Creating a policy-based replication backup

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The procedure describes how to create a policy-based replication (PBR) backup.

Before you begin

  • Register a storage provider before you create a backup job. See Registering an IBM Storage Virtualize for Snapshot provider.
  • Create a PBHA policy that you want to use for PBHA backup jobs. For more information, see Creating a policy-based high availability SLA policy.
  • Application backups created using PBR snapshots are crash-consistent by default. To create application-consistent backups, select the corresponding checkbox in the SLA policy.
  • Restoring a SQL database from a remote copy is not supported when the backup is created using a PBR policy. Only local disk-based restores are permitted. Even if the database resides on a host with access to both primary and disaster recovery (DR) site storage, the snapshot is taken at the DR site, rendering it a remote copy from the host’s perspective.
  • Restoring to a different SQL server that is connected to the DR site storage is not supported due to an existing limitation of SQL Server.
  • Restoring a database to an alternate SAP HANA server is not supported. Therefore, when a backup is created by using a PBR policy, you can only use it to restore the database on the original server that is connected to the DR storage instance. Restoring the backup to a different database server, even if it is connected to the DR storage, is not supported.
  • If a consistency group is enabled for PBR backup of storage volumes, all volumes must be in the same volume group.
  • For backup of application (database) volumes, all selected databases must be in the same volume group.
  • Do not run multiple separate backup jobs on a specific application at a time.
  • For issues related to PBHA and PBR, see Troubleshooting policy-based high availability and policy-based replication errors.

Procedure

  1. Click the Jobs tab. Expand the Storage Controller folder, then select IBM Storage Virtualize for Snapshot.
  2. Click New, then select Backup. The job editor opens.
  3. Enter a name for your job definition and a meaningful description.
  4. From the list of available volume groups and volumes, select the volume group or volume to snapshot. To exclude Flash Copies created by Copy Data Management from the list of volumes, select Exclude Flash Copies.
  5. Select an applicable SLA policy of the data backup.
  6. Click the job definition's associated Schedule Time field and select Enable Schedule to set a time to run the SLA policy. If a schedule is not enabled, run the job on demand through the Jobs tab. Repeat as necessary to add additional SLA policies to the job definition.

    If configuring more than one SLA policy in a job definition, select the Same as workflow option to trigger multiple SLA policies to run concurrently.

    Tip: Only SLA policies with the same RPO frequencies can be linked through the Same as workflow option. Define an RPO frequency when creating an SLA policy.
  7. To create the job definition using default options, click Create Job. The job runs as defined by your triggers, or can be run manually from the Jobs tab.
  8. To edit options before creating the job definition, click Advanced. Set the job definition options.
    Skip the Flash Copy Target Volumes
    Select this option to ensure FlashCopy® target volumes are excluded from jobs associated with the SLA policy.
    Maximum concurrent tasks
    Set the maximum amount of concurrent transfers between the source and the destination.
    Create consistency group
    If multiple volumes are selected in the Source tab (for example, volumes that contain data tied to an application) enable this option to add the volumes to a Snapshot to perform Copy Data functions on the entire group.
    Job-level scripts
    Job-level pre-scripts and post-scripts are scripts that can be run before or after a job runs at the job-level. A script can consist of one or many commands, such as a shell script for Linux®-based virtual machines or Batch and PowerShell scripts for Windows™-based virtual machines.
    In the Pre-Script and Post-Script section, click Select to select a previously uploaded script, or click Upload to upload a new script. Scripts can also be uploaded and edited through the Scripts view on the Configure tab. See Configure Scripts.
    After completion, the script displays in the Pre-Script or Post-Script section. Click the Parameters field at add a parameter to the script, then click Add. Additional parameters can be added to a script by entering parameters one at a time in the field, then clicking Add. Next, click the Identity field to add or create the credentials required to run the script. Finally, click the Application Server field to define the location where the script will be injected and executed. For parameter examples, see Using State and Status Arguments in Postscripts.
    Repeat the above procedure to add additional Pre-Scripts and Post-Scripts. For information about script return codes, see Return Code Reference.
    Select Continue operation on script failure to continue running the job if a command in any of the scripts that are associated with the job fails.

    To execute scripts on a remote Linux server, see Custom selection of a directory for script execution on a remote Linux server.

    Job-level snapshot scripts
    Snapshot prescripts and postscripts are scripts that can be run before or after a storage-based snapshot task runs. The snapshot prescript runs before all associated snapshots are run, while the snapshot postscript runs after all associated snapshots complete. A script can consist of one or many commands, such as a shell script for Linux-based virtual machines or Batch and PowerShell scripts for Windows-based virtual machines.
    In the Pre-Script and/or Post-Script section, click Select to select a previously uploaded script, or click Upload to upload a new script. Scripts can also be uploaded and edited through the Scripts view on the Configure tab. See Configure Scripts.
    After completion, the script displays in the Pre-Script or Post-Script section. Click the Parameters field at add a parameter to the script, then click Add. Additional parameters can be added to a script by entering parameters one at a time in the field, then clicking Add. Next, click the Identity field to add or create the credentials that are required to run the script. Finally, click the Application Server field to define the location where the script will be injected and executed. For parameter examples, see Using State and Status Arguments in Postscripts.
    Repeat the above procedure to add additional Pre-Scripts and Post-Scripts. For information about script return codes, see Return Code Reference.
    _SNAPSHOTS_ is an optional parameter for snapshot postscripts that displays a comma separated value string containing all of the storage-based snapshots that are created by the job. The format of each value is as follows: <registered provider name>:<volume name>:<snapshot name>.
    Select Continue operation on script failure to continue running the job if a command in any of the scripts that are associated with the job fails.
  9. Optionally, expand the Notification section to select the job notification options.
    SMTP Server
    From the list of available SMTP resources, select an SMTP server to enable job status email notifications. If an SMTP server is not selected, an email is not sent.
    Recipients
    Enter the email addresses of the recipients for email notifications. Click Add to add it to the list.

    Click OK.

  10. Review and verify the job specific information job-specific information, and click Create Job. The job runs according to the specified schedule. You can also run the job manually from the Jobs tab.

What to do next

  • If necessary, start the job session immediately rather than waiting for the scheduled job completion. See Start, Pause, and Hold a Job Session.
  • Click Jobs tab to monitor the progress of the job session. See Monitor a Job Session.
  • Enable notification options, to send an email about the status of each task when the job completes.
  • Use the Inventory Browse to review the recovery point. See Browse Inventory.