Backup-archive client updates

Learn about new features and updates for the backup-archive client in IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager Version 7.

Release	New features and updates
V7.1.6	Tivoli Storage Manager products are delivered only electronically The Tivoli Storage Manager family of products are now delivered as electronic releases. Physical media is no longer available as part of the standard product offering in Passport Advantage. The announcement letter also provides this information. Announcement letters are available at http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi. IBM is developing products by using a continuous delivery model, which supports more frequent product updates. If you require physical media for legal or other reasons, contact your sales representative. Windows client installation program is renamed The Windows backup-archive client installation program, setup.exe, is renamed to spinstall.exe. Use spinstall.exe to install the backup-archive client. For more information, see: Installing the Windows client for the first time Upgrading the Windows client VMware tagging support is available for backup-archive clients on data mover nodes Tagging support of VMware virtual machines is available in the backup-archive client on data mover nodes. When the vmtagdatamover option is enabled, the client manages backups of VMware virtual machines according to the backup management settings or tags in the IBM Data Protection extension in the vSphere Web Client. You can also display the management class settings with the backup vm -preview command. If you want to use the tagging feature, but you do not use the IBM Data Protection extension, you can assign tags to virtual machines by using your own scripts. The set vmtags command can be used to create backup management tags and categories that can be added to virtual machines. For more information, see: Vmtagdatamover Backup VM Set Vmtags Client-side LZ4 compression is available during backup and archive processing A faster and more efficient compression method is used when client-deduplicated data is sent to an LZ4-compatible container storage pool on the Tivoli Storage Manager server during backup or archive processing. The server must be at V7.1.5 or later, and must use container storage pools. Client-side LZ4 compression is used only when client-side data deduplication is enabled. For more information, see: Compression Query Backup Query Archive Collect client performance data whenever you run backup and restore operations By default, instrumentation data is automatically collected by the backup-archive client and Tivoli Storage Manager API to identify performance bottlenecks during backup and restore processing. To disable or later enable instrumentation, use the enableinstrumentation option. The enableinstrumentation option replaces the -TESTFLAG=instrument:detail, -TESTFLAG=instrument:API, and -TESTFLAG=instrument:detail/API options that are used in previous versions of the client and API. You can optionally change the name and location of the instrumentation log file by using the instrlogname option. You can also control the size of the log file by specifying the instrlogmax option. For more information, see: Enableinstrumentation Instrlogname Instrlogmax
V7.1.4.4	Prevent out-of-space errors during VMware virtual machine backups To prevent out-of-space errors during virtual machine backup operations, set the threshold percentage of space usage for each VMware datastore of a virtual machine by using the vmdatastorethreshold option. If the threshold is exceeded, the virtual machine is not backed up. For more information, see Vmdatastorethreshold. Protect data on Ubuntu Linux on Power Systems™ (Little Endian) The backup-archive client is now available on the Ubuntu 14.04 operating system on Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian). To install the client, see Installing the backup-archive client on Ubuntu Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian).
V7.1.4	Back up VMware virtual machine disks as large as 8 TB Use the new vmmaxvirtualdisks option to set the maximum size of the VMware virtual machine disks (VMDKs) that can be backed up. For more information, see Vmmaxvirtualdisks. Updated name for the vmskipmaxvmdks option The vmskipmaxvmdks option is renamed vmskipmaxvirtualdisks. Use this option to specify how a backup operation processes VMDKs that exceed the maximum disk size. For more information, see Vmskipmaxvirtualdisks. Protect VMware virtual volume datastores You can now back up and restore virtual machines that are hosted on VMware virtual volume (vVol) datastores. For more information, see the datastore parameter in Restore VM. Protect IBM Spectrum Scale for Linux on z Systems IBM Spectrum Scale™ is based on IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS™) technology. For a complete list of the z Systems that you can protect, see Technote 1066436, IBM Linux zSeries Client Requirements. Protect data on Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian) The backup-archive client is now available on Linux distributions that are running on IBM Power Systems POWER8® (Little Endian Linux) platforms. To install the client on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.1 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 operating systems, see Installing the backup-archive client on Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian).
V7.1.3	Estimate compliance with license entitlements From the Tivoli Storage Manager Operations Center, administrators can view front-end and back-end capacity usage to estimate compliance with license entitlements. Important: The backup-archive client software must be at the most recent level for the Operations Center to present complete data. Configure web-based file restore for Data Protection for VMware The set password command is updated. The new TYPE=DOMAIN parameter stores credentials for Windows domain controller logins in the Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware file restore environment. For more information, see Set Password. Language packs are consolidated If you operate the backup-archive client in a language other than English, you no longer need to download and install separate language files. The language files are part of the client installation package and are installed automatically. For information about product installation, see the following topics: Install the UNIX and Linux backup-archive clients Windows backup-archive client installation overview Back up GPFS file systems that contain Active File Management file sets You can back up files from General Parallel File System (GPFS) file systems that contain Active File Management file sets. The afmskipuncachedfiles option controls whether uncached and dirty files in Active File Management file sets are processed. For more information, see Afmskipuncachedfiles.
V7.1.2.2	Back up and restore NetApp filers in a cluster mode environment Support has been added to enable backup and restore operations for NetApp filers in a cluster mode environment on NetApp ONTAP 8.2.x, where x is 0 or higher. For more information, see: Protecting clustered-data ONTAP NetApp file server volumes Set Netappsvm
7.1.2	Protect data on Ubuntu Linux The backup-archive client is now supported on Ubuntu Linux 14.04, 64-bit. For installation instructions see Installing the Ubuntu Linux x86_64 client. To uninstall the client from Ubuntu, see Uninstalling the Ubuntu Linux x86_64 client. Tivoli Storage Manager API on Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian) The API is now supported on Linux distributions that are running on IBM Power® 8 Little Endian (LE) platforms. Instructions for installing the API on this platform are on the web at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21690409. Specify the number of snapshot attempts for a VMware virtual machine backup operation For VMware backup operations, you can use the INCLUDE.VMSNAPSHOTATTEMPS client option to specify the total number of snapshot attempts to try for a VMware virtual machine that fails during backup processing due to a snapshot failure. For a description of the option settings, see INCLUDE.VMSNAPSHOTATTEMPTS.
7.1.1	AES 256-bit encryption added as an available encryption type in the backup-archive client and the API AES 256-bit encryption added as an available encryption type in the backup-archive client and the API. AES 256-bit encryption is used to encrypt data that is sent to the Tivoli Storage Manager server. AES-256 encryption is used as a more secure algorithm for data encryption, which can be used to encrypt data that you back up, archive, restore, or retrieve. Added option to disable security protocols that are lower than TLS 1.2 In order to comply with new US federal requirements for new cryptographic standards, the ability to restrict SSL protocols to TLS 1.2 or above is available. If you want to disable security protocols that are lower than TLS 1.2, add the SSLDISABLELEGACYtls yes option to the client options file or select Require TLS 1.2 or above in the backup-archive client GUI. Selecting this check box can prevent spoofing attacks by malicious programs that accept lower-level protocol connections even if the Tivoli Storage Manager server does not. Support for Solaris x86_64 is reintroduced Backup-archive clients can now be installed and run on Solaris x86_64 and Solaris SPARC systems. Software and hardware requirements for all supported versions of Tivoli Storage Manager Oracle Solaris clients are provided on the IBM support portal. To view the requirements, see the following support pages: Solaris SPARC Client Requirements, at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21052211 Solaris x86/x86_64 Client Requirements, at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21232956 The references in this document that previously referred only to SPARC were altered so they now refer to either platform. Windows Backup-archive client and API support for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 New Windows Backup-Archive Client and API support that is introduced for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1. For more information, see http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21197133. Enhanced support for Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines Enhanced support for Microsoft Hyper-V configurations is provided. You must be licensed to use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V to use the enhancements. These enhancements apply only to Windows clients in Hyper-V Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2 environments. The enhancements provide the following capabilities: More efficient backups and restores. You can use incremental-forever backup modes to back up Hyper-V virtual machines. Specifically, you can use either of the following modes: Incremental-forever-incremental mode, which shortens backup times by backing up only the blocks of a virtual machine’s disks that changed since the last backup. Incremental-forever-full mode, which backs up all the used disk blocks on a virtual machine. You can also now use two client options (mbobjrefreshthresh or mbpctrefreshthresh) to optimize the storage of virtual machine backups in the Tivoli Storage Manager database. Parallel backups are possible, by using the vmmaxparallel option. For more information about these options: Backup VM Mode Mbobjrefreshthresh Mbpctrefreshthresh Vmmaxparallel Other commands and options for Hyper-V virtual machines. More backup-archive client commands and options were modified for use during backup and restore operations for Hyper-V virtual machines. You must be licensed to use Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V to use these enhancements. For additional information: Domain.vmfull Include.vm Vmbackuptype Vmlist Vmrestoretype Vmmc Vmctlmc Backup VM Query VM Restore VM File-level recovery for Hyper-V virtual machines. As in earlier versions, you can use the backup-archive client to restore entire virtual machines. You can now also recover individual files for a virtual machine, by using the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent. File-level recovery requires a Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V. Restore a Hyper-V virtual machine to an alternative path or host. You can use the backup-archive client that is installed on a Hyper-V host to restore backed-up virtual machines. You can restore them to the same host and location that they occupied before they were backed up, or you can restore them to a different Hyper-V host. The virtual machine configuration must be compatible with the alternative Hyper-V host operating system and configuration. Protection for Hyper-V virtual machines on remote file shares. You can now back up and restore Hyper-V guests that exist on a remote file share. The file share must be on a Windows Server 2012, or newer, Windows Server operating system. New client option to lock virtual machine snapshots so they cannot be expired. The vmexpireprotect option can be used to lock snapshots on the server. When locked, a snapshot cannot be expired if another snapshot is added to the snapshot sequence. This option can be used during instant restore and instant access operations, for VMware virtual machines, or when you perform file-level restore operations for Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines by using the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent. For a description of the option and its settings, see Vmexpireprotect. This option is available only if you have a license to use either Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware or Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V.
7.1.0	Automated client failover for data recovery The backup-archive client can be set up to automatically fail over to the secondary server when the primary Tivoli Storage Manager server is unavailable. When the client fails over to the secondary server, you can restore or retrieve any data that has been replicated. For more information, see Automated client failover configuration and use. Snapshot differential backup with a secure HTTPS connection You can use the snapdiffhttps option to run snapshot differential backups of NetApp filers with a secure HTTPS connection. To successfully run snapshot differential backups, previous releases of the backup-archive client required HTTP administrative access to be enabled on the NetApp filer. With the snapdiffhttps option, you can establish a secure administrative session with the NetApp filer regardless of whether HTTP administrative access is enabled on the filer. For more information, see Snapshot differential backup with an HTTPS connection. For more information, see Snapshot differential backup with an HTTPS connection. Snapshot differential backups enhanced with persistent change log database Snapshot differential backup operations are enhanced to minimize the need to run full progressive incremental backups. The backup-archive client must complete an initial full progressive incremental backup without failures before snapshot differential backups can occur. The persistent snapshot differences change log database is used to track the differences between two snapshots when a snapshot differential backup is completed. The change log persists between backup operations. These enhancements are included the backup-archive client program and do not require user interaction. There are no documentation updates for this feature. Tivoli Storage Manager V 7.1 supports the BTRFS (B-tree) file system on SLES 11 SP2, or later, on IBM System x®, System p, and System z®. In previous releases, you could back up and restore BTRFS file systems, but they were identified as an unknown file system in the backup-archive client GUI (click the information icon) and command output. You can now back up and restore data in Btrfs file systems with the backup-archive client on Linux. Btrfs file system ACLs and extended attributes are also backed up. You can also archive, retrieve, run image backups, and perform image restore operations on the Btrfs file system. For more information, see Backing up and restoring Btrfs file systems. VM functionality added to the delete backup and expire commands The delete backup and the expire command have been enhanced to support the -objtype=VM option. When this option is entered, the commands deal only with VM backups. This new feature applies to platforms that support VM. The delete backup command can be used to delete backups of VM filespaces, either active or inactive versions. When the -objtype=VM option is used, this specifies that you want to delete one or more versions of VM backups. When -objtype=VM is entered, the deltype and filelist options can not be used. The expire command can be used to expire an active VM backup. New parameter added to INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS option A new parameter has been added to the INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS client option to enhance Tivoli Storage Manager application protection functions. If `OPTions KEEPSqllog` is specified on an INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS statement, this parameter prevents SQL server logs from being truncated when a backup-archive client that is installed on a data mover node backs up a virtual machine that is running a SQL server. Specifying this parameter allows the SQL server administrator to manually manage (backup, and possibly truncate) the SQL server logs, so they can be preserved as needed and be used to restore SQL transactions to a specific checkpoint, after the virtual machine is restored. Protection for vCloud vApps added Customers who are licensed to use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments can now back up, query, and restore vCloud vApps. New commands and new options are added to support vCloud vApps. New or changed commands: Set Access Set password Backup VAPP Restore VAPP Query VAPP New options: Domain.vcd Vcdhost Vcduser Vcdpw TLS/SSL is now supported on Mac OS X clients Mac OS X client and server communications can now be secured by TLS/SSL encryption. Support added for Automated System Recovery (ASR) of Windows clients that use UEFI ASR data backup and ASR recovery are now supported on Windows client systems that use boot by using either BIOS or Universal Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Instant access and instant restore is supported for Windows clients running on Windows vStorage backup servers Customers who are licensed to use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments can use client options and commands to restore a VMware virtual machine backup that will be available for immediate use, either for validating the backed up data or for restoring it to permanent storage. Instant access and instant restore operations and options are supported only for VMware virtual machines that are hosted on VMware ESXi 5.1 servers, or later versions. For information about using or configuring instant access or instant restore operations, see the following topics: Scenarios for running full VM instant access and full VM instant restore from the backup-archive client command line Query VM Restore VM Vmautostartvm Vmdiskprovision Vmiscsiserveraddress Vmtempdatastore Vmrestoretype Hyper-V support enhanced to support the new Microsoft API The backup-archive client has been updated to use the new Microsoft API for Hyper-V servers. This continues the support for backing up Hyper-V guests that run on a local disk or on cluster shared volumes.