Resolving issues with cloud-container storage pools

With IBM Storage Protect, you can backup data to and restore data directly from a cloud-container storage pool.

At times, you might encounter performance issues or limitations with cloud-container storage pools. For more information, see technote 3241809.

Use the following guidance to resolve issues and handle limitations:

Removing data marked as damaged or orphaned during an audit

A damaged data extent is a file that has references in the server database, but has missing or corrupted data on the cloud. An orphaned data extent is an object stored in a cloud service provider that does not have a reference in the server database.

To remove missing or corrupted data on the cloud-container storage pool, issue the AUDIT CONTAINER command with the VALIDATECLOUDEXTENTS=YES parameter setting. When you issue this command, the command reads the data from the cloud-container storage pool and validates individual extents in addition to the consolidated metadata in the container.

To delete orphaned extents from the cloud-container storage pool, issue the AUDIT CONTAINER command with the FORCEORPHANDBDELETE parameter. When you issue this command, the command enables the server to force the deletion of orphaned extents from the server database, even if they are not deleted from the cloud-container storage pool.

For more information, see the AUDIT CONTAINER (Verify the consistency of database information for a cloud container).

Performance issues with restoring files

If you encounter poor performance when restoring files, verify that the restore operation is available in your environment. See technote 1659833.

Restrictions for cloud-container storage pools

The following functions are not compatible with cloud-container storage pools:

Replication of a cloud-container storage pool with the PROTECT STGPOOL command
Migration
Aggregation
Collocation
Simultaneous-write operations
Storage pool backup operations
Use of virtual volumes

In addition, you cannot use the NEXTSTGPOOL parameter with the DEFINE STGPOOL command on a cloud-container storage pool or a directory-container storage pool because IBM Storage Protect cannot determine when the cloud storage provider is full. Use the NEXTSTGPOOL parameter to specify only a random-access or primary sequential storage pool. As a result, the overflow capability is not available for container-based storage pools.

No failover to the cloud after the local storage becomes full

If you use storage pool directories with a cloud-container storage pool, and the directories contain no more free space, backup operations stop prematurely. To avoid this situation, allocate more storage pool directories to give the storage pool more local storage space for backup operations. You can also wait for the data to be automatically cleaned up from the local directories after the data moves to the cloud.

Limitations on using node replication with a cloud-container storage pool

You can use a cloud-container storage pool as a destination storage pool on a target replication server. However, you cannot use a cloud-container storage pool as a source storage pool on a source replication server. To provide redundancy, use the replication capabilities that are available from the cloud storage provider.

File types to avoid with cloud-container storage pools

For a cloud-container storage pool, avoid storing client data types that are not optimized for storing data in removable media storage pools. For example, avoid storing Data Protection for VMware control files and Data Protection for SQL metadata files (for legacy SQL backups). For more information, see the following documents: