Configuring global preferences

As the administrator, you can configure preferences that apply to all IBM Spectrum® Protect Plus operations in the Global Preferences pane.

To edit the values for any setting and apply them globally, complete the following steps:

1. In the navigation pane, click System Configuration > Global Preferences.
2. To enable access to IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, edit the IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center URL preference in the Integration with other storage products category.

   The IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center URL preference is the IP address of IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center. The Operations Center provides web and mobile access to status information about the IBM Spectrum Protect environment.

   When this preference is set, the IBM Spectrum Protect icon is active on the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus menu bar. When you initially set the URL for this preference or if you change it, you must log off and log back in for the preference to take effect in the user interface.

   The URL is created during the Operations Center installation process. To obtain the Operations Center URL, contact the IBM Spectrum Protect system administrator.

   The default value for this preference is shown in the following figure:

   

3. To set an automatic log out time for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface after a period of inactivity, edit the Auto log out (minutes) preference in the User interface category.
   The default is 30 minutes as shown in the following figure:

   

4. To apply global application preferences, edit the settings in the Application category. The default values for the preferences are shown in the following figure:
   

   You can edit the following application preferences:

   Enable SQL Server databases restored in test mode eligible for backup

   Back up SQL Server databases that were restored in test mode. When this option is selected, SQL Server databases that were restored in test mode are available for selection in the SQL Backup pane or ad hoc backup wizard.

   Maximum volume size for backup target LUNs on Windows (TB)

   The maximum size of the storage for a backup target.

   Maximum backup retries (Kubernetes)

   The maximum number of times that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reattempts backup sessions for a copy backup job that contains multiple persistent volume claims (PVCs).

   When multiple PVCs are involved in the same copy backup job, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus runs the backup operations as parallel jobs. To help prevent the backup sessions from timing out due to connection issues, specify the maximum number of times that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus reattempts the connections.

   If the maximum number of retries is reached and connection failures still exist, only the PVC backups that were part of the failed sessions will be reported as failed.

   Maximum concurrent servers running backups

   The maximum number of concurrent application servers per backup session.

   Allow SQL database backup when transaction log backup chain is broken

   Run a database backup job when IBM Spectrum Protect Plus detects a break in the log backup chain for a database.

   Rename SQL data and log files when database is restored in production mode with new name

   Rename associated SQL database data and log files during a production or test restore job. This field applies only when a new database name is provided during an SQL database restore job.

5. To apply general preferences, edit the settings in the General category. The default values for the preferences are shown in the following figure:
   

   You can edit the following general preferences:

   Access log retention (days)

   Enter the number of days that the access log should be retained. The default setting is 30 days with a maximum setting of 1825 days (five years).

   Tools working folder on Linux® guest

   The working folder for tools on Linux VM guests.

   Tools working folder on Windows guest

   The working folder for tools on Windows VM guests.

   Linux/AIX® Clients Port (SSH) used for application and file indexing

   The SSH port that is used for application and file indexing on Linux and AIX clients.

   Windows Clients Port (WinRM) used for application and file indexing

   The Windows Remote Management (WinRM) port that is used for application and file indexing on Windows clients.

   Windows Clients (WinRM) deployment max retry on timeout

   This is for Windows clients that utilize Windows Remote Management (Win Rm). If a timeout occurs, the value determines the number of retries that should occur. The value can range from 0 to 5 with a default of 3.

   IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Server IP Address

   The list of available IP addresses for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server. The addresses are used for remote agent communication. If the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server IP address changes, the virgo.service configuration must be updated to be properly reflected in associated VADP servers. For more information, see the troubleshooting section of Creating VADP proxies.

6. To apply job or logging preferences, edit the values in the Job or Logging categories. The default values for the preferences are shown in the following figure:
   

   You can edit the following job and logging preferences:

   Job log retention (days)

   The number of days to retain job logs before the logs are deleted.

   Job notification status

   The status level for sending alerts. Alerts are sent when a job is completed with the specified status. For example, if the job notification status is failed, when the failed status is reported for a job, an alert is sent.

   Enable logging IBM Spectrum Protect Plus alerts to the system log

   Include alerts that are generated by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in the system log. After you enable this feature, you can search the system log to find alerts.

7. To apply protection preferences, edit the settings in the Protection category. The default values for the preferences are shown in the following figure:
   

   You can edit the following protection preferences:

   File index overflow error (percentage)

   The threshold as a percentage for the file index count that when exceeded, results in an error in the job log. For example, if a value of 90 is specified, an error is displayed if the file index count reaches 90 percent of the allowed maximum of 2,147,483,647 entries.

   File index overflow warning (percentage)

   The threshold as a percentage for the file index count that when exceeded, results in a warning in the job log. For example, if a value of 80 is specified, a warning is displayed if the file index count reaches 80 percent of the allowed maximum of 2,147,483,647 entries.

   Number of seconds to wait before checking connection

   The amount of time that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus waits before checking the connection to a cloud object.

   Number of times to check for valid connection

   The number of times that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus checks for an available connection.

   Temporary folder for file index zip files

   The temporary folder for storing the compressed (.zip) files that contain the metadata for indexing. When the indexing is completed, the files are deleted.

   Temporary folder for file indexing on Windows server

   The temporary folder for storing the compressed (.zip) files that contain the metadata for indexing the Windows server. When the indexing is completed, the folder is deleted.

   Group VMs by

   Virtual machines can be grouped together. The group can be defined by a count of the VMs that are included in the group.

   Number of VMs in group

   For VM grouping, four VM groups are available and each VM group can have a maximum of five VMs. Each group corresponds to one destination volume (data stream). A maximum of 20 VMs (four data streams) can be grouped at a time based on size calculations.

   Important: The default value for Number of VMs in group has been updated in version 10.1.7. If you changed this value in a previous version of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, the value provided will remain after upgrading to version 10.1.7. If you maintained the default value of 1 in a previous version of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, after upgrading to version 10.1.7 the value will be updated to the new default value of 5.

   Automatic removal of stale catalog entries

   Enables the checking and removal of stale catalog entries when compared with storage servers stored in MongoDB catalog. This action occurs during the execution of maintenance jobs. This will increase the overall time taken to complete the maintenance job.

   Remove unselected VM(s) from SLA

   Enables the option to allow for VMware virtual machines (VMs) to be removed from the volume on vSnap server for corresponding SLA policies if the VM is no longer selected in the SLA policy. This will increase the overall time taken by maintenance and should only be enabled when required.

   Force the removal of the replication relationship for last remaining snapshot

   Remove an existing replication relationship for the last remaining snapshot that is set to expire and is locked.

   Select all replications for VMs and volumes

   Enables the capability for all replication jobs to select VMs and volumes from the beginning of the associated policy instead of selecting only from the last successful replication.

   Target free space error (percentage)

   The percentage threshold of remaining free space in the vSnap storage pool. Errors are displayed in the job log. For example, if a value of 5 is specified, an error is displayed if the vSnap storage pool has 5% or less of remaining free space.

   Target free space warning (percentage)

   The percentage threshold of remaining free space in the vSnap storage pool. Warnings are displayed in the job log. For example, if a value of 10 is specified, a warning is displayed if the vSnap storage pool has 10% or less of remaining free space.

   Catalog object update count

   The count that you can set to limit how many objects are queried and updated in the catalog. For example, if the catalog includes 100 objects and the update count is 20, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus updates the catalog in five iterations.

   Virtual machine backup status update interval (seconds)

   The frequency at which messages about the progress of data transfer are updated in the job log.

   VADP proxy uses only HotAdd transport mode

   Use the HotAdd virtual disk transport method to connect the VMware IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance with VADP proxies. If this option is enabled, VADP proxies will use HotAdd only without falling back to an alternate transport mode.

   vSnap auto disable deduplication when DDT size reaches resource limit

   The deduplication table (DDT) is enabled by default. When either of the threshold limits defined by disk space (gigabytes) or percentage is exceeded, vSnap data deduplication is disabled and an alert is displayed.

   vSnap DDT size limit as percentage of total memory cache

   The threshold as a percentage of the vSnap deduplication table (DDT) as compared to the total memory cache. The DDT is disabled when the vSnap auto disable option is selected and the defined threshold is exceeded.

   vSnap DDT size limit in GB

   The threshold, in gigabytes (GB), of the vSnap DDT. The DDT is disabled when the vSnap auto disable option is selected and the defined threshold is exceeded.

   Used space threshold on datastore or a volume before backup cannot take snapshots of a VM (percentage)

   The percentage of used space on a datastore or a volume that is the threshold before snapshots of a VM cannot be taken for backup.

   Backup wait timeout (seconds)

   The amount of time that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus waits for a backup job to finish before starting another backup job. If the backup job does not finish within the wait period, the job is timed out, and the next job begins.

   VMware communication timeout (seconds)

   The amount of time that IBM Spectrum Protect Plus waits for commands that are issued to connected vCenters to finish. If the operations do not finish within the specified amount of time, they are logged as errors. This setting applies only to VMware hypervisors.

8. To apply a security preference, edit the setting in the Security category. The default value for the preference is shown in the following figure:
   

   You can edit the following security preference:

   Set minimum password length (characters)

   The minimum length of passwords for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. By default, the password has a minimum length of 8 characters, but you can specify a longer password. This value applies to all user accounts.