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© IBM Copyright, 2016 Version 1.01, 19/05/2016 /13

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware with IBM Spectrum Virtualize Global Mirror

IBM® Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware with

IBM Spectrum Virtualize Global Mirror

®

This document can be found on the IBM Intranet, w3.ibm.com/support/techdocs

Version 1.0

June 13th, 2016

IBM ATS System Storage Europe

Axel Westphal

Wilhelm Gardt

http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs



Purpose

This technical paper describes disk-only backup and restore with IBM Spectrum Protect™ Snapshot

(the former Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy Manager) in a storage-based data replication environment.

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot supports fast backup and restore in the primary and the secondary site of an IBM Spectrum Virtualize™ Metro and Global Mirror.

The paper is intended to provide guidance for the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware setup

and outlines use cases for FlashCopy® backup and restore at the secondary site.

Thank You Note We are sincerely thankful to the IBM Boeblingen development team for their kind and cooperative help

in supporting us for this testing project.

Disclaimer Notice & Trademarks

THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS DISTRIBUTED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. IBM EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

IBM shall have no responsibility to update this information.

The performance data contained herein was obtained in a controlled, isolated environment. Actual results that may be obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. While IBM has reviewed each item for accuracy in a specific situation, there is no guarantee that the same or similar results will be obtained elsewhere.

The provision of the information contained herein is not intended to, and does not, grant any right or license under any IBM patents or copyrights. Inquiries regarding patent or copyright licenses should be made, in writing, to:

IBM Director of Licensing IBM Corporation North Castle Drive Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A.

IBM, the IBM logo, FlashCopy, FlashCopy Manager, POWER8, Power Systems, PowerVM, Spectrum Virtualize, Spectrum Protect, Storwize V7000, System Storage, and Tivoli Storage Manager are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.



Table of Contents Purpose 2 Thank You Note 2

Disclaimer Notice & Trademarks 2 Table of Contents 3 1 IBM Storage hardware and software products overview 4 2 IBM Spectrum Virtualize Global Mirror options 5 3 IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot workflow 6

3.1 Workflow of a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site 6 3.2 Preparation of a FlashCopy restore at the secondary site 6 3.3 Workflow of a FlashCopy restore at the secondary site 7

4 IBM Hardware setup and software stack 7 5 How to configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot with Global Mirror change volume 8

5.1 Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the primary site 9

5.2 Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the secondary site 9 5.3 IBM Storwize V7000 Global Mirror with Change Volume configuration 10

6 Handling of IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 10 6.1 Create a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site 11 6.2 Failover to the secondary vStorage backup server 11 6.3 Restore a backup at the secondary site 12

7 Use cases 12 8 References 13



1 IBM Storage hardware and software products overview

IBM Spectrum Virtualize and the IBM Storwize family of storage products

IBM Spectrum Virtualize is IBM’s storage virtualization solution. It provides a single point of control for storage resources in your data centers and can improve storage resource usage and productivity. IBM Spectrum Virtualize is the software core of IBM storage virtualization solutions, such as IBM SAN

Volume Controller and the Storwize® family of products (IBM Storwize V3700, IBM Storwize V5000,

IBM Storwize V7000), and IBM FlashSystem™ V9000. See [Reference 1] for detailed information.

FlashCopy

The FlashCopy function of the IBM Spectrum Virtualize creates an almost instant copy of active data for backup and cloning. It performs a point-in-time copy of one or more volumes. Spectrum Virtualize supports full, incremental and space-efficient FlashCopy operations. See [Reference 2] for detailed information. Metro and Global Mirror IBM Spectrum Virtualize supports multiple types of storage-based data replication:

• A synchronous remote copy called Metro Mirror (MM) • Asynchronous remote copy called Global Mirror (GM) and Global Mirror with Change Volumes

(GMCV) See [Reference 2] for detailed information.

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot (formerly known as Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager)

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot uses the copy-services capabilities of intelligent storage subsystems

to create point-in-time copies. These are application-aware copies (FlashCopy or snapshot) of the

production data. A copy is then retained on disk as a backup, allowing for a fast restore operation (

reverse FlashCopy or flashback). IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot also allows mounting the copy on

an auxiliary server (backup server) as a logical copy. This copy (instead of the original production-

server data) is made accessible for further processing. This processing includes creating a backup to

IBM Spectrum Protect (Tivoli Storage Manager) on disk or tape or doing backup verification functions

(for example, the Database Verify Utility). FlashCopy / Snapshot operations can help minimize the

impact caused by backups and provide near-instant restore capabilities.

In addition the FlashCopy technology is ideally suited for database cloning, especially for large and

intensively used databases, because it is fast (short time to recover and access the copy) and can be

used in an ad hoc manner (database online, no load on production).

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot supports manifold combinations of operating systems, database

applications and storage systems. In VMware environments IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot also

supports the FlashCopy backup and restore at the primary and secondary sites of an IBM Spectrum

Protect Global Mirror with Change Volumes.

Check the system requirements on the product web site for a complete list of supported environments.

See [Reference 3] for detailed information.



2 IBM Spectrum Virtualize Global Mirror options

The IBM Spectrum Virtualize remote replication delivers very high data currency at remote site but requires network bandwidth to support this currency.

Figure 1: Global Mirror without Change Volumes

Figure 2: Global Mirror with Change Volumes

With Change Volumes, a FlashCopy mapping exists between the primary volume and the primary Change Volume. The mapping is updated on the cycling period (60 seconds to one day). The primary Change Volume is then replicated to the secondary GM volume at the target site, which is then captured in another Change Volume on the target site. This approach provides an always consistent image at the target site and protects the data from being inconsistent during resynchronization.

Global Mirror with Change Volumes replicates point-in-time images on a cycling period. If your replication completes in the cycling period, your RPO is twice the cycling period. If your replication does not complete within the cycling period, your RPO is twice the completion time. See [Reference 2] for detailed information.



3 IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot workflow

There is no function on IBM Spectrum Virtualize to watch for the point in time when the asynchronous copy is consistent. IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot utilises the fact that for Global Mirror relationship with Change Volumes (GMCV) a refresh of the Change Volume is enforced at every restart.

3.1 Workflow of a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site

IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot watches for the moment in time when the Change Volume has been replicated to the secondary site and “flashed” to the secondary site change volume so that it represents a consistent copy of the primary site source volume. It then triggers the actual hardware snapshot at the secondary site to create a consistent backup.

Note that IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot does not set up the Global Mirror before a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site. It just checks the Global Mirror relationship between the volumes to be backed up is in a consistent copying state.

3.2 Preparation of a FlashCopy restore at the secondary site

The Global Mirror relationships have to be stopped and read/write access to the target volumes has to be enabled, before a FlashCopy restore can start. Thus the roles (primary/secondary site or local/remote site) will have changed compared to the time the backup was taken.

The following prerequisites must be fulfilled for a successful FlashCopy restore at the secondary site:

• At the secondary site the Virtual Machines (VMs) and the Datastores that will be restored must not be registered in the active VMware configuration.

• The following configuration files and directories of the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot server that ran the backup must be available on the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot server that will run the restore. • The IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot repository

(typically /home/tdpvmware/tdpvmware/config/acsrepository) • The IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot Derby database backup

(typically /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/common/derby_backups/*/VMCLIDB)

We recommend to either regularly copy these configuration files and directories from the primary to the secondary site or setup an equivalent mirror relationship.

Figure 3 shows a sample mirror relationship that copies the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot repository.

Figure 3: Global Mirror relationship for the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot repository



The following section describes how to copy the repository and the Derby database manually.

Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot to regularly create a backup of the Derby database. For example, in the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot profile set the VMCLI_DB_BACKUP parameter to AFTER_BACKUP to create a database backup after each FlashCopy backup.

Alternatively use the Derby database backup command to create a consistent backup image: vmcli -f db_backup. Check the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware Installation and User’s Guide [reference 4] for additional command options.

Regularly copy the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot Derby repository and the Derby database backup to the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot server at the secondary site. Before copying ensure, that the repository and VMCLIDB directory are empty at the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot server at the secondary site.

Sample commands:

scp -r /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/common/derby_backups/*/VMCLIDB/* [email protected]:/home/tdpvmware/tdpvmware/VMCLIDB/

scp -r /home/tdpvmware/tdpvmware/config/acsrepository/* [email protected]:/home/tdpvmware/tdpvmware/config/acsrepository/

Finally start or restart the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot and Derby processes on the server where the restore will be started:

/opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/setup.sh -a start

service vmcli start

3.3 Workflow of a FlashCopy restore at the secondary site

A FlashCopy restore in the secondary site is only possible after a Global Mirror stop and enabling access to the FlashCopy target volumes. The IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot instant restore process includes these steps:

1. Stop the Global Mirror 2. Map the Datastore volume(s) 3. Perform a FlashCopy restore with IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 4. Scan the host adapters (HBAs) of the ESXi server 5. Mount the Datastore 6. Register and start the Virtual Machine

Note: If a Datastore includes more than one Virtual Machine, IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot does a FlashCopy restore of the whole Datastore, but will only register the selected Virtual Machines. IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot also supports the restore of individual Virtual Machines without performing a FlashCopy restore. In such a case, IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot attaches to the FlashCopy target volumes and copies back the data.

4 IBM Hardware setup and software stack

This section describes our hardware setup and shows the software versions.



Figure 4: IBM Storwize V7000 Global Mirror with Change Volumes

Software versions:

• IBM Storwize V7000 7.4.0.4 / 7.4.0.2 • VMware ESXi 6.0 • IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot proxy servers (virtual machines):

o SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 (x86_64)

o IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 4.1.3.0

5 How to configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot with Global Mirror change volume

To configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware the following steps have to be performed by the Administrator:

1. Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the primary site 2. Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the secondary site 3. Configure IBM Storwize V7000 Global Mirror with Change Volumes



5.1 Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the primary site IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot must be installed and configured on the primary vStorage backup server. The vStorage backup server can be a physical server or a virtual machine running Linux. For further details about the installation requirements check the prerequisites checklist. See [Reference 5]. You can configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware either by calling the graphical user interface (GUI) at https://<ip-address>:9081/TsmVMwareUI/ or by using the command line interface. The GUI configuration wizard opens in a web browser by default and guides you through the initial configuration. If you choose to use the command line interface instead of the web browser window enter the following command: /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/setup.sh

After the initial configuration, you can start the configuration wizard or run the setup script again to change your configuration.

During the configuration process the profile file is generated, which includes a Device Class as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: DEVICE_CLASS example in the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot profile

5.2 Configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the secondary site

The following requirements have to be fulfilled for the setup of IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot: • The vCenter primary Datacenter name must be equal to the secondary Datacenter name. • The UID of the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot user must be the same on both sites.

Install and configure IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot on the secondary vStorage backup server. The vStorage backup server can be a physical server or a virtual machine running Linux.

Copy the profile from the primary vStorage backup server to the secondary vStorage backup server and change the following parameters in the profile:

>>> DEVICE_CLASS STANDARD

COPYSERVICES_HARDWARE_TYPE SVC

COPYSERVICES_PRIMARY_SERVERNAME <ip-address primary storage>

COPYSERVICES_USERNAME fcmanager

# SVC_COPY_RATE 80

# SVC_CLEAN_RATE 50

# SVC_GRAIN_SIZE 256

COPYSERVICES_REMOTE YES

COPYSERVICES_REMOTE_SERVERNAME <ip-address secondary storage>

COPYSERVICES_REMOTE_USERNAME fcmanager

# COPYSERVICES_COMMPROTOCOL HTTPS

# COPYSERVICES_CERTIFICATEFILE NO_CERTIFICATE

# COPYSERVICES_SERVERPORT 5989

FLASHCOPY_TYPE NOCOPY

# COPYSERVICES_TIMEOUT 6

RECON_INTERVAL 12

TARGET_SETS 4

TARGET_NAMING %SOURCE_t%TARGETSET

<<<



• ACSD - Hostname and port of the vStorage backup server at the secondary site.

• VCENTER_SERVER- vCenter server name at the secondary site.

• AUXILIARY_ESX_HOST - ESXi host at the secondary site.

• VCENTER_SERVER_VM_NAME – vCenter server at the secondary site.

• VCENTER_SERVER_USER – vCenter user at the secondary site

5.3 IBM Storwize V7000 Global Mirror with Change Volume configuration

You must have set up the configuration of the Global Mirror with Change Volumes relationships on both IBM Storwize V7000 systems before you run IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware backup operations. This can be done with the GUI as shown in Figure 6 or with the command line. IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot does not handle the creation of the consistency groups and Global

Mirror volume relations.

Figure 6: Global Mirror with Change Volumes configuration wizard

To restore a virtual machine at the secondary site the primary site’s IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot repository files and VMCLI database files are required at the vStorage backup server at the secondary site. We recommended to mirror or periodically copy the Spectrum Protect Snapshot repository and VMCLI database backup files which are located in the following directories. See section 3.2 Preparation for details.

6 Handling of IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot This chapter describes the steps how to create a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site and how to perform an instant restore of a Datastore at the secondary site. Before you can restore the virtual machine, some preparation steps must be performed at the secondary vStorage backup server.



6.1 Create a FlashCopy backup at the secondary site • Login to the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot GUI (https://<ip-

address>:9081/TsmVMwareUI/) of the primary vStorage backup server.

• Create a backup schedule for one or more virtual machines. Choose the device class that contains both Storwize V7000 storage systems.

• Run the backup schedule and check under Reports Recent Tasks that the backup finished as successfully as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Status of an IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot backup task

6.2 Failover to the secondary vStorage backup server The failover to the secondary site and restoring of virtual machines requires the following steps.

• Stop the remote copy consistency group and enable read/write access to the GMCV secondary volumes. This can be done using the V7000 GUI or the “stoprcconsistgrp –access” command.

• Ensure, that the acsrepository files and the VMCLI database files from the primary vStorage backup server are available at the secondary vStorage backup server, as described in section 3.2.

• Start IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot at the vStorage backup server at the secondary site. To start the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot processes run the following command: /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/setup.sh -a start To start the VMCLI database run the following command: service vmcli start

• Check that the VMCLI database is up and running service vmcli status

• Check that the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot processes are up and running: ps –ef | grep acs root 22440 1 0 Apr20 ? 00:01:45 /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/acsgen –D 1002 22441 1 0 Apr20 ? 00:21:05 /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/acsd root 22443 1 0 Apr20 ? 00:01:31 /opt/tivoli/tsm/tdpvmware/fcm/acsgen -D -M



6.3 Restore a backup at the secondary site • Login to the IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot GUI of the secondary vStorage backup server.

• To perform an instant restore, select Restore and choose Datastores as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Restore point selection

• Choose the latest Datastore backup and start the restore wizard.

7 Use cases These are typical use cases for IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot:

Use the FlashCopy target volumes at the secondary site as a backup.

Replicate a database / application data to a secondary site and open the databases / access and data at the secondary site to ensure consistency.

Provide a consistent database / application data copy at the secondary site. After a failover to the secondary site restore the data to a takeover host.

Attach the FlashCopy target volumes to a backup server at the secondary site and sent the data to an IBM Spectrum Protect (formerly known as Tivoli Storage Manager) server.



8 References

[1] IBM Spectrum Storage landing page http://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/spectrum/

[2] IBM Redbook “Implementing the IBM Storwize V7000 and IBM Spectrum Virtualize V7.6” http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247938.html

[3] IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot landing page http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/spectrum-protect-snapshot

[4] IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 4.1.4 for VMware Installation and User’s Guide http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS36V9

[5] IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot 4.1.4 HW/SW requirements http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21971752

Here, you can also find the Preinstallation Checklists and the Installation Planning sheets.

[6] IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot for VMware – Remote Mirroring Video Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGaP875lhes

[7] IBM Spectrum Protect Snapshot - Technical Information Newsletter http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024937

[8] Learn advanced automation concepts with FlashCopyManager for VMware http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/servicemanagement/library/sm-flashcopy-vmware-automation/

http://www.ibm.com/systems/storage/spectrum/

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/sg247938.html

http://www.ibm.com/software/products/en/spectrum-protect-snapshot

http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SS36V9

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21971752



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGaP875lhes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGaP875lhes



http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/servicemanagement/library/sm-flashcopy-vmware-automation/



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