Reconciliation of backups

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Reconciliation is the process where IBM® Storage Protect Snapshot periodically verifies that backups on the storage system are valid.

Depending on the storage system, FlashCopy® or snapshot backups can be deleted, withdrawn, or stopped by certain operations on the storage system. When these events occur, it invalidates the FlashCopy or snapshot backup. During reconciliation, FlashCopy or snapshots backups that are no longer present or are invalid on the storage system are removed from the IBM Storage Protect Snapshot repository.

The reconciliation process removes IBM Storage Protect Snapshot backups when the following events occur on storage systems:
All storage systems
Manual intervention causes the following events to occur:
  • The source volume or target volume relationship is withdrawn.
  • The snapshot or FlashCopy is deleted.
  • The FlashCopy mappings are stopped.
The reconciliation process removes IBM Storage Protect Snapshot backups when the following events occur on the IBM XIV® Storage System
When there is no available space for snapshot backups, the IBM XIV Storage System deletes old snapshots to free space for new snapshots.
IBM System Storage® N series and NetApp storage systems
When either of the following events occur:
  • When there is no available space for snapshot backups, both of these storage systems delete old snapshots to free space for new snapshots.
  • When a snapshot backup becomes invalid, because it was created after the creation of the original backup that was later restored.
The reconciliation process removes IBM Storage Protect Snapshot backups when the following events occur on IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storwize® family storage systems with static target allocation
  • When a FlashCopy backup becomes invalid because it was created after the creation of the original backup that was later restored. This case applies to backups with space efficient target volumes, or if the background copy process is not yet finished. In addition, the backup that is subject to restore can also be invalidated by the storage system.
  • When FlashCopy mappings of target volumes are used by the storage system for FlashCopy backups. When they are used in a specific FlashCopy backup, then previous FlashCopy backups can become invalid if they depend on the same mapping. This case applies to backups with space efficient target volumes or if the background copy process is not finished.
The reconciliation process removes IBM Storage Protect Snapshot backups when the following event occurs on IBM System Storage DS8000®
When a source target relationship is withdrawn backups are removed. This process does not happen automatically.