Cloud Server Options

When you choose option 3, Cloud Servers, on the Parmlib Options Main Menu, the Cloud Server Display screen appears. It lists all cloud servers that are defined for use by Cloud Tape Connector. You can also create a new cloud definition, modify a definition, or delete one.

Figure 1. Parmlib Cloud Servers option showing Cloud Server Display screen
CUZ$PRMC V2R1    --------- Cloud Server Display --------- 2026/01/07  03:40:37 
Option  ===> ________________________________________________ Scroll ===> PAGE
                                                                               
Line Commands: C - Create E - Edit  D - Delete                                 
                                                                               
                                                     ROW 1 OF 36         +>    
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cmd Cld Name  Type  IP Address     Reposit S3Region Directory Path        Port       
___ MYCLOUD   HCP   ab0.cde1.hcp70 fg0.ten          Dir1/                 443        
___ HCP       HCP   ab0.cde1.hcp70 fg0.ten          Dir1/                 443        
___ CLS       CLS   2.10.16.134    mystuff          /                     80
___ S3        S3                   mystuf2          /                     3128
___ SFT       SFT   cb250.objst8                    /                     9000       
___ FTP       FTP   12.10.17.25                                           21       
***************************** Bottom of Data **********************************-->

When using Cloud Tape Connector, scroll right to view all columns on the Cloud Server Display screen. The fields in the Cloud Server Display are described as follows:

Cld Name
The cloud name is a user-defined name for linking filter criteria to a specific cloud definition. Type one to eight characters for the name of the cloud to be defined.

When you define filter criteria, which is described in Backup Filter Criteria, you assign a cloud name to a filter to specify which data you want to save to this cloud.

For example:
  1. You define a cloud named "PROD".
  2. You create a filter, based on the data set name, with a data set mask of MY.PROD.DATASETS.*.
  3. You assign this filter to cloud PROD.
The result is only the data sets that match this filter will be saved to cloud PROD.
Type or Cld Type
The type of protocol used for this cloud. Valid values are:
  • CLS - S3-compatible
  • FTP - File transfer protocol
  • HCP - Hitachi Content Platform
  • S3 - Amazon Simple Storage Service
  • SFT - IBM SoftLayer
  • PRX - Proxy Server
  • AZR - Microsoft Azure
  • GCP - Google Cloud Platform
IP Address
The Internet Protocol Address used to connect to the cloud. The IP Address can be up to 128 characters in length.
Repository
The name or location of the repository on the cloud where the data will be saved. The repository information can be up to 128 characters in length.
S3 Region
Specifies the region of the AWS S3 bucket. If you leave the S3 region field blank, the default region of us-east-1 applies for AWS S3 bucket.
Directory or Path
The name and path of the directory where the data will be saved. The directory information can be up to 255 characters in length.
Port
Identifies the port by which the product attempts to connect to the cloud server. Valid values range from 1 to 65535. The default is 80 for CLS, HCP, S3, SFT, and GCP clouds. For FTP, the default is 21.
RetryAtt
Indicates the number of times to attempt to reconnect with the cloud if the socket connection is dropped. Valid values range from 0 to 99. The default is 3.
RetryTime
Indicates the number of seconds to wait between connection attempts. Valid values range from 0 to 999. The default is 30.
DatRetry
Indicates the number of times to retry a data transfer. Keep in mind that a data transfer can be significantly more expensive than other network communications, because the Part Size can be 100MB or larger. The default is 0.
VirtHost
Indicates whether the connection to a CLS, S3, or GCP server should have the bucket name in front of the host name. For example, if this is enabled and S3 is the server, the product will connect to bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com, instead of the standard connection to s3.amazonaws.com. This is useful in some installations where advanced network routing is in place. Valid values are Y (yes) or N (no). The default is N.
Compression or Comp
Indicates whether to use zEnterprise Data Compression (zEDC) to compress data. The default is N (no).

If you specify either YES or Y Cloud Tape Connector attempts to use zEDC to compress the data when transferring to the cloud.

Note: For more information on zEDC, see http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248259.pdf

Compression can only be completed on systems with full z/EDC support. For systems that do not have the required hardware for z/EDC, decompressing the data can still be accomplished via z/EDC’s software inflate mode. Compressing data, however, cannot be accomplished via software mode.

ConnRetr(xxx,xxx)
Indicates the number of times the product attempts to reconnect with the cloud. It consists of two-part value:
  • The number of times the product attempts to reconnect if the socket connection is dropped. Valid values range from 1 to 999. The default is 5.
  • The number of seconds to wait between connection attempts. Valid values range from 1 to 999. The default is 30.
PartSize(xxx)
Indicates the maximum amount of data (part size), in MB, that will be transferred to the cloud during a transaction. Specify a number between 5 – 100. The default is 5MB.

The bigger the number, the better the performance will be, but at a memory cost. Specifying 100MB will gain the most in terms of performance, but does allocate a large memory area to hold the data.

Threads
Specifies that multiple concurrent threads will be used when writing data to S3, CLS, or GCP clouds. Using multiple threads can help large backups complete more . With each thread that is specified, there is an increase in the amount of memory that is needed. If you specify a value of 0, no multi-threading will be performed. Valid values range from 0 to 20. The default is 0.
Server-side Encryption
Specifies whether to use the server-side AES-256 encryption algorithm. The valid values are Yes and No.
  • If you specify "Y" (yes), Cloud Tape Connector adds the appropriate header to S3, CLS, or GCP traffic to comply with bucket policy that requires server-side encryption.
  • If you specify "N" (no), no additional header is added. The default is No.
PKDS Label
To encrypt data before sending it to the cloud server, you must specify the Public Key Data Set (pkds) label, which contains the public key that will be used to encrypt the data. During retrieval, the corresponding private key will be used to decrypt the data from the cloud server. The PKDS Label can be up to 64 characters in length. The default is to leave this field blank.

If you do not know the PKDS, contact your systems programmer for assistance.

Time-out
Specifies the maximum time (in seconds) that sockets are allowed to be in control during read (BPX1RED) calls. Valid values range from 0 to 999. Zero means that no time-out restrictions are applied. The default is 60.
Restore Partsize(xx)
Indicates the maximum amount of data (part size) in MB that will be restored from the cloud in a single thread. Specify a number between 1 and 50. The default value for this parameter is 5 MB.

If you specify 50 MB, a large memory area will be allocated to hold the data.

Use Proxy
Specifies whether a CLS, S3, or GCP server should be connected through the Proxy Server. The proxy server should be defined as a new cloud server type, PROXY. Valid values are Y (yes) or N (no). The default is N.
Time offset with cloud
Specifies the time difference between the requests that are sent to cloud and the cloud response. If the time of the day (TOD) clock of the system is not set to UTC time, the timestamp that is sent in the request will differ from cloud response.

For example, if TOD of the system is UTC+5.30, specify the Time offset with cloud as minus (-) 5.30. The default value for this field is +00.

Example

Consider the following values: 
PORT(8080),CONNRETRY(5,30),COMPRESSION(YES),PARTSIZE(25)

In this example, Cloud Tape Connector will try to connect to the cloud server using port 8080 instead of the default port of 80. On failed connections, Cloud Tape Connector will attempt to connect again to the cloud server 5 times, waiting 30 seconds between attempts. Compression through zEDC will be used when transferring data to the cloud, and the maximum part size is 25MB of data.

Note: The actual fields used vary based on the type of server you are using. Refer to the appropriate server information in this chapter for more details.

Line Commands

Choose one of these line commands for use on this screen:

  • C - Create a new cloud server definition.
  • D - Delete an existing cloud server definition.
  • E - Edit an existing cloud server definition.

Each of these line commands displays a window where you must follow instructions to complete the process.