Safeguarded Copy in IBM® FlashSystems/IBM Spectrum Virtualize

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IBM Spectrum Virtualize is mapped to an Administrator account in Copy Services Manager to provide automated backup copies and data recovery.

Copy Services Manager automatically detects volume groups with defined Safeguarded backup policies and creates safeguarded backup copies according to the schedule defined in the policy.

Automated sessions

To use Safeguarded Copy for IBM Spectrum Virtualize, you do not need to create sessions in Copy Services Manager. Copy Services Manager automates the creation of Safeguarded Copy sessions based on the volume groups that are defined on the system. Copy Services Manager also supports testing, restoring, and recovering operations with safeguarded backup copies. To configure the Safeguarded Copy function, it is recommended to create a new Administrator user.
After a connection is established, Copy Services Manager queries the system every 5 minutes to process volume groups with Safeguarded backup policies.
When Copy Services Manager detects a new populated volume group with a Safeguarded backup policy, it creates a session. After a session is created it adds all volumes in the volume group to the session. It also creates a scheduled task to create the Safeguarded backup copies. The session remains until the volume group is deleted or it no longer contains any volumes.
Scheduled tasks that are created automatically by Copy Services Manager cannot be modified. However, you can set up automatic collection of log files when an error occurs or set-up tasks that are run when the current task completes.
During the automated 5-minutes check, if Copy Services Manager identifies a volume group that is modified to no longer have a Safeguard backup policy, the scheduled task is removed from Copy Services Manager. The creation of backups is also stopped. If the policy is modified or a new policy is applied to the volume group, Copy Services Manager makes the appropriate changes as well.
Copy Services Manager detects and handles changes to the volume group. It automatically adds or removes copy set from the session.
To prevent Copy Services Manager from automatically discovering volume groups with policies, you can add the following property to server properties.
```
 csm.server.enable.auto.specv.sgc=false
```
Note: When this property is added, any existing sessions and tasks that are discovered, are removed from Copy Services Manager as well. The volume group and backups remain on the storage system.

Manual backup

You can create manual backups in between the scheduled task by running the Backup command in the session. You are prompted to specify a retention time for the backup.

Backup copies expiration

After copies expire according to the Safeguarded backup policy, IBM Spectrum Virtualize deletes them from the Safeguarded backup location. Copy Services Manager cannot expire or delete existing backups. If you need to detect an expired copy sooner, you can run the Refresh States command on the session to force Copy Services Manager to run the query.

Recovering and restoring data

To recover a backup to a set of new recovery volumes, run the Recover Backup command and then select the relevant backup to recover. Copy Services Manager creates a recovery volume by using one or more parent pools of the source volumes or the pool that is specified in the Session properties. To view the volume names, click the Recover Backup Info tab on the session details panel. A pop-up window with all the >R1 volumes in the session is displayed.
When a recovered backup is no longer needed, you can run the Terminate H1R1 command on the session, and select one or more recovered backups that you want to delete. This removes the relationships for the backups and deletes the recovery volumes from the hardware.
If the same backup is recovered to again without previously terminating the relationships, the data from the backup is reflashed onto the existing R1 volumes. New volumes are not created again, unless a Terminate H1R1 is issued.
If you want to end the H1R1 recovery relationship but permanently keep the R1 volume, run the Terminate H1R1 Keep R1 command.
Note: When you run the Terminate H1R1 Keep R1 command, Copy Services Manager stops managing the R1 volume. If the volume is no longer needed in the future, you must delete it from the IBM Spectrum Virtualize command-line interface(CLI) and graphical user interface(GUI).
You can restore the original source from a backup by running the Restore Backup command and then selecting the relevant backup that you want to restore. Copy Services Manager automatically copies the data from the backup image that is selected to the original source. The session remains in the Restoring state until the restore is complete.

Recovery Volumes

When creating recovery volumes, Copy Services Manager uses the mkvolume command on the Spectrum Virtualize system. This allows the volume to use the provisioning policy that is assigned to the pool to define the attributes of the newly created volumes. To ensure that your recovery volumes have the correct attributes, you must define a provisioning policy on the pool that is associated with the recovery volumes. By default the recovery volumes are created in the source volume's parent pool. You can change the location of the pool recovery volumes by updating the Recovery Pool option on the Recovery Options tab for the Copy Services Manager session.

You can assign and remove recovery volumes from a host or host cluster by using the Copy Services Manager GUI.

Assign R1 to host: To assign the R1 volumes to a host or host cluster, perform the following steps:
1. In the Copy Services Manager GUI, click the Recover Backup Info tab and select a recovered backup. A table with all the R1 volumes is displayed.
2. Select one or more R1 volumes from the table and click Assign R1 to Host. A confirmation window appears with a list of host or host clusters that are connected to the storage device.
3. Select the host or host cluster that you want to map to the R1 volumes and click Yes. The R1 volume or volumes is successfully assigned to the host and a confirmation message is displayed.
Remove R1 host mappings: To remove a host mapping from R1 volumes, perform the following steps:
1. In the Copy Services Manager GUI, click the Recover Backup Info tab and select a recovered backup. A table with all the R1 volumes is displayed.
2. Select one or more R1 volumes from the table and click Remove Host Mapping. All the host and host cluster mappings are removed from the selected R1 volumes and a confirmation message is displayed.

Recovery Options

The following recover options are available.

Background copy rate: Set copy rate for the recovery relationships that the storage system uses to perform the background copy of the FlashCopy®.
Recovery pool: Choose a pool that is to be used to automatically create volumes for recovery relationships. If a pool is not specified, the pool of the source H1 volume is used.