iSeries Backups Overview and Procedures

Start protecting iSeries

Following is a summary of the high-level steps for setting up iSeries protection. Each step includes a link to detailed instructions.

Step 1: Review Requirements and considerations for iSeries protection to ensure all prerequisites have been met.

Step 2: Add the iSeries server to the Unitrends appliance as described in To add an iSeries asset.

Step 3: Run backup jobs as described in Creating iSeries backup jobs.

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: ● 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. ● Backup and recovery jobs must run without conflict or interruption. ● Performance of iSeries backup and recovery jobs is influenced heavily by the following: ● Commercial Processing Workload (CPW) of the iSeries server(s) ● Amount of library data ● Amount of Integrated File System (IFS) data ● Available network bandwidth ● 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: ● Parallel processing - Use the size of the largest library + size of the largest IFS file. ● 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: 1. In the Unitrends UI, select Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > General Configuration. 2. Scroll down to the iSeriesAgent section. 3. Click Threading, change this setting to 1 for parallel or 0 for serial, then click Save. 4. 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: 1. In the Unitrends UI, select Configure > Appliances > Edit > Advanced > General Configuration. 2. Scroll down to the iSeriesAgent section. 3. Click MaxBlockSize, enter the desired size in bytes, and click Save. ● To avoid backing up files individually, set this value to accommodate the largest IFS directory. ● To use an unlimited MaxBlockSize, set this value to -1. ● To back up all files individually, set this value to 0. 4. 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. ● /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. ● /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: ● *: Zero or more characters ● ?: Exactly one character ● [abc]: Exactly one character from list ● [a-c]: Exactly one character from range ● [!abc]: Exactly one character not from list ● [!a-c]: Exactly one character not in the range Wildcards cannot be used in these cases: ● Backup Include List: Object Name ● Backup Exclude List: Path Name ● Backup Exclude List: Object Name ● Backup Include List: Path Name ● 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:

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.

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

● Appliance IP address

● Port 22

● SSH connection type

2. Log in as user root.

3. Enter the following command to access the console menu:

# dpuconfig

4. Select option 4 for Advanced Options.

5. Select option 2 for IBM iSeries Backup and Recovery.

6. Select option 4 to Schedule Backup.

7. 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

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

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

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

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

To run an iSeries backup on-demand

NOTES

● 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.

● 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.