Configuring global preferences

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As the administrator, you can configure preferences that apply to all IBM Storage® Protect Plus operations in the Global Preferences pane.

Before you begin

You must have administrator credentials to configure global preferences.

You can change the preference in the Integration with other storage products and User interface categories at any time.

Attention: Although you can modify the preference in the Integrations with other storage products and User interface categories, modify all other preferences only if absolutely necessary and only at the direction of IBM® Support. Modifying global preferences can affect your storage environment. Preferences that require consultation with IBM Support are in the following categories: Application, General, Job, Logging, Protection, and Security.

About this task

Any changes that you make to parameter default values apply to all IBM Storage Protect Plus operations when you save the changes.

To return a global preference parameter to the default value, click the x icon in the setting field.

The figures in this task are for example purposes only and some values might differ from the default.

Procedure

To edit the values for any setting and apply them globally, complete the following steps:
  1. In the navigation panel, click System Configuration > Global Preferences.
  2. To enable access to IBM Storage Protect Operations Center from IBM Storage Protect Plus, edit the IBM Storage Protect Operations Center URL preference in the Integration with other storage products category.

    The IBM Storage Protect Operations Center URL preference is the IP address of IBM Storage Protect Operations Center. The Operations Center provides web and mobile access to status information about the IBM Storage Protect environment.

    When this preference is set, the IBM Storage Protect icon the operations center icon is active on the IBM Storage Protect Plus menu bar. When you initially set the URL for this preference or if you change it, you must log off and log back in for the preference to take effect in the user interface.

    The URL is created during the Operations Center installation process. To obtain the Operations Center URL, contact the IBM Storage Protect system administrator.

    Integration preferences with default values

  3. To set an automatic log out time for the IBM Storage Protect Plus user interface after a period of inactivity, edit the Auto log out (minutes) preference in the User interface category.

    UI preferences with default values

  4. To apply global application preferences, edit the settings in the Application category.
    Application preferences with default values
    You can edit the following application preferences:
    Enable SQL Server and Oracle databases restored in test mode eligible for backup
    Back up SQL Server databases and Oracle databases that were restored in test mode. When this option is selected, databases that were restored in test mode are available for selection in the SQL Backup pane, Oracle Backup pane, or ad hoc backup wizard.
    Application inventory SSH timeout (hours)
    The amount of time in hours after which the SSH session for an application inventory job will expire. The default setting is 12 hours with a maximum of 2048 hours.
    Maximum volume size for backup target LUNs on Windows™ (TB)
    The maximum size of the storage for a backup target.
    Maximum backup retries (Kubernetes)
    The maximum number of times that IBM Storage Protect Plus reattempts backup sessions for a copy backup job that contains multiple persistent volume claims (PVCs).

    When multiple PVCs are involved in the same copy backup job, IBM Storage Protect Plus runs the backup operations as parallel jobs. To help prevent the backup sessions from timing out due to connection issues, specify the maximum number of times that IBM Storage Protect Plus reattempts the connections.

    If the maximum number of retries is reached and connection failures still exist, only the PVC backups that were part of the failed sessions will be reported as failed.

    Maximum concurrent servers running backups
    The maximum number of concurrent application servers per backup session.
    Overwrite existing SQL Server log backup from other SLA
    Enable to permit overwriting of the existing SQL Server log backup that belongs to another SLA policy.
    Allow SQL database backup when transaction log backup chain is broken
    Run a database backup job when IBM Storage Protect Plus detects a break in the log backup chain for a database.
    Rename SQL files and folders when database is restored in production mode
    Rename associated SQL database data and log files during a restore job in production mode. This option applies only when a new database name is provided during an SQL database restore job, and when database files of the same names exist in the same location.
  5. To apply general preferences, edit the settings in the General category.
    General preferences with default values
    You can edit the following general preferences:
    Access log retention (days)
    Enter the number of days that the access log should be retained. The default setting is 30 days with a maximum setting of 1825 days (five years).
    Tools working folder on Linux® guest
    The working folder for tools on Linux VM guests.
    Tools working folder on Windows guest
    The working folder for tools on Windows VM guests.
    Linux/AIX® Clients Port (SSH) used for application and file indexing
    The SSH port that is used for application and file indexing on Linux and AIX clients.
    Windows Clients Port (WinRM) used for application and file indexing
    The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) port that is used for application and file indexing on Windows clients. Use port 5986 for encrypted communication. The default setting is 5985. You must sign out and then sign back in to IBM Storage Protect Plus to finalize this setting.
    Note: When adding Windows client machines you must use port 5986 in order to make the Get SSL certificate thumbprint option visible.
    Windows Clients (WinRM) deployment max retry on timeout
    This is for Windows clients that utilize Windows Remote Management (WinRM). If a timeout occurs, the value determines the number of retries that should occur. The value can range from 0 to 5 with a default of 3.
    IBM Storage Protect Plus Server NAT Addresses
    The list of NAT IP addresses or FQDNs for the IBM Storage Protect Plus server.
    IBM Storage Protect Plus Server IP Address
    The list of available IP addresses for the IBM Storage Protect Plus server. The addresses are used for remote agent communication in NAT environments.
  6. To apply job or logging preferences, edit the values in the Job or Logging categories.
    Job preferences and Logging preferences with default values
    You can edit the following job and logging preferences:
    Job log retention (days)
    The number of days to retain job logs before the logs are deleted.
    On-demand restore job retention (days)
    The number of days to retain on-demand restore jobs before the jobs, sessions, and logs are removed. If a value of 0 days is used, on-demand restore jobs are not removed. The default setting is 3 days.
    Job notification status
    The status level for sending alerts. Alerts are sent when a job is completed with the specified status. For example, if the job notification status is failed, when the failed status is reported for a job, an alert is sent.
    Enable logging IBM Storage Protect Plus alerts to the system log
    Include alerts that are generated by IBM Storage Protect Plus in the system log. After you enable this feature, you can search the system log to find alerts.
    Enter which application types will skip downloading diagnostic logs (comma separated list, ex: sql, exch)
    As part of each backup, IBM Storage Protect Plus collects a diagnostic log from the application server if the application agent generates a diagnostic log. You can add an application to this list to disable the downloading of the diagnostic logs for specific applications, even if they are generated by the application agent. Application types include sql, oracle, db2, exch, mongo, saphana, kuberbetesvol, office365, k8s, file, and openshift. Multiple application types can be entered and must be separated by commas with no intervening spaces. The default setting is to download all application agent diagnostic logs.
  7. To apply protection preferences, edit the settings in the Protection category.
    Protection preferences with default values
    You can edit the following protection preferences:
    Generate alert when time since last successful catalog backup is exceeded (hours)
    The threshold in hours of when an alert should be generated if a successful catalog backup has not occurred. The alert is displayed on the IBM Storage Protect Plus product dashboard and in the Alerts window.
    File index overflow error (percentage)
    The threshold as a percentage for the file index count that when exceeded, results in an error in the job log. For example, if a value of 90 is specified, an error is displayed if the file index count reaches 90 percent of the allowed maximum of 2,147,483,647 entries.
    File index overflow warning (percentage)
    The threshold as a percentage for the file index count that when exceeded, results in a warning in the job log. For example, if a value of 80 is specified, a warning is displayed if the file index count reaches 80 percent of the allowed maximum of 2,147,483,647 entries.
    Number of seconds to wait before checking connection
    The amount of time that IBM Storage Protect Plus waits before checking the connection to a cloud object.
    Number of times to check for valid connection
    The number of times that IBM Storage Protect Plus checks for an available connection.
    Temporary folder for file index zip files
    The temporary folder for storing the compressed (.zip) files that contain the metadata for indexing. When the indexing is completed, the files are deleted.
    Temporary folder for file indexing on Windows server
    The temporary folder for storing the compressed (.zip) files that contain the metadata for indexing the Windows server. When the indexing is completed, the folder is deleted.
    Group VMs by
    Virtual machines can be grouped together. A group can be defined by a count of the VMs that are included in the group.
    Number of VMs in group
    For VM grouping, four VM groups are available and each VM group can have a maximum of five VMs. Each group corresponds to one destination volume (data stream). A maximum of 20 VMs (four data streams) can be grouped at a time based on size calculations.
    Important: The default value for Number of VMs in group changed from 1 to 5 beginning in IBM Storage Protect Plus version 10.1.7.

    If you are upgrading from version 10.1.6 and earlier and use the default value 1 for this option, the value is automatically changed to 5. If you have a custom value in this field, that value is maintained.

    Automatic removal of stale catalog entries
    Enables the checking and removal of stale catalog entries when compared with storage servers stored in MongoDB catalog. This action occurs during the execution of maintenance jobs. This will increase the overall time taken to complete the maintenance job.
    Enable backward compatibility cleanup (might increase the duration of the maintenance job)
    Enables the option to allow for the cleaning of both expired and unexpired snapshots that have reached their retention limit. Enabling this option might increase the duration of the maintenance job.
    Remove unselected VMs from SLA
    Enables the option to allow for VMware virtual machines (VMs) to be removed from the volume on vSnap server for corresponding SLA policies if the VM is no longer selected in the SLA policy. This will increase the overall time taken by maintenance and should only be enabled when required.
    Force the removal of the replication relationship for last remaining snapshot
    Remove an existing replication relationship for the last remaining snapshot that is set to expire and is locked.
    Select all replications for VMs and volumes
    Enables the capability for all replication jobs to select VMs and volumes from the beginning of the associated policy instead of selecting only from the last successful replication.
    Target free space error (GB)
    The size threshold in Gigabytes of remaining free space in the vSnap storage pool. Errors are displayed in the job log. For example, if a value of 100 is specified, an error is displayed if the vSnap storage pool has 100 GB or less of remaining free space. The error is generated when the threshold is reached based on the setting of either the size in this option or percentage as specified in Target free space error (percentage). The resources will fail to back up to the affected vSnap storage pool if the threshold is reached. If this setting is changed, alerts are generated after you restart IBM Storage Protect Plus.
    Target free space error (percentage)
    The percentage threshold of remaining free space in the vSnap storage pool. Errors are displayed in the job log. For example, if a value of 5 is specified, an error is displayed if the vSnap storage pool has 5% or less of remaining free space. The error is generated when the threshold is reached based on the setting of either the percentage in this option or size as specified in Target free space error (GB). The resources will fail to back up to the affected vSnap storage pool if the threshold is reached. If this setting is changed, alerts are generated after you restart IBM Storage Protect Plus.
    Target free space warning (percentage)
    The percentage threshold of remaining free space in the vSnap storage pool. Warnings are displayed in the job log. For example, if a value of 10 is specified, a warning is displayed if the vSnap storage pool has 10% or less of remaining free space. If this setting is changed, alerts are generated after you restart IBM Storage Protect Plus.
    Catalog object update count
    The count that you can set to limit how many objects are queried and updated in the catalog. For example, if the catalog includes 100 objects and the update count is 20, IBM Storage Protect Plus updates the catalog in five iterations.
    Virtual machine backup status update interval (seconds)
    The frequency at which messages about the progress of data transfer are updated in the job log.
    Valid ESXi subnets for VADP proxy (comma separated, ex: 172.20.x.x)
    Enter one or more valid subnets for VADP proxies. If more than one entry is provided, separate the subnets by commas with no intervening spaces.
    VADP proxy uses only HotAdd transport mode
    Use the HotAdd virtual disk transport method to connect the VMware IBM Storage Protect Plus virtual appliance with VADP proxies. If this option is enabled, VADP proxies will use HotAdd only without falling back to an alternate transport mode.
    vSnap auto disable deduplication when DDT size reaches resource limit
    The deduplication table (DDT) is enabled by default. When either of the threshold limits defined by disk space (gigabytes) or percentage is exceeded, vSnap data deduplication is disabled and an alert is displayed.
    vSnap DDT size limit as percentage of total memory cache
    The threshold as a percentage of the vSnap deduplication table (DDT) as compared to the total memory cache. The DDT is disabled when the vSnap auto disable option is selected and the defined threshold is exceeded.
    vSnap DDT size limit in GB
    The threshold, in gigabytes (GB), of the vSnap DDT. The DDT is disabled when the vSnap auto disable option is selected and the defined threshold is exceeded.
    Used space threshold on datastore or a volume before backup cannot take snapshots of a VM (percentage)
    The percentage of used space on a datastore or a volume that is the threshold before snapshots of a VM cannot be taken for backup.
    Backup wait timeout (seconds)
    The amount of time that IBM Storage Protect Plus waits for a backup job to finish before starting another backup job. If the backup job does not finish within the wait period, the job is timed out, and the next job begins.
    VMware communication timeout (seconds)
    The amount of time that IBM Storage Protect Plus waits for commands that are issued to connected vCenters to finish. If the operations do not finish within the specified amount of time, they are logged as errors. This setting applies only to VMware hypervisors.
  8. To apply a security preference, edit the setting in the Security category.
    Security preferences with default values
    You can edit the following security preference:
    Set minimum password length (characters)
    The minimum length of passwords for IBM Storage Protect Plus. By default, the password has a minimum length of 8 characters, but you can specify a longer password. This value applies to all user accounts.