What's new for IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for Custom Applications

Learn about new features and enhancements in IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot 8.1.24.

New in IBM Storage Protect Snapshot 8.1.24

Support for IBM FlashSystem volume group snapshots: Beginning with version 8.1.24, IBM Storage Protect Snapshot supports backup, in-place restore, delete, and offload operations from single site and Policy-Based High Availability (HA) topologies for the IBM FlashSystem volume group snapshots.

Added a new parameter under the SVCDTA device class section to enable IBM FlashSystem volume group snapshots

The SVCDTA device class section now contains an additional parameter named SVC_ENABLE_VOLUMEGROUP_SNAPSHOT that enables IBM FlashSystem volume group snapshots.
Supported values for this parameter are IGNORE_FLASHCOPY_MAPPINGS and ENFORCE_NO_FLASHCOPY_MAPPINGS.

For more information, see Configuring Storwize family and SAN Volume Controller dynamic target allocation (SVCDTA).

New in IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot version 8.1.11

Avail of a new level of data availability with IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot support for IBM HyperSwap technology, which enables mission-critical operations to continue without interruption during a complete site failure. HyperSwap systems support a dual-site, active-active solution that provides continuous availability of data during planned and unplanned outages.

For information on planning a HyperSwap system supported by IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot, see the planning topic about HyperSwap integration.

New in IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 8.1.4

Specify different backup version retention values: For all storage devices, you can specify different backup retention periods for each device class that is configured. During the configuration process, you can define different values for each device class with the MAX_VERSIONS parameter in the profile. For more information about this feature, see Backup version retention.

IBM SAN Volume Controller Dynamic Target Allocation (SVC DTA) incremental backups: Run incremental backups for SVC DTA with the FLASHCOPY_TYPE option INCR. After the initial FlashCopy backup, incremental FlashCopy backups are run to the same target volume. The ability to run incremental backups to the SVC, results in improvements in how long the backup takes and eases the load on the SVC. For more information about incremental flash copies, see Incremental backups and MAX_VERSIONS.

New and modified parameters or functions

The following parameters are modified for IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 8.1.4:

MAX_VERSIONS for all device classes: Use this parameter in the CLIENT section of the profile for each DEVICE_CLASS to create incremental FlashCopies. When FLASHCOPY_TYPE is set to INCR, the incremental FlashCopy is refreshed depending on the MAX_VERSIONS value set. Specify the maximum number of snapshot backup versions to be kept before the oldest backup is deleted by using MAX_VERSIONS to specify the maximum. For SVCDTA, when the version-delete deletes the oldest snapshot backup with an incremental FlashCopy relation, it reuses the target volumes of the expired backup and refreshes the FlashCopy relationship instead of deleting it. For more information about MAX_VERSIONS, see CLIENT.