Automated client failover overview

When there is an outage on the IBM Spectrum® Protect server, the backup-archive client can automatically fail over to a secondary server for data recovery.

The IBM Spectrum Protect server that the client connects to during normal production processes is called the primary server. When the primary server and client nodes are set up for node replication, that server is also known as the source replication server.

The client data on the source replication server can be replicated to another IBM Spectrum Protect server, which is the target replication server. This server is also known as the secondary server, and is the server that the client automatically fails over to when the primary server fails.

For the client to automatically fail over to the secondary server, the connection information for this server must be made available to the client. During normal operations, the connection information for the secondary server is automatically sent to the client from the primary server during the logon process. The secondary server information is automatically saved to the client options file. No manual intervention is required by you to add the information for this server.

Each time the client logs on to the server, the client attempts to contact the primary server. If the primary server is unavailable, the client automatically fails over to the secondary server, according to the secondary server information in the client options file.

In this failover mode, you can restore or retrieve any replicated client data. When the primary server is online again, the client automatically fails back to the primary server the next time the client is started.

For example, the following sample text is the connection information about the secondary server that is sent to the client and saved to the client options file (dsm.opt):

*** These options should not be changed manually
REPLSERVERNAME          TARGET
   REPLTCPSERVERADDRESS 192.0.2.9
   REPLTCPPORT          1501
   REPLSSLPORT          1502
   REPLSERVERGUID       60.4a.c3.e1.85.ba.11.e2.af.ce.00.0c.29.2f.07.d3

MYREPLICATIONServer TARGET
MYPRIMARYServer SERVER1
*** end of automatically updated options

For example, the following sample text is the connection information that secondary server is sent to the client and saved to the client system options file (dsm.sys):

*** These options should not be changed manually
REPLSERVERNAME          TARGET
   REPLTCPSERVERADDRESS 192.0.2.9
   REPLTCPPORT          1501
   REPLSSLPORT          1502
   REPLSERVERGUID       60.4a.c3.e1.85.ba.11.e2.af.ce.00.0c.29.2f.07.d3

MYREPLICATIONServer TARGET
*** end of automatically updated options