Restrictions for automated client failover

Review the following information to better understand the process and the restrictions that apply to automated client failover.

The following restrictions apply for automated client failover:

• When the client is in failover mode, you cannot use any functions that require data to be stored on the secondary server, such as backup or archive operations. You can use only data recovery functions, such as restore, retrieve, or query operations. You can also edit client options and change the IBM Spectrum® Protect client password.
• Schedules are not replicated to the secondary server. Therefore, schedules are not run while the primary server server is unavailable.
• After the client connects to the secondary server in failover mode, it does not attempt to connect to the primary server until the next initial logon to the server. The client attempts to fail over to the secondary server only when the initial connection to the primary server fails. The initial connection is the first connection that the client makes with the server.

  If the primary server becomes unavailable during a client operation, the client does not fail over to the secondary server, and the operation fails. You must restart the client so that it can fail over to the secondary server, and then run the client operation again.

  Restore operations that are interrupted when the primary server goes down cannot be restarted after the client fails over. You must run the whole restore operation again after the client fails over to the secondary server.

• If the IBM Spectrum Protect password is changed before the client node is replicated, the password will not be synchronized between the primary and secondary servers. If a failover occurs during this time, you must manually reset the password on the secondary server and the client. When the primary server is online again, the password must be reset for the client to connect to the primary server.

  If the password is reset while the client is connected to the secondary server, the password must be reset on the primary server before the client can log on to the primary server. This restriction is true if the passwordaccess option is set to generate or if the password is manually reset.

• If you backed up or archived client data, but the primary server goes down before it replicates the client node, the most recent backup or archive data is not replicated to the secondary server. The replication status of the file space is not current. If you attempt to restore or retrieve the data in failover mode and the replication status is not current, a message is displayed that indicates that the data you are about to recover is out-of-date. You can decide whether to proceed with the recovery or wait until the primary server comes back online.
• If an administrative user ID with client owner authority exists on the source replication server, and the user ID has the same name as the client node, the administrative user ID is replicated during the node replication process on the server. If such a user ID does not exist on the source replication server, the replication process does not create this administrator definition on the target replication server.

  If other administrative user IDs are assigned to the node, the IBM Spectrum Protect administrator must manually configure the administrative user IDs on the target replication server. Otherwise, the administrative user cannot connect to the target replication server (secondary server) with the web client.

• If you restore a file from the IBM Spectrum Protect, and the file system is managed by IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management, you must not restore the file as a stub file. You must restore the complete file. Use the restoremigstate=no option to restore the complete file. If you restore the file as a stub from the target server, the following consequences can occur:
  • You cannot recall the file from the IBM Spectrum Protect source server by using the IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management client.
  • The IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management reconciliation process that runs against the IBM Spectrum Protect source server expires the file. If the file is expired by a reconciliation process, you can restore the complete file with the backup-archive client and the restoremigstate=no option.