General installation prerequisites and considerations

Before installing the space management client on any system, review the general requirements and considerations.

Installation prerequisites

You must install the IBM Spectrum Protect™ backup-archive client and you must have authority to install the space management client.

You must have root user authority to install, set up, and use the space management client on your workstation.
You must install and set up the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client before you install the space management client. Both the space management client and IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive clients share common code, the same options files, communication protocols, node registration, and storage.

Pre-existing files in the installation directory can be deleted

The /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/hsm/bin directory is one of the base directories into which the space management client product is installed. Any files that you place in this directory might be deleted during installation. Do not place the following files into this directory:

dsm.opt files
dsm.sys files
Include-exclude files
User-created files

Installation steps overview

The following steps are an overview of the installation procedure.

Before installing anything, read all of these general requirements. Read your system installation overview, specific environment requirements, and each installation step to ensure that you are ready to install the space management client.
Follow your system-specific installation procedure.
When you complete the installation, register your workstation as a node with the IBM Spectrum Protect server.
Modify the dsm.sys and dsm.opt configuration files. Both files are in the following directory:
- For AIX®: /usr/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin
- For Linux: /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin

Reinstallation or upgrade overview

Before you reinstall the space management client, stop all activity and do not access any files on file systems to which you added space management. The installation process fails otherwise. Follow the upgrade procedure as described for your operating system. If the steps tell you to uninstall and reinstall the backup archive client and API, you must complete those steps. Uninstalling and reinstalling brings those packages to the same level as the space management client.

You must not upgrade with a command like rpm -U. You must not refresh with a command like rpm -F. You must uninstall the old version and then install the new version.

The space management client limitations and considerations

The space management client has limitations.

Journal-based backup is not supported when the space management client for IBM Spectrum Scale™ AIX systems is installed.
The space management client for IBM Spectrum Scale systems manages only file systems that belong to the local (home) IBM Spectrum Scale cluster; it does not manage remotely mounted file systems.
On an IBM Spectrum Scale cluster with Linux and AIX nodes, install the space management client on Linux nodes only or on AIX nodes only. Do not install the space management client on Linux nodes and AIX nodes that are on the same IBM Spectrum Scale cluster.
In a mixed platform IBM Spectrum Scale cluster environment, it is recommended to back up or archive a HSM-managed file system on a node that runs HSM processes. Otherwise, all HSM-migrated files are recalled during backup or archive operations.
The space management client is not compatible with DMAPI applications that use any of the following DMAPI events on the space-managed file system:
- DM_EVENT_READ
- DM_EVENT_WRITE
- DM_EVENT_TRUNCATE
- DM_EVENT_PREUNMOUNT
- DM_EVENT_NOSPACE
- DM_EVENT_DESTROY
Any DMAPI application on the space-managed file system must respond to the DM_EVENT_MOUNT event with DM_RESP_DONTCARE.
The space management client is not supported on a GPFS file system that is automatically mounted when accessed. In other words, do not specify automount for the -A parameter of the IBM Spectrum Scale mmcrfs or mmchfs commands. Specify either yes or no for this parameter. Check the file system configuration with the IBM Spectrum Scale command mmlsfs <device name> -A.
Do not use the nfstimeout option with the space management client. Using the nfstimeout option on a system with the space management client can lead to unpredictable behavior of the space management client applications, which includes applications that can stop unexpectedly. This option is used for backing up NFS file systems, which cannot be managed by the space management client. If this option is required for the backup-archive client, then specify different server stanzas for the backup-archive client and the space management client.
The recall daemon, dsmrecalld, uses the registered RPC program number 300781 (decimal). Do not use this RPC program number for other applications.
For high workloads, when for example many recall requests need to be processed at the same time, configure sufficient IBM Spectrum Scale dmapiWorkerThreads and worker1Threads options. See the IBM Spectrum Scale documentation for details.
It is not recommended to turn on the Linux kernel.hung_task_panic parameter on the system with the space management client installed, since it is normal for the space management client to call blocking DMAPI system calls that can wait for a long time.