Storage Rule Properties

The properties of a storage rule specify how and when the server automatically copies or moves data between different types of storage.

The following types of storage rules can be defined:

Tiering storage rules

Tiering storage rules define your organization's policies for automatically moving data from disk storage to cloud or tape storage. Initially, data is backed up to directory-container storage pools, which are defined on disk, to take advantage of typically faster read and write capabilities. Tiering storage rules specify how long the data remains in disk storage before the server moves the data to cloud or tape storage. Both cloud and tape storage can provide a cost-efficient solution for maintaining data that is infrequently accessed.

To tier data, you must specify an age threshold. Data that meets the specified age threshold is called older data.

If you want to keep frequently used data on disk storage, you can specify that only older, inactive data is tiered. The data that meets all of your specified requirements for tiering is called eligible data.

To exercise granular control over tiering, you can specify one or more subrules, which define exceptions to the parent rule. If the parent rule is active, the subrule is also active and runs on the same schedule as the parent rule. If the parent rule is inactive, the subrule is also inactive.

Tip: To optimize tiering, consider using this strategy:

Create a tiering storage rule. By default, the newly created rule is inactive, and no data is tiered.
Create a subrule for a single client. Specify that all data, or only inactive data, is tiered. (For guidelines about selecting a tiering option, see Determining whether tiering is appropriate for your storage environment.)
Modify the parent tiering storage rule to make it active. The parent rule and its subrule will run daily.
Verify the tiering results. If necessary, update the subrule to add more clients or create extra subrules.

Copy storage rules

Copy storage rules define your organization's policies for copying client data to tape storage. Data is backed up to directory-container storage pools and then copied to tape. By specifying copy storage rules, you can control the scheduling of data backups to tape and the amount of data that is copied.

To exercise granular control over copying, you can specify one or more subrules, which define exceptions to the parent rule. If the parent rule is active, the subrule is also active and runs on the same schedule as the parent rule. If the parent rule is inactive, the subrule is also inactive.

Replication storage rules

Replication storage rules define your organization's policies for replicating client data from source replication servers to target replication servers. The server on which the storage rule is defined is the source replication server. The storage rule specifies the target replication server and a schedule for replicating client data.

Retention-copy storage rules

Retention-copy storage rules define schedules for copying retention set data from primary storage to tape storage or cloud object storage. You do not explicitly create a retention-copy storage rule. Instead, a retention-copy storage rule is automatically created when you create a retention storage pool. A retention storage pool can represent a supported cloud object storage environment or a collection of tape devices of the same type. The retention storage pool's associated retention-copy storage rule defines a daily processing window during which retention sets can be copied to the retention storage pool. You cannot explicitly delete a retention-copy storage rule. Instead, a retention-copy storage rule is automatically deleted when its associated retention storage pool is deleted.

On the Properties page, you can view and edit the properties of a storage rule. The Properties page shows properties that are commonly used. You can view more properties by issuing the QUERY STGRULE command.

Active

An active rule is processed at its daily start time. You can activate a storage rule by clicking the Active toggle. An inactive storage rule does not run at its daily start time. However, you can explicitly start the rule by using the Run Now action on the Storage Rules page.

Age threshold

This property applies only to tiering storage rules. Specifies how long data remains in disk storage before the data is tiered. Restoring data from disk storage is typically faster than restoring data from cloud or tape storage. Based on your data availability and recovery requirements, determine how long data must remain on disk.

The equivalent property in the results of the QUERY STGRULE command is Delay (in days).

Daily start time

Specifies the scheduled start time. When the storage rule is active, the server processes the rule within 5 minutes of the scheduled time. Schedule the daily start time to minimally impact other scheduled tasks, such as backup operations, and other scheduled storage rules that require server and network resources.

Tip: From a storage rule's details page, you can view how much data was moved or copied over the previous two weeks. You can view the overall workload of eligible data to be moved or copied, and the amount of data that was moved or copied each day. From this data, you can determine whether daily storage rule processing is keeping up with the overall workload and you can adjust the Daily start time, Max run time, Maximum processes, or Maximum sessions values. For example, if backup schedules or other storage rules are competing for server, disk, or network resources, you can edit the storage rule to start at a different time.

Data to copy

This property applies only to copy storage rules. Specifies the data to copy. You can specify one of the following options:

All data: Copies all of the data in the selected source pools. Subrules specify any exceptions for clients or virtual machines.
Specify by subrule: The parent rule does not specify any data to be copied; data is copied only if specified by a subrule of the parent rule.

Data to replicate

This property applies only to replication storage rules. Specifies the data to replicate. You can specify one of the following options:

All data: Replicates all of the client data. Subrules specify any exceptions for clients, virtual machines, and client file spaces.
Specify by subrule: The parent rule does not specify any data to be replicated; all replication is specified by one or more subrules of the parent rule.

Data to tier

This property applies only to tiering storage rules. Specifies the type of data to tier. You can specify one of the following options:

All data: Tiers all data that reaches the specified age threshold. This option is known as tiering by age.
Inactive data: Tiers only inactive data that reaches the specified age threshold. This option is known as tiering by state.
Specify by subrule: The parent rule tiers no data; all tiering is specified by one or more subrules of the parent rule. This option is the default option.

Max run time

Specifies how long the server processes the storage rule, or whether processing continues until all eligible data is moved or copied.

To ensure that all eligible data is moved or copied each day when the storage rule runs, select the No limit check box. When no limit is specified, processing runs to completion.

To limit the processing window for the storage rule, specify a maximum run time. When a maximum run time is specified, the server stops moving or copying data when the limit is reached. You might want to set a maximum run time to prevent storage rule processing from affecting the performance of other scheduled tasks, such as backup or replication operations.

The equivalent property in the results of the command QUERY STGRULE is Duration.

Tip: From a storage rule's details page, you can view how much data was moved or copied over the previous two weeks. You can view the overall workload of eligible data to be moved or copied, and the amount of data that was moved each day. From this data, you can determine whether daily storage rule processing is keeping up with the overall workload and you can adjust the Daily start time, Max run time, Maximum processes, or Maximum sessions values. If daily storage rule processing is not keeping up with the overall workload, you can increase the maximum run time or select the No limit check box.

Maximum processes

This property applies only to tiering storage rules and copy storage rules. Specifies the maximum number of parallel processes to use for moving or copying data to the target pool. Using multiple, parallel processes can improve the throughput of the move or copy operation. For writing to tape storage, the number of processes might be limited by the number of available drives.

Tip: For some retention sets that are copied by a retention-copy storage rule, an extra limit on the number of parallel processes might be imposed. Some retention sets must be segregated from other retention sets on their own volumes. In these cases, more parallel processes can result in more tape volumes with unused space that is remaining on the tape volumes. To help prevent writing to too many tape volumes for these segregated retention sets, a tape drive limit can be specified at the retention set level. Because this limit is only for particular retention sets, it does not affect the maximum processes that are allowed for copying other retention sets.

Maximum sessions

This property applies only to replication storage rules, and specifies the maximum number of data sessions to use for sending data to a target replication server. Increasing the number of sessions can improve replication throughput if the network has sufficient bandwidth.

This property applies only to data sessions. Data sessions are sessions during which data is sent to a target replication server. However, if you issue a QUERY SESSION command, the total number of sessions might exceed the number of data sessions. The difference is because of short control sessions that are used for querying and setting up replication operations.

Rule name

Specifies the name of the storage rule.

When you are creating a storage rule, you must specify a name that is unique to the server and is no more than 30 characters. After the storage rule is created, you cannot edit its name.

Retention-copy storage rules are created automatically when you create a retention storage pool. A retention-copy storage rule is assigned the same name as its associated retention storage pool. You cannot edit the rule name.

Server

Specifies the name of the server that runs the storage rule. For replication storage rules, this server is the source replication server.

Source pools

This property applies to tiering and copy storage rules.

For tiering storage rules, the source is a directory-container storage pool from which eligible data is tiered. After you specify a directory-container storage pool as a source pool for a storage rule, you cannot specify the same pool as the source of another storage rule.

For copy storage rules, the source can be a directory-container storage pool or an on-premises cloud-container storage pool.

Target pool

This property applies to tiering, copy, and retention storage rules, and specifies the storage pool to which data is moved or copied according to the storage rule action.

For tiering storage rules, this property specifies the storage pool to which eligible data is tiered. If you specify this parameter for tape storage, you must specify a storage pool that is defined for a physical or virtual tape library. If you specify this parameter for cloud storage, you must specify a cloud-container storage pool that uses one of the following cloud computing systems:

The Microsoft Azure cloud computing system.
A cloud computing system with the Simple Storage Service (S3) protocol, such as IBM Cloud Object Storage or Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3. For the latest information about cloud object storage services that are supported, see technote 2000915.

Tip: Cloud-container storage pools might be configured to temporarily store data in file system directories on disk before the data is tiered to the cloud. This type of configuration is designed to improve data backup performance to the cloud, but is not necessary for cloud tiering. Because data in source pools is already on disk, no performance improvements can be gained by using a directory cache. For this reason, any file system directories that are defined for the cloud-container storage pool are ignored, and data is tiered directly to cloud storage.

For copy storage rules, this property specifies the copy storage pool to which data from the source pools is copied.

A retention-copy storage rule is automatically created when a retention storage pool is created. For a retention-copy storage rule, the target pool is its associated retention storage pool.

Transfer method

This property applies only to replication storage rules, and specifies the method that is used when data is transferred between the source replication server and the target replication server. You can select one of the following values:

TCP/IP

Unlike the FASP transfer-method option, using TCP/IP for server-to-server data transfer is available for all operating systems and does not require an additional license.

FASP®

Specifies that IBM® Aspera® Fast Adaptive Secure Protocol (FASP) technology is used to transfer data. Aspera FASP technology can help you optimize data transfer in a wide area network (WAN). This transfer method is available only if both the source replication server and the target replication server are running a Linux® x86_64 operating system.

Only data that is stored in a directory-container storage pool can be transferred by using Aspera FASP technology. Data that is not stored in a directory-container storage pool is transferred by using TCP/IP.

Aspera FASP technology is available when you purchase the IBM Spectrum® Protect High Speed Data Transfer product. Data cannot be transferred by using Aspera FASP technology unless a valid license file is installed on both the source replication server and the target replication server.

Before you enable Aspera FASP technology, determine whether the technology is appropriate for your system environment and install the appropriate licenses. If WAN performance meets your business needs, do not enable Aspera FASP technology. If either of the following conditions exist in your storage environment, consider using Aspera FASP technology to improve network throughput:

Average delays for data-transfer operations exceed 50 milliseconds.
Packet loss is greater than 0.05%.

For information about obtaining licenses and configuring Aspera FASP, see Determining whether Aspera FASP technology can optimize data transfer in your system environment in the IBM Spectrum Protect documentation.