Sysback Remote Services

Sysback Remote Services

This is a guide intended to setup remote network backups using Sysback Remote Services.

Sysback Remote Services is an optional feature that enables a host attached to a network using TCP/IP, to read and write backups to and from either tape drives, CD/DVD (ISO and UDF formats) or disks attached to a remote host.

This way a single host can act as a backup server for other hosts on the network that do not have a local tape drive attached. With remote services, a backup server machine can enable specific hosts and users on those hosts to access the local devices or directories.

Remote services also enables client hosts to be installed from a device or disk image file on a network installation server.

All the testing has been performed in the following test environment:
Backup server (casinobso) – AIX 7.1 TL4 SP3, Sysback version 6.1.3.8
Backup client (forcebso) – AIX 7.1 TL4 SP1, Sysback version 6.1.3.8

1. Must install Sysback software on both the backup server and backup client.

2. Sysback Remote Services must be configured on both sides.

3. Correct hostname resolution – the classic Remote Services works similar to RSH. This means that both servers need to have correct /etc/hosts entries for each other.

The configuration is done on both sides, by enabling remote services on both hosts.

- From the server side, you can grant specific clients access the locally attached devices – all or a list of specific clients

- From the client side, you can add a remote server to store the backups.

To setup a remote server, first double check that the sysback filesets are installed:

# lslpp –h |grep tivoli.tsm.client.sysback
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.rte 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.license.cert 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.license.rte 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE

And make sure that /etc/hosts has the correct entries for the server and the client:

# egrep 'casinobso|forcebso' /etc/hosts
9.3.58.219 casinobso casinobso.austin.ibm.com
9.3.58.214 forcebso forcebso.austin.ibm.com

Next, you can specify a directory on the system to store the Sysback images.

# smitty sysback

Configuration options ==> Local User Access ==> Add or Change Local user Devices/Directory Access

On the following screen, you can specify all or a certain user.

USER Name to allow [all]

You can specify different directories for backup images and for network install images. The defaults are:
Backup Dirs: /usr/lpp/sysback/bf/local/all
Install Image Dirs: /usr/lpp/sysback/images/local

I have created a directory called /sysbacks to hold all the sysback images on the sysback server (casinobso).
Directory path for backup images [/sysbacks] +
Directory path for network install images [/sysbacks] +

To confirm the correct directories are set, you can run the following command:
# cfglocaccess –l
User: all
Devices: all
Backup Dirs: /sysbacks
Install Image Dirs: /sysbacks

Once you confirm everything is ok, you can setup remote services on the server:

# smitty sysback

Configuration options ==> Remote Services ==> Server Options ==> Configure Remote Services

Once finished, the smitty screen will display the following:

Configuring Remote Services ...

Inetd subsystem already configured ...

Creating/verifying files and directories ...

To confirm it is setup, you can check the /etc/services file for the sbnet service:

# cat /etc/services | grep sbnet
sbnet 1239/tcp # Remote Services

Next, you can setup remote hosts access to the server:

# smitty sysback

Configuration options ==> Remote Services ==> Server Options ==> Add or Change Client Host Access to this Server

* HOST Name of Client System [forcebso] +/

Press F4 for list of currently enabled clients

You can specify all or you can type in specific client hostnames. In this example, I will be setting access for the client only – forcebso.

Next, you need to specify which users will have access to the server:

USER Name to allow [root]

Again, you can type all or specific users. I will be allowing access for the root user.

On the final screen, you can specify which directory on the server will be used to store the network backups, as well as which devices can be used to store the backups.

* Hostname of client system casinobso

If all: Hosts to deny access [] +

* User name to allow root

If all: Users to deny access [] +

Tape or Virtual Devices for backups or "all" [all] +

Directory path for backup images [/sysbacks] +

Directory path for network install images [/sysbacks] +

FIREWALL ENABLEMENT OPTIONS:

Communication Ports []

Change communication port values? yes +

If you have a firewall in place, you can specify which ports to work through the firewall. When specifying the ports, you can list them either separated by comma or using a dash symbol to specify a range of ports.

To quickly verify that the configuration is correct, you can run the following command on the server:

# cfgremaccess –l

Hostname: casinobso
User: root
Devices: all
Backup Dirs: /sysbacks
Install Image Dirs: /sysbacks

Hostname: forcebso
User: root
Devices: all
Backup Dirs: /sysbacks
Install Image Dirs: /sysbacks

The configuration on the client side is similar to the configuration done on the server side. Again, you must enable remote services and simply add the server as a Remote Backup Server. You must also confirm that there are correct entries for both the client and the server in the /etc/hosts file and that the Sysback filesets are installed:

# lslpp –h tivoli.tsm.client.sysback*
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.rte 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.license.cert 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE
tivoli.tsm.client.sysback.license.rte 6.1.3.8 COMMIT COMPLETE

# egrep 'casinobso|forcebso' /etc/hosts
9.3.58.219 casinobso casinobso.austin.ibm.com
9.3.58.214 forcebso forcebso.austin.ibm.com

If everything looks ok, you can configure the remote services:

# smitty sysback

Configuration options ==> Remote Services ==> Client Options ==> Configure Remote Services

To confirm it is setup, you can check the /etc/services file for the sbnet service:

# cat /etc/services | grep sbnet
sbnet 1239/tcp # Remote Services

Next, you can add a backup server for this client:

# smitty sysback

Configuration options ==> Remote Services ==> Client Options ==> Add or Change List of Remote Backup Servers

On the following screen, type the hostname of your network backup server and change show disk image file backup/restore options to yes:

Select a Server hostname to add or change [casinobso] +
Show disk image file backup/restore options? yes +

You can confirm the setup is correct by running the following commands on the client:

# cfgremserver –l

Hostname: casinobso

List Disk File Options? Yes

Devices: all

Backup Directories: /sysbacks

Install Image Directories: /sysbacks

 

Once the configuration is ready on both sides, you can do two types of backups – push and pull:

1. Push backup (client backing up and saving on the server)

#smitty sysback

Backup & Recovery Options ==> Backup Options ==> Backup the System (Installation Image)

You will be prompted to select the backup directory on the Sysback server

casinobso /sysbacks

On the following screen, everything can be left at their default values.

** Note that when doing a push backup, the following field represents the server the backup will be stored on:
Backup Data Hostname [casinobso]

This field is only filled when doing a push backup. When doing a pull backup, the following field needs to be filled instead:
PULL BACKUP OPTIONS:
Hostname to Backup []

You can change the backup file ID to reflect the date of the backup, otherwise a random ID will be generated.
Backup file ID [04031235] <<

Another thing you can add is an “exclude list” file:
Exclude List File Name [] +

This works like the exclude list used with the AIX native mksysb command. The only difference is the Sysback exclude list needs to be configured from the Sysback menu, which menas you cannot specify a direct path to an exclude list.
Example will be shown later.

Once the backup completes, on the server (casinobso) you can see the backups:

@casinobso(/sysbacks)# ls

SB.forcebso.04031235.hd11admin SB.forcebso.04031235.hd2 SB.forcebso.04031235.hd9var SB.forcebso.04031235.hd3 SB.forcebso.04031235.livedump SB.forcebso.04031235.hd4 SB.forcebso.04031235.TOC SB.forcebso.04031235.hd1 SB.forcebso.04031235.hd10opt

2. Pull backup – initiate the backup from the server

You can initiate a pull operation from the sysback server – this will create a backup of the selected client and store it locally on the server.

#smitty sysback

Backup & Recovery Options ==> Backup Options ==> Backup the System (Installation Image)
 

You will be prompted to select the local backup directory:
Dir /sysbacks

On the following screen, note that the Backup Data Hostname field is empty.
As explained above, this is only filled when doing a push backup from the client to the server.

A bit further down, you need to specify the client that will be backed up:

PULL BACKUP OPTIONS:
Hostname to Backup [forcebso]

Similar to the push backup, you can either specify an exclude list or change the backup file ID, if you want to.

You can have multiple clients write their backups to a single server, and unlike in a NIM environment, a Sysback server can also be a client to a different server.
In the above example, you can also do a cross configuration to have the client (forcebso) work as a server for casinobso.

Apart from saving the backups remotely to the server’s disks, clients can also write backups to the devices attached to the server. This means that a client can save its full system backup and burn it to a CD/DVD connected to the remote server. The same is true for tape drives.

1. Backup to CD/DVD

When configuring the server, note that under
Tape or Virtual Devices for backups or "all" [all]

we specify all. This means that the clients will have access to all devices on the server.
You can backup a client to a CD/DVD located physically on the server.

#smitty sysback

Backup & Recovery Options ==> Backup Options ==> Create a backup to CD/DVD

You will then be prompted to select the available devices on the server:
casinobso /dev/cd0 SCSI Optical Server by VIO Server
casinobso /dev/cd1 SCSI Optical Server by VIO Server
casinobso /dev/cd2 SCSI Optical Server by VIO Server

On the next screen you can select the Backup Media format (ISO9660 Rockridge Format or Universal Disk Format (UDF)).

The ISO format requires a large amount of free space on the system, as it creates three temporary filesystems to store the image, but records faster than the UDF format. The UDF format on the other hand doesn’t eat up that much space, as you can choose to write directly to the media, however the writing speed is much slower.
For more information on the difference, you can go through Chapter 5. Backups to CD or DVD in the Sysback user manual.

On the following screen, you can select to make a “boot only” CD/DVD (no data will be generated):
Create a Boot only CD/DVD? no +

include TSM client binaries (TSM API, TSM B/A or both):
TSM Option none +

Burn the CD/DVD now or only create the iso/udf file:
Create the CD/DVD Now? yes +

Specify an existing backup_image filesystem that contains a previously created backup image:
Existing System Backup Image. [] +/

Change the default filesystems that will store the temporary files and other tunables. You can leave all on their default values.

2. Backup to tape drives

The process to backup to a tape drive is the same as when performing a system backup over the network, but instead of selecting the remote directory to hold the backup, you can select the remote tape drive:

#smitty sysback

Backup & Recovery Options ==> Backup Options ==> Backup the System (Installation Image)

casinobso /dev/rmt0 Tape Drive <<
casinobso /sysbacks

This will write the backup directly to the remote tape drive over the network.

The Sysback exclude list works the same way as a mksysb exclude file.
You can exclude files, directories and even entire Logical volumes from a backup.

The default Sysback exclude file is /usr/lpp/sysback/.exclude_list. You can either add files/directories to it, or create a completely different exclude list. All Sysback exclude lists are held in the /usr/lpp/sysback directory.

In this example, I will be creating an exclude list called nim_resources to exclude all the NIM resources LVs I have on the system.
To setup an exclude list, go to the sysback smitty menu:

# smitty sysback

Configuration Options ==> Exclude Lists ==> Add a File, Directory, or Logical Volume to Exclude List

On the following screen, type the name of the exclude file, or if there is already one on the system, you can press F4 to select it.

Exclude List File Name [nim_resources] +/
Default file is /usr/lpp/sysback/.exclude_list

File or directory name to add [/export/mksysb] /
OR
Logical Volume name to add [fslv02] /

You can either specify a file/directory to exclude, or you can specify an entire LV.
Once it is created, You can verify the contents either through the CLI:
# chexcludelist -lf /usr/lpp/sysback/nim_res

 

Or through smitty:
# smitty sysback

Configuration Options ==> Exclude Lists ==> Display Exclude List File

on the next screen, press F4 and select your exclude list, then press Enter.

Thank you for the time to read through this guide. I hope you found the information both useful and helpful. If you feel there are any mistakes or inconsistencies, please email me at ted.todorov@bg.ibm.com. If there are any technical questions regarding this document, please follow support procedures and open a PMR by calling 1-800-426-7378, and select the option for software support.