iSeries Backups Overview and Procedures

This chapter provides requirements and procedures for protecting iSeries. The software for the iSeries is designed to aid in the recovery of lost or corrupted files on this platform. It can be used to back up many types of libraries and objects, including security and configuration files, user programs, and the Integrated File System (IFS). Protection for the iSeries platform is agentless. The iSeries software uses the FTP protocol to back up files from the iSeries to the appliance.

See these topics for details:

Requirements and considerations for iSeries protection

The following requirements and considerations apply to iSeries protection:

Item

Requirement or consideration

Appliance version

The Unitrends appliance must be running release 9.0.0-13 or higher.

iSeries version

The iSeries must be a supported version listed in the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix.

Backup and recovery jobs

The following apply to backup and recovery jobs:

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There can be no other active jobs running on the iSeries. Only one backup or recovery job can be running at a time. Use the WRKACTJOB command to monitor all active jobs on the iSeries.

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Backup and recovery jobs must run without conflict or interruption.

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Performance of iSeries backup and recovery jobs is influenced heavily by the following:

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Commercial Processing Workload (CPW) of the iSeries server(s)

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Amount of library data

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Amount of Integrated File System (IFS) data

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Available network bandwidth

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For recommendations on performance enhancements for the iSeries FTP server, see the IBM article Improving FTP server performance with configurable subsystem support.

Disk space

There must be adequate disk space available on your iSeries asset for a backup to complete successfully. When the backup runs, it backs up the library file system using one thread and the IFS using a second thread. Normally, these threads run in parallel for increased performance. For each thread a SAVF file is created in QTEMP, which consumes disk space. You must have enough available disk space to create these SAVF files or the backup fails.

If parallel processing requires too much space in your environment, you can opt to use serial processing.

To determine the minimum space required:

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Parallel processing - Use the size of the largest library + size of the largest IFS file.

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Serial processing - Use the size of the largest library or the size of the largest IFS file, whichever is greater.

To modify the processing mode:

In the Unitrends UI, select Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > General Configuration.

Scroll down to the iSeriesAgent section.

Click Threading, change this setting to 1 for parallel or 0 for serial, then click Save.

Click Close to exit.

FTP

The FTP server must be configured and running on the iSeries. The FTP protocol is used by backup and recovery jobs.

Maximum file size

If any IFS file exceeds 500MB, that file is backed up individually and is not included in the backup. To prevent this, you can increase the MaxBlockSize setting to accommodate the largest IFS directory.

To increase the MaxBlockSize:

In the Unitrends UI, select Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > General Configuration.

Scroll down to the iSeriesAgent section.

Click MaxBlockSize, enter the desired size in bytes, and click Save.

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To avoid backing up files individually, set this value to accommodate the largest IFS directory.

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To use an unlimited MaxBlockSize, set this value to -1.

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To back up all files individually, set this value to 0.

Click Close to exit.

Data protected and disaster recovery

Unitrends software cannot backup all iSeries data, such as licensed internal code and certain system libraries. The iSeries backup cannot be used to recover an iSeries system to its original state in the event of hardware or software failure. To enable disaster recovery, you must perform periodic GO SAVE option 21 or option 22 system backups to use for disaster recovery. GO SAVE backups contain critical files needed to recover the system. For more information on GO SAVE, see the IBM article GO SAVE command menu options.

Locked objects

The iSeries software invokes the save-while-active option when performing backup operations. These operations require a brief lock in order to reach a stable checkpoint. An object with a prolonged conflicting lock may not be able to reach a valid checkpoint. When a library contains an object that fails to reach a checkpoint the default behavior is to skip the entire library. In this case, it is logged that N files were not saved, but the names of specific files skipped cannot be determined. To change this behavior, in the Unitrends UI select Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > General Configuration and change the iSeriesAgent PreCheck setting from 1 (default) to 0. With this change, only objects that failed to reach a checkpoint are skipped and the remainder of the library is backed up. If an object is consistently skipped in this manner it may be a protected system object. In this case it can only be backed up in a restricted state.

Pseudo objects

Be sure to carefully configure your iSeries backups to exclude active system files.

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/Security Data – Contains the save file from the SAVSECDTA command. This object is included in backups. If you do not want to back up or recover this object, you must exclude it when creating the iSeries profile. Unless excluded, it will always be the first object in the backup file. During a full recovery, it is the first object recovered (via the RSTUSRPRF command), then a RSTAUT command is executed after everything else has been recovered.

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/System Configuration – Contains the save file from the SAVCFG command. This object is included in backups. If you do not want to back up or recover this object, you must exclude it when creating the iSeries profile. Unless excluded, it is recovered before any other objects, except /Security Data, during a full recovery. It is recovered using the RSTCFG command.

Wildcard support

Supported wildcards include:

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*: Zero or more characters

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?: Exactly one character

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[abc]: Exactly one character from list

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[a-c]: Exactly one character from range

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[!abc]: Exactly one character not from list

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[!a-c]: Exactly one character not in the range

Wildcards cannot be used in these cases:

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Backup Include List: Object Name

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Backup Exclude List: Path Name

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Backup Exclude List: Object Name

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Backup Include List: Path Name

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Any recovery

User privileges

The user performing the backup or recovery job must, at a minimum, have *SECADM privileges added to their profile.

File attributes

Files to be recovered must have read-write attributes. This is accomplished on the OS400 operating system by granting object authority to the user performing the restore command. Following is an example of modifying security privileges in the QGPL and QUSRSYS libraries for user QSECOFR:

# GRTOBJAUT OBJ(QGPL/*ALL) OBJTYPE(*ALL) USER(QSECOFR) AUT(*ALL)

# GRTOBJAUT OBJ(QUSRSYS/*ALL) OBJTYPE(*ALL) USER(QSECOFR) AUT(*ALL)

Encryption and compression

iSeries backups are not encrypted on the appliance and backups are compressed post-transmission.

Managing iSeries assets

Use these procedures to manage iSeries assets:

To add an iSeries asset

To add the iSeries asset, create an iSeries profile using this procedure:

If the iSeries is not accessible via DNS, add the iSeries to the hosts file of the appliance as described in To view or edit the hosts file.

Using a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, connect to the appliance using the following:

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Appliance IP address

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Port 22

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SSH connection type

Enter the following command to access the console menu:

# dpuconfig

Select option 4 for Advanced Options.

Select option 2 for IBM iSeries Backup and Recovery.

Select option 1 for Create iSeries Profile.

Follow the prompts on the screen to create your profile.

To specify files to included or exclude, enter the full pathname of the file. The syntax you enter is case sensitive. Example: /QSYS.LIB/RNISSIMOV.LIB

The iSeries is added to the appliance and can be viewed in the appliance UI. To start protecting the iSeries, proceed to Creating iSeries backup jobs.

To edit an iSeries asset

Use this procedure to edit these settings: asset name, backup strategy, IP, or credentials. You will be required to create a new profile or overwrite an existing profile.

Using a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, connect to the appliance using the following:

–

Appliance IP address

–

Port 22

–

SSH connection type

Enter the following command to access the console menu:

# dpuconfig

Select option 4 for Advanced Options.

Select option 2 for IBM iSeries Backup and Recovery.

Select option 1for Create iSeries Profile.

To specify files to included or exclude, enter the full pathname of the file. The syntax you enter is case sensitive. Example: /QSYS.LIB/RNISSIMOV.LIB

Follow the prompts on the screen to update the profile.

Removing an iSeries asset

Caution! When an asset is removed, all associated backups of that asset are also deleted. Please use caution when removing an asset.

Preparing to remove an asset

Before removing an asset, you must

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Remove the iSeries asset from any backup copy job schedules by using the appliance UI. See To view or edit a backup copy job for details.

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Remove the iSeries asset from any backup schedules by using the dpuconfig menu-based console.

To remove an asset

In the appliance UI, select Configure > Protected Assets.

Select the asset you want to remove.

Click Remove > Confirm.

Creating iSeries backup jobs

Before running jobs, be sure to add the iSeries asset as described in To add an iSeries asset. Start protecting your iSeries by creating a backup schedule or running an on-demand backup job, as described in these topics:

To create an iSeries backup schedule

iSeries backup jobs are created through the menu-based console. There can only be one backup or recovery job running at a time. Be sure to schedule the job to run at a time when no other jobs will be running.

Using a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, to connect to the appliance using the following:

–

Appliance IP address

–

Port 22

–

SSH connection type

Enter the following command to access the console menu:

# dpuconfig

Select option 4 for Advanced Options.

Select option 2 for IBM iSeries Backup and Recovery.

Select option 4 to Schedule Backup.

Select option 1 to select the profile to use for your scheduled backup job. Follow the prompts to select a profile or to create a new profile.

To specify files to included or exclude, enter the full pathname of the file. The syntax you enter is case sensitive. Example: /QSYS.LIB/RNISSIMOV.LIB

Follow the prompts to set additional schedule options, such as days and times the job will run, and to save the schedule.

(Optional) Set up a backup copy job to copy iSeries backups to an off-appliance target. For details see:

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Backup copy targets to add a backup copy target to your backup appliance.

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Creating backup copy jobs to create a job to copy iSeries backups to the target.

To run an iSeries backup on-demand

Notes:

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Only one backup or recovery job can be running at any given time. Ensure that there are no jobs running before creating an on-demand backup job.

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To run an on-demand job using the default iSeries profile, you can use the procedure below or run the job from the appliance UI by selecting Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > Support Toolbox > On-Demand iSeries Backup.

Using a terminal emulator, such as PuTTY, to connect to the appliance using the following:

–

Appliance IP address

–

Port 22

–

SSH connection type

Enter the following command to access the console menu:

# dpuconfig

Select option 4 for Advanced Options.

Select option 2 for IBM iSeries Backup and Recovery.

Select option 2 for Backup iSeries.

Follow the prompts to create and run the job.

To specify files to included or exclude, enter the full pathname of the file. The syntax you enter is case sensitive. Example: /QSYS.LIB/RNISSIMOV.LIB