Specifying configuration parameters for IBM Storage Protect

After IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for Windows is registered to IBM Storage Protect, you must configure the node name, password, the communications method, and the appropriate parameters to connect to the IBM Storage Protect server.

Before you begin
When you manually set configuration parameters for IBM Storage Protect, ensure that the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot options file (dsm.opt) and the backup-archive client options file (also dsm.opt) specify the same IBM Storage Protect server.
About this task

You can use the configuration wizard to set the configuration parameters. To manually configure the parameters, complete the following steps.

Procedure
  1. If you are running IBM Storage Protect Snapshot on a Microsoft Windows Failover Clustering or Veritas Cluster Server, ensure that the options files on each cluster node are identical by editing the options file. Use a text editor to edit the file.
    The dsm.optoptions file includes the following parameters, which are necessary for initial configuration:
    COMMMethod
    Specify the communication protocol to use between the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot node and the IBM Storage Protect server. Depending on the commmethod option that you choose, specify one of the following connectivity parameters for the commmethod values.
    • For VSS backups, specify the COMMMethod option in the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot options file.
    • For VSS backups, specify the COMMMethod option in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the Local DSMAGENT Node. If the environment is configured for VSS offloaded backups, you must also specify the COMMMethod option in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the Remote DSMAGENT Node.
    NODename
    Specify the IBM Storage Protect node name that IBM Storage Protect uses to identify the system that runs IBM Storage Protect Snapshot.
    PASSWORDAccess
    Specify either the default generate value to generate a password automatically, or specify the prompt password to respond to a request for a password.
  2. Optional: modify the default values for the following parameters:
    CLUSTERnode
    In the DSMAGENT options files, specify the CLUSTERnode option and set it to no. For the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot options file, specify the CLUSTERnode option and set it to yes.
    HTTPport
    Specify the HTTP port. The default value is 1581.
    TCPPort
    Specify the TCP port.
    TCPServeraddress
    Specify the TCP server address.
    CLUSTERSHAREDFOLDER
    In the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for SQL Server options file (tdpsql\dsm.opt), specify the directory location in which to store encrypted password files. Specify a location that all nodes in the cluster can access. If a failover occurs, the backup-archive client uses this option to determine where the password files are located.
  3. Optional: For VSS backups that are sent to the IBM Storage Protect server, specify the following options to enable features for the data that is sent to the IBM Storage Protect server.
    When you use these options, you must update the backup-archive client options file that is used as the local DSMAGENT node and the remote DSMAGENT node.
    COMPRESSIon
    Specify the
    compression
                                     yes
    option if any of the following conditions exist:
    • The network adapter has a data overload
    • Communications between IBM Storage Protect Snapshot and IBM Storage Protect server are over a low-bandwidth connection
    • Heavy network traffic exists
    Specify the
    compression
                                     no
    option if any of the following conditions exist:
    • The computer that runs IBM Storage Protect Snapshot has a processor overload; the added processor usage might cause issues for other applications that include the server. You can monitor processor and network resource usage with the Performance Monitor program that is included with Windows.
    • You are not constrained by network bandwidth; you can achieve the best performance by leaving the compression no option unchanged and enabling hardware compaction on the tape drive, which also reduces storage requirements.

    For VSS backups, specify the COMPRESSIon option in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the local DSMAGENT node. If the environment is configured for VSS offloaded backups, specify the COMPRESSIon option in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the remote DSMAGENT node.

    If you are running offloaded backups, a dedicated (and unique) remote DSM agent node must exist for each local DSM agent node.

    DEDUPLication

    Specify whether the IBM Storage Protect API deduplicates data before the data is sent to the IBM Storage Protect server. Specify Yes or No. The value applies only if IBM Storage Protect allows client-side data deduplication.

    When you specify both deduplication and ENABLELANFree options, the deduplication option is ignored.

    You can enable client-side data deduplication by specifying DEDUPLICATION YES in the dsm.opt file.

    ENABLELANFree
    If you run data backup and restore operations in a LAN-free environment, specify ENABLELANFree yes in the DSMAGENT (VSS Requestor) options file.
    ENABLECLIENTENCRYPTKEY
    Specify this option to encrypt databases during backup and restore processing by generating one random encryption key per session.
    Restriction: You can back up encrypted VSS databases only to the IBM Storage Protect server. You cannot back up encrypted data to an IBM Storage Protect Snapshot server.

    You can specify DES56 (56 bit), AES128 (128 bit), or AES256 (256 bit). The most secure data encryption method is AES256.

    In the options file, you must also specify the databases that you want to encrypt by adding an include statement with the include.encrypt option.

    For VSS backups, specify the encryption options in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the local DSMAGENT node. If the environment is configured for VSS offloaded backups, specify the encryption options in the backup-archive client options file that is used as the remote DSMAGENT node.

    If you make changes in the backup-archive client options file, ensure that you restart the IBM Storage Protect Client Acceptor Daemon (CAD) service for the Exchange or SQL Server.

What to do next
You can create more IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for Microsoft Exchange Server or IBM Storage Protect Snapshot for Microsoft SQL Server options files to point to another IBM Storage Protect server. You can create more than one options file, where each file contains different parameters to use with a single IBM Storage Protect server.