Profile

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When you complete the setup script, the information you enter is used to create the profile. Do not edit the profile manually, run the setup script to make any amendments to the profile. Each section of the profile includes parameters and options that determine how the IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot backs up and restores data in your environment. The following information explains the various parameters and options.

When you use IBM Storage Protect Snapshot executable commands, the profile is identified by the value that is specified for option -p.

The profile is divided into the following sections:

  • GLOBAL
  • ACSD
  • CLIENT
  • DEVICE_CLASS device
  • OFFLOAD

In some cases, there are multiple DEVICE_CLASS sections. Each DEVICE_CLASS section must have a unique device instance name.

The profile must be available on all custom application nodes and on the system where the management agent, acsd, is running. In addition, the GLOBAL section of the profile is required on all backup systems.

GLOBAL
The GLOBAL section contains information that is required and used by all IBM Storage Protect Snapshot components. The components reference the information in the GLOBAL section during the startup process. Changes to this section require a restart of IBM Storage Protect Snapshot.

IBM Storage Protect Snapshot can be installed on multiple systems within a custom applications environment. For example, when a database is distributed among multiple application hosts or when a backup server is used to transfer snapshot backups to IBM Storage Protect server. When IBM Storage Protect Snapshot is installed on multiple systems within a custom applications environment, there is only one active management agent. The location of this management agent is specified in GLOBAL section by using the ACSD parameter.

Other parameters in the GLOBAL section specify the location for logging, tracing, and password files. On the backup server, the only section of profile that is referenced is GLOBAL.

ACSD
The ACSD section contains information that is used exclusively by the management agent, acsd. The ACSD section includes the ACS_REPOSITORY parameter. The ACS_REPOSITORY parameter specifies the directory where the management agent stores its backup repository. This repository is the most important collection of IBM Storage Protect Snapshot data. If the repository is lost, any previously created backup cannot be restored.
CLIENT
The CLIENT section contains all parameters that relate to back up operations, including parameters for database applications, whether an IBM Storage Protect backup is to be created from the snapshot, how many snapshot backup generations to retain, and which DEVICE_CLASS section is used during snapshot creation. The CLIENT section is used by the snapshot backup library that is loaded to start backup or restore processing.
DEVICE_CLASS

The DEVICE_CLASS section contains parameters that are related to the storage device, or for file system snapshots, to the file system. A DEVICE_CLASS section describes the characteristics of a storage device or file system that can be used to create a snapshot backup. The parameters and options that are used in the DEVICE_CLASS section depend on the storage solution.

Each storage solution that is used in the environment must have a DEVICE_CLASS section and must have a unique <device> instance name. At least one DEVICE_CLASS section is required for the configuration of the management agent.

The DEVICE_CLASS section that is used is determined by the value of the DEVICE_CLASS parameter in the CLIENT section of the profile for backup operation. For cloning operations, this value is determined by the DEVICE_CLASS parameter in the CLONING section of the profile. The same DEVICE_CLASS value cannot be specified in the CLIENT and CLONING sections at the same time.

During backup, the value of the DEVICE_CLASS parameter that is used is recorded in the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot repository. The same DEVICE_CLASS must be used when you are restoring the backup. Therefore, use caution when you delete or rename DEVICE_CLASS sections. If the appropriate section cannot be found, then the data that is backed up cannot be restored.

For each DEVICE_CLASS section, a password is required. This password is used by IBM Storage Protect Snapshot to authenticate to the management interface of the storage device that is represented by the DEVICE_CLASS section. You can specify the password during configuration with the setup script, or by using the following fcmcli command:

fcmcli -f password

OFFLOAD
The parameters and options in the OFFLOAD section determine how a snapshot is transferred to IBM Storage Protect server. The information is sent to the offload agent, (fcmcli -D).

When the offload agent is started, it connects to the management agent and queries for snapshot backups that are backed up with the TSM_BACKUP parameter set to YES. If this parameter and option is found, the offload agent mounts the snapshot on a backup server and initiates an IBM Storage Protect backup by using IBM Storage Protect backup-archive client.

Examples

All parameters in a section are indicated by a section start notation, >>> <section_name>, and a section end notation, <<< <section_name>. The name is optional on the section end notation. Comments can be used at any place within the profile. Comments start with a # character and extend to the end of the line. Tab characters are permitted. The following example provides an example of the profile: 

# Global section
>>> GLOBAL
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<<
# ACSD section
>>> ACSD
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<<
# CLIENT section
>>> CLIENT
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<<
# DEVICE_CLASS device section
>>> DEVICE_CLASS device
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<< 
# DEVICE_CLASS device2 section
>>> DEVICE_CLASS device2
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<< 
# OFFLOAD section
>>> OFFLOAD
parametername1 value1
parametername2 value1 value2
  ....
<<<