Restoring offloaded data from tape to IBM Spectrum Protect Plus

You can restore data that was offloaded from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to IBM Spectrum Protect for storage on physical tape media or in a virtual tape library (VTL). The data will be restored to IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

About this task

When IBM Spectrum Protect Plus offloads cold data, the data is written to directories on disk and then moved to tape storage. The directories on disk comprise a type of a storage pool that is called a cold-data-cache storage pool, which is linked to the primary sequential-access storage pool that represents the tape device or VTL.

Similarly, during a restore operation, the object data is restored temporarily to the cold-data-cache storage pool before it can be read by an object client. To initiate a restore operation, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus issues a request to the IBM Spectrum Protect server for the data that is required by using an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) request.

Procedure

  1. The IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user issues a restore request for the required data.
    In response to the request, the IBM Spectrum Protect server copies the requested object data from the tape to the cold-data-cache storage pool. Considerations for the data during a restore operation include the following:
    • The restored data copy remains in the cold-data-cache storage pool until the amount of time specified by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for the data elapses. After this time, the copy of the data is deleted.
    • The primary copy of the data remains on tape storage.
  2. Optionally, you can remove a restored data copy before it is due to expire by specifying the REMOVERESTOREDCOPYBEFORELIFETIMEEND parameter on the DEFINE STGPOOL or UPDATE STGPOOL command.
    If the cold-data-cache storage pool is nearing capacity, by specifying REMOVERESTOREDCOPYBEFORELIFETIMEEND=YES, certain restored data copies (that are eligible for early deletion according to defined conditions) are removed.

    For more information about the REMOVERESTOREDCOPYBEFORELIFETIMEEND parameter, see DEFINE STGPOOL (Define a primary storage pool for offloading data to tape) or UPDATE STGPOOL (Update a primary storage pool for offloading data to tape).