Performing Full Client Backups with TSM

Answer

The two methods described below enable Tivoli Storage Manager to perform periodic "full" backups. These are not the only methods available, but they have the advantage of updating each file space's last backup start and end times. For example, another method is to schedule periodic SELECTIVE backups of each file system. However this method requires maintaining a list of file systems to back up for each client, and the file space last backup start and end times are not updated on the TSM server.

Method 1
Backup-archive client option -ABSOLUTE was introduced in Tivoli Storage Manager Backup-Archive Client version 6.4.1. You can specify this option from the command line interface (dsmc) or in a Tivoli Storage Manager Server schedule's OPTIONS parameter.

Command line interface example:

dsmc incremental -absolute

Schedule definition example:

define schedule standard satfull begintime=19:00 dayofweek=saturday options=-absolute

You can also use the UPDATE SCHEDULE command to add the -ABSOLUTE option the schedule's OPTIONS parameter.

The -ABSOLUTE option is available in the following Tivoli Storage Manager Backup-Archive Client versions:

• 6.4.1 and later 6.4.x fix packs and interim fixes
• All 7.1 and later

The -ABSOLUTE option is not available in Tivoli Storage Manager Backup-Archive Client 6.4.0.x or older client versions and releases.

Method 2
Use this method if you cannot use Method 1.

This method exploits the MODE setting in backup copy groups. MODE can be set to one of two values:

• MODIFIED - This is the default value for backup copy groups, and means that a file is eligible for backup only if it has changed since the last time it was backed up.

• ABSOLUTE - The file is eligible for backup regardless of whether it has changed since the last time it was backed up.

The following example illustrates how to use MODE=ABSOLUTE to perform weekly full backups. For the purpose of this discussion, the following requirements and assumptions are made:

• Full backups are desired every Saturday starting at 7:00 PM.

• Incremental backups are desired Sunday through Friday starting at 7:00 PM.

• An incremental backup schedule is already defined on the TSM server to start backups every night at 7:00 PM, and the nodes are associated with this schedule.

• The policy domain and policy set are both named STANDARD.

• Within the STANDARD domain an STANDARD policy set there are three management classes: STANDARD, MC2, and MC3.

The steps to implement the backup scheme are all performed from the TSM Administrative client:

1. Define a script to change each copy group's MODE to ABSOLUTE:

define script setfull "update copygroup standard standard standard mode=absolute"

update script setfull "update copygroup standard standard mc2 mode=absolute"

update script setfull "update copygroup standard standard mc3 mode=absolute"

update script setfull "activate policyset standard standard"

2. Define an administrative schedule to run the script prior to the Saturday 7:00 PM client backups. In this example, the script will run at 6:00 PM.

define schedule setfull type=administrative active=yes cmd="run setfull" starttime=18:00 dayofweek=saturday

3. Starting on Sunday, the backups need to switch back to incremental. Define a script to change each copy group's MODE back to MODIFIED:

define script setincr "update copygroup standard standard standard mode=modified"

update script setincr "update copygroup standard standard mc2 mode=modified"

update script setincr "update copygroup standard standard mc3 mode=modified"

update script setincr "activate policyset standard standard"

4. Define an administrative schedule to run the script prior to the Sunday 7:00 PM client backups:

define schedule setincr type=administrative active=yes cmd="run setincr" starttime=18:00 dayofweek=sunday

The above steps will yield the following results:

1. Every Saturday at 6:00 PM, each copy group's MODE setting will be changed to ABSOLUTE.

2. Every Saturday at 7:00 PM, the client backups will start. These will be full backups due to the MODE=ABSOLUTE setting.

3. Every Sunday at 6:00 PM, each copy group's MODE setting will be changed back to MODIFIED.

4. Every Sunday at 7:00 PM, the client backups will start. These will be incremental backups due to the MODE=MODIFIED setting.

5. Monday through Friday backups will also be incremental because the MODE is still set to MODIFIED.



[June 06, 2014 - Added information about the -ABSOLUTE option.]