Running a disaster recovery drill

Schedule disaster recovery drills to prepare for audits that certify the recoverability of the IBM Spectrum Protect server and to ensure that data can be restored and operations can resume after an outage. A drill also helps you ensure that all data can be restored and operations resumed before a critical situation occurs.

Before you begin

Complete the following tasks:
  • Schedule activities regularly to manage, protect, and maintain the server. For more information about scheduling activities, see Defining schedules for server maintenance activities. Ensure that you schedule the following tasks:
    • Backing up the database.
    • Moving media offsite.
    • Backing up the device configuration file, the volume history file, and the dsmserv.opt server options file.
    • Optional: Issuing the PREPARE command to create the disaster recovery plan file.
    Tip:

    When you issue the PREPARE command, the IBM Spectrum Protectdisaster recovery manager (DRM) function creates one copy of the disaster recovery plan file.

    You can manage offsite disaster recovery without using DRM, however, DRM helps to consolidate plans, scripts, and other information that is required during disaster recovery.

    Create multiple copies of the plan for safekeeping. For example, keep copies in print, on a USB flash drive, on disk space that is located offsite, or on a remote server. The disaster recovery plan file is moved offsite daily with the tapes. For more information about DRM, see Preparing for and recovering from a disaster by using DRM.

  • Configure the following resources at the disaster recovery site:
    1. A recovery IBM Spectrum Protect server. The server at the disaster recovery site must be at the same level as the server on the production site.
    2. A tape library to store the media that is shipped from the production site. For more information about offsite recovery locations, see Offsite data storage.
    3. Disk storage space for the database, archive log, active logs, and storage pools.
    4. Clients to test restore operations.

About this task

Test the disaster recovery plan and the IBM Spectrum Protect server recoverability often, in an environment that is similar to the production environment.

Procedure

  1. Ensure that tapes are available onsite. Issue the QUERY LIBVOLUME command to identify volumes that are checked into an automated library.
  2. Back up the database to the onsite tapes by completing the following steps:
    1. On the Servers page of the Operations Center, select the server whose database you want to back up.
    2. Click Back Up, and follow the instructions in the Back Up Database window.
  3. Copy the following files to the home directory of the server at the recovery site:
    • Disaster recovery plan file
    • Volume history file
    • Device configuration file
    • Optional: dsmserv.opt server options file
  4. Move the tape to the offsite recovery location.
  5. Restore the server database by using the DSMSERV RESTORE DB utility on the recovery server. For more information about restoring the server database, see t_tape_db_restore.html.
  6. Issue the UPDATE VOLUME command and specify the ACCESS=DESTROYED parameter to indicate that an entire volume must be restored.
  7. On the recovery server, restore the storage pool volumes by using the RESTORE STGPOOL command.

What to do next

Ensure that you can access the data in the library by auditing a tape volume in the restored storage pool to verify that the data is consistent. Issue the AUDIT VOLUME command to audit a tape volume. For faster performance, audit restored data only.