DB snapshot for long time storage

[staham]

What are the options for saving a specific DB backup for a few years, while only retaining other DB backups the usual 7 days?

We're about to do a large archiving job that will have a 10 year retention. The tapes will stay in a safe after it is done. We're normally using backupsets for this, but this time it is TDP data, which is not supported for backupsets.

We would like to make a database backup after the archiving job is done, and store the DB backup in the safe as well.

If the DB backup expires, but the tape is kept in the safe, will TSM be able to use the tape for a disaster recovery?

Our normal DB backups are as follows:
Backup DB (with incrementals) to local DISK. Kept for 7 days (del volhist).
DB snapshot to remote server. Kept for 3 days (drmdbexpiredays).

 

[wim]

Yes, if the tape is kept in the vault, the tape can be used for DR.
Since nothing is overwritten the TSM server DB backup data on the tape, the data on it remains valid for eternity (or the tapes lifespan, whichever is the shortest).
I would also include a copy of the device class backup.

However, I fail to see the relevance of keeping a database backup for some many years. Since the archive is done to TSM, the data of that archive will probably be kept in the storage pools (primary and possibly also archive pool) so the pointers will also be kept in the TSM database. And you take normally at least on DB backup per day. So you have a DB backup with reference to that archiving job.

Regards. Wim.

 

[staham]

You're right. Normally it will not be a problem, as the archived files will remain in TSM's database for as long as the archives are retained.

However, we had an incident earlier this year, when some archives were deleted by mistake. The archives had been made from an old node a few years ago. This spring we were cleaning out data from some retired nodes. What we didn't realize was that "delete filespace node *" also deleted archived files. I've now added a "type=backup" to our routine descriptions, but it made us realize how easily archived tapes can get lost from TSM.

In this case this was noticed when we needed to retrieve some files from the tapes (that were kept in a safe all the time). TSM will not even try to read a tape that is not referenced to from the database.

We managed to save the day by using tsmtape to read the data, but it would be nice to have a stored DB backup just to make it easier if something like this would happen again.

Just if you wonder: retired nodes are saved to a backupset once a year, after which we delete the filespaces to free up space in the storage pools. We had never realised that archived files need to be treated specially.

 

[mateinone]

You will still be able to do a restore db from the volume. That will bring you back to your point in time that it was taken. Whilst the live copy will have changed and will not know about the previous state the other data will.

I agree that you will want a copy of the devconfig file and the volhistory as well as your dsmserv.opt etc

 

[BBB]

You could use an export node instead of a backupset. That works for tdp nodes.