifying AUTHENTICATION=LDAP on the REGISTER NODE, UPDATE NODE, REGISTER ADMIN, or UPDATE ADMIN commands, do not specify FORCEPWRESET=YES, and do not specify passwords.
  
  If FORCEPWRESET=YES is specified for an administrative user ID or node, and you plan to update the administrative user ID or node to use the new authentication method, change the password from the administrative client or node before you specify AUTHENTICATION=LDAP.

Use the new VALIDATE ASPERA command to determine whether Aspera FASP technology can optimize data transfer in your environment
You can use the new VALIDATE ASPERA command to determine whether Aspera® Fast Adaptive Secure Protocol (FASP®) technology can optimize data transfer in your system environment. Specifically, you can determine whether Aspera FASP technology would result in better network throughput than TCPIP technology.

You can also use the command to determine whether your system environment is correctly configured to use Aspera FASP technology and whether the required licenses are installed. The VALIDATE ASPERA command is available only on the Linux x86_64 operating system.

Aspera FASP technology can be useful in environments where node replication or storage pool protection is run in a wide area network (WAN) with latency, packet loss, or both.

Before you issue the command, complete the following tasks:

1. Ensure that at least one server is defined in your system environment. Issue the PING SERVER command to ensure that you have connectivity to the defined server.
2. To use the VALIDATE ASPERA command to determine the speed of network throughput, install 30-day evaluation licenses or full, unlimited licenses on the source and target servers. For instructions about obtaining and installing licenses, see Determining whether Aspera FASP technology can optimize data transfer in your system environment.

When you issue the VALIDATE ASPERA command, it blocks the administrative session and returns control only after the command completes processing or is canceled. If you run the VALIDATE ASPERA command and specify a target server, 2 GB of data is transferred by using Aspera FASP technology. Then, 10 MB of data is transferred by using TCP/IP. Depending on network impairment, the command might require several minutes to complete processing.

You can query the current transferred amount from another administrative session by issuing the QUERY SESSION command. (The session number is in the activity log.) For example, if the session number is 3, issue the following command:
query session 3

You can cancel the command from another administrative session by issuing the CANCEL SESSION command, for example:
cancel session 3

Restriction: You cannot run the VALIDATE ASPERA command from a server console. You can run the command from the administrative command-line client or the Operations Center command line.
 

• To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize a node replication process, specify a target server that is configured for node replication.
• To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize a storage pool protection process, specify a target server that is configured for storage pool protection.
• To determine whether Aspera FASP can optimize data transfer to a remote server that is defined but not configured for storage pool protection or node replication, specify that target server.
• If you do not specify a target server, the command output indicates whether the source server is correctly configured for Aspera FASP data transmission. The output also indicates whether a valid license for Aspera FASP is installed on the source server.
• If you specify a value for the bytes parameter in a highly compromised network
• If you specify a large value for the bytes parameter
• Never indicates that a full, unlimited license is installed.
• Today indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed and it expires today.
• Expired indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed, but expired.
• Number indicates that a 30-day evaluation license is installed and will expire in the specified number of days.
• License not found indicates that no license was found.

 

IBM Software Support might provide more update information as technotes at the Support Portal. 

Limitations and known issues

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

Issue	Description
Restrictions when using Aspera® Fast Adaptive Secure Protocol (FASP®) technology to optimize data transfer	Aspera FASP technology is available only on Linux x86_64 operating systems. To optimize data transfer, both servers must be running on a Linux x86_64 operating system. When you define or update a server in a replication pair by using the DEFINE SERVER or UPDATE SERVER command, ensure that the HLADDRESS parameter is specified in the correct format. This restriction also applies when you use the Operations Center to define a replication pair. For high-level addresses, use only IP addresses in IPv4 format or addresses that resolve to IPv4 addresses. Do not specify an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address or an address that resolves to an IPv6 address. This type of address includes one or more colons. Use of an IPv6 address results in connection errors or I/O failures.
Unsupported platforms for cloud storage pools	Cloud storage pools are not supported on HP-UX, Linux for System p or Linux for System z platforms.
Traditional Chinese characters do not display correctly in IBM Spectrum Protect Versions 7.1.3 through 7.1.7 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2	If you set the region and display language to Traditional Chinese on an IBM Spectrum Protect server that is running on a Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system, the server does not correctly display the Chinese characters.
Issues with starting IBM Spectrum Protect servers on SPARC 64-X processors	If you are using a Solaris system with a SPARC 64-X processor, see technote 1982582 for more system configuration information.
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 occurs that 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 there is no battery available, the battery cache is full, the length of the power outage has exceeded the capacity of the battery, 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 deduplication information that links data to multiple objects. For more information about requirements for committing cached data to permanent storage, see technote 1137676.
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 the V7.1.7.000 product release.	The Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager component is not available as part of the IBM Spectrum Protect V7.1.7.000 product release. You can use Tivoli Monitoring for Tivoli Storage Manager V7.1.3.000 to monitor IBM Spectrum Protect V7.1.7.000 and earlier servers and to produce historical reports about server and client activities. For documentation, see technote 233995.

IBM Software Support might provide more information about limitations and known issues for this fix pack as technotes at the Support Portal.

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The following information is for devices that are supported by IBM Spectrum Protect server Fix Pack 7.1.7.000.

Fix history

To view APARs that were resolved in Fix Pack 7.1.7.000, see technote 1652111.

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:

• IBM AIX, HP-UX, Oracle Solaris, and Microsoft Windows
• Linux

Configuring devices

For information about configuring and managing devices, see Configuring and managing the storage environment.

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 or CD.
Ensure that you 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 1364225.
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 1396706.
Review the support information for Windows 2008 Server Core	You can use Windows 2008 Server Core, a minimal server installation option for the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system. For information about configuring devices on Windows 2008 Server Core, see technote 1320150.
Install the latest level of the Emulex HBA driver on Oracle Solaris SPARC	To avoid IBM Spectrum Protect server hangs, install the latest level of the Emulex HBA driver on Oracle Solaris SPARC. For more information, see technote 1217457.
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 1321130. 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 greater than four drives or greater 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.

The following information is for the Operations Center Fix Pack 7.1.7.000.

Fix history

To view APARs that were resolved in this fix pack, see technote 1680270.

Compatibility with the IBM Spectrum Protect server

For information about Operations Center compatibility with the IBM Spectrum Protect server, see technote 1640917.

System requirements

For Operations Center system requirements, see technote 1653418.

Obtaining the Operations Center installation package

Download this fix pack from Fix Central.

Installing and upgrading

For installation and upgrade instructions, see Installing and upgrading the Operations Center.

Updates

For a list of features and updates that were introduced in this fix pack, see Operations Center updates.

IBM Software Support might provide more update information as technotes at the Support Portal.

Limitations and known issues

IBM Software Support provides information about limitations and known issues as technotes at the Support Portal.

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