INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS
The INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS option notifies virtual machine applications that a backup is about to occur. This option allows the application to truncate transaction logs and commit transactions so that the application can resume from a consistent state when the backup completes. An optional parameter can be specified to suppress truncation of the transaction logs. To use this option, you must have a license agreement to use IBM Spectrum Protect™ for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware.
When a virtual machine is included by this option, IBM Spectrum Protect provides application protection. That is, the client freezes and thaws the VSS writers and, optionally, truncates the application logs. If a virtual machine is not protected by this option, application protection is provided by VMware, and VMware freezes and thaws the VSS writers, but application logs are not truncated.
Supported clients
This option can be used with supported x86_64 Linux clients.
This option can be used with supported Windows clients.
Options file
Set this option in the client options file. This option cannot be set by the preferences editor or on the command line.
Parameters
- vmname
- Specifies the name of the virtual machine that contains the applications to quiesce.
The name is the virtual machine display name. Specify one virtual
machine per INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS statement. For example, to include a virtual machine
named Windows VM3 [2012R2], use this syntax in the options
file: INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS "Windows VM3 [2012R2]".
To protect all virtual machines with this option, use an asterisk as a wildcard (INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS *). You can also use question marks to match any single character. For example, INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm?? protects all virtual machines that have names that begin with vm and are followed by any two characters (vm10, vm11, vm17, and so on).
Tip: If the virtual machine name contains special characters, such as bracket characters ([ or ]), the virtual machine name might not be correctly matched. If a virtual machine name uses special characters in the name, you can use the question mark character (?) to match the special characters in the virtual machine name.There is no default value for this parameter. To enable application protection, you must include virtual machines to be protected on one or more INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS statements. Make sure that you do not exclude a disk on a virtual machine (by using the EXCLUDE.VMDISK option) if the disk contains application data that you want protected.
- OPTions=KEEPSqllog
- If the OPTions KEEPSqllog parameter is specified on an INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS statement, the parameter prevents SQL server logs from being truncated when a backup-archive client that is installed on a data mover node backs up a virtual machine that is running a SQL server. Specifying this parameter allows the SQL server administrator to manually manage (backup, and possibly truncate) the SQL server logs, so that they can be preserved and be used to restore SQL transactions to a specific checkpoint, after the virtual machine is restored.
- When this option is specified, the SQL log is not truncated and the following message is
displayed and logged on the server:
ANS4179I IBM Spectrum Protect application protection did not truncate the Microsoft SQL Server logs on VM 'VM'. - You can remove the OPTIONS=KEEPSQLLOG option to enable truncation of the SQL
logs when a backup completes.Note: The client does not back up the SQL log files. The SQL administrator must back up the log files so that they can be applied after the database is restored.
Examples
- Options file
- Configure application protection for a virtual machine that is named
vm_example:
INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm_example - Configure application protection for vm11, vm12, and
vm15:
INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm11 INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm12 INCLUDE.VMTSMVSS vm15 options=keepsqllog - Command line
- Not applicable; this option cannot be specified on the command line.