Backup question

UNIX AIX
1

Hi All!
I'm rather new in AIX so I want some comments about backup scheme I've developed to backup every part of the system. I have the following hardware:

  • Power6 570 server with two VIO server and 3 LPARs
  • NIM server outside (on the other Power server)
  • Windows 2003 Server with Tivoli Storage Manager 5.5.2 Server and TS3100 Tape Library connected by SCSI (we have planned to backup only DB2 on the tape, because we don't have any backup software except TSM API for DB2)

VIO server 1.5.2 FP11 SP1
LPAR - AIX6.1 TL2

I have installed this software on LPAR:

LPAR1 - WebSphere Message Broker
LPAR2 - WebSphere Application Server
LPAR3 - DB2 9.1

Now the backup procedures. I included restore methods in ().
1) HMC - Back up HMC Data - backup by FTP, and then burn to DVD (restore: Install HMC from shipped (or downloaded) CD and then restore this backup into HMC)
2) VIO server:
- rootvg - backup by backupios commend into nim_resources.tar on file system mounted by NFS, then burn to DVD (Restore: by NIM server. As I've read AIX 6.1 supports install from nim_resources.tar, not only from mksysb)
- hdiskX (on them are LPARs rootvg volume groups installed) I don't see any reason and possible methods to backup them. LPAR rootvgs are backed up later. So I think it's enough.
- !Question! Should I do savevgstruct for this hdiskX? Actually I didn' get what is the use this command... As I understood, after restoring from mksysb (done by backupios) LPARs rootvg all information about other volume groups, user settings and virtual device mappings should be restored also.
3) LPAR:
- rootvg - back up by NIM server (mksysb), and burn to DVD(Restore: by restore command from NIM server)
- for WMB and WAS partitions I want backup shared volume group on which WAS profile and message broker archive files placed by savevg command, because they are simple files. Burn images to DVD. (Restore: restvg)
- for DB2. I have enable "Archive logs" for DB. Logs are backed up by TSM API to the TSM Tape Library. One time in week I want to do full DB backup. !QUESTION! Should I do incremental backup every evening? Or in case "Archive logs" I shouldn't do that? (Restore: by means DB2, firstly restore full DB backup and then restore archived logs.)

Please comment this scheme. Will be these backups enough to restore every part of system? I'm afraid that I missed something...
P.S. All rootvg volume groups are installed on internal server disks. DS4700 contains LPAR user defined volume groups. DS4700 have an option VolumeCopy enabled but I don't see any ability to use it in my scheme. Or may be I just didn't get the meaning of this feature. Is't possible to use VolumeCopy in any step in my scheme?

Any comments are appreciated!
Thank you in advance!

2

I would focus on trying to simplify your approach, leverage your NIM/TSM server.

  1. (HMC) - enable ftp on your NIM server and backup your HMC to your NIM server after each upgrade or major change.

  2. (VIOS) - Script a weekly backup from your NIM server of your VIOS servers and save them to your NIM server.

  3. (ROOTVG) - Script a weekly backup from your NIM server of your rootvg's on all your LPAR's and save them to your NIM server as well.

Install TSM BA on your NIM server and perform a nightly incremental backup. Make sure you have a off site copy pool setup properly.

LPAR's

  1. Install TSM BA client on all your LPAR's and schedule nightly incrementals

  2. Exclude any DB2 database directories.

  3. You mentioned a TSM API, are you referring to TSM Data Protection for DB2 or just the Backup Archive client?

  4. Most importantly

  • how much data is in the DB2 database?
  • how critical is the data?
  • do you have a SLA you need to meet?

In all... utilize the NIM server's functionality to rebuild your rootvg's and VIOS servers. When it comes time to rebuild all you need to do is restore 1 server (NIM) and now someone can focus on rebuilding the VIOS and base OS's. Then you can turn your attention and resources (tape drive mounts) to restoring data to the LPAR's.

We perform hourly backups of our archive logs and nightly exports of our Oracle environment. I also synchronously mirror all my data to a remote location and test our DR plan on a quarterly basis.

Hopefully this makes sense, it's Monday morning and I have St. Patty's Day on my mind!

3

Thank you for help!
Now I agree that using of TSM BA makes sense. I'll try to persuade customer to buy it. Now I'm using only TSM BA API to backup DB2. Actually we don't have to lose any data at all and SLA is supposed that we have 2 hours to restore DB. So I think that we have to do incremental backup every evening plus backup archive logs. Now I'm reading very useful book "Data recovery and high availability" (according DB2 ) so a lot of interesting things have found there :slight_smile: