Assigning a Safeguarded policy to a volume group

You can assign a different Safeguarded policy to a volume group. IBM Copy Services Manager manages Safeguarded polices.

The system supports a maximum of 32 Safeguarded policies with 3 pre-defined policies and 29 user-defined policies. If you create user-defined Safeguarded policies in the command-line interface, you can view and select these policies within the management GUI. Neither interface supports changes to pre-defined Safeguarded policies. The following pre-defined policies are supported:

Predefinedsgpolicy0: For this policy, Safeguarded backups are created daily and retained for a week. Use this policy for volume data that requires the highest recovery point objective (RPO). For example, volume data that is frequently updated and critical to your business can benefit from frequent copies and retention. Customer accounts, orders, or proprietary information are examples of data that can need more frequent backups. For more information, see your organization's business continuity plan.
Predefinedsgpolicy1: For this policy, Safeguarded backups are created weekly and retained for a month. Use this policy for application data that is updated frequently and requires a higher RPO, but might not contain business-critical data.
Predefinedsgpolicy2: For this policy, Safeguarded backups are created monthly and retained for a year. Use this policy for older data that is not updated frequently but still requires retention, such past customer accounts or employee records.

User-defined Safeguarded policies can only be created in the command-line interface, but can be viewed and selected when a Safeguarded policy is assigned to a volume group in the management GUI. Users with Administrator or Security Administrator privileges can change Safeguarded policies for volume groups.

Using the management GUI

In the management GUI, select Volumes > Volumes Groups.
Select the volume group that you want to assign a pre-defined policy to and select Group Actions > Manage Safeguarded policy.
If you want to change the Safeguarded policy that is assigned to the volume group, select the new Safeguarded policy. Safeguarded policy changes only apply to new Safeguarded backups. Any existing Safeguarded backups retain the current expiration and retention times.
Select a date and time when you want IBM Copy Services Manager to start creating Safeguarded backups that use the new Safeguarded policy. IBM Copy Services Manager queries the system every 5 minutes to process existing Safeguarded policies. The start time that is defined in the Safeguarded policy must factor in the possible 5-minute delay. When IBM Copy Services Manager detects a new Safeguarded policy for a volume group, it creates the session and scheduled task to create and manage the Safeguarded backups. IBM Copy Services Manager starts Safeguarded backups based on the start time and the copy interval that is defined in the Safeguarded policy. If the start time occurs before IBM Copy Services Manager has detected the policy, the Safeguarded backup is initiated based on the copy interval set in the Safeguarded policy and not at the start time.
Click Apply Changes.

Using the command-line interface (CLI)

To change the Safeguarded policy that is used for a volume group, enter the following command:

chvolumegroup -safeguardedpolicy safeguarded_policy_name -policystarttime start_time volume_group_name

where safeguarded_policy_name is the name of the new Safeguarded policy, the start_time is the designated start time for the policy, and volume_group_name is the name of the volume group.