How to recover data from cartridge if I lose the latest TSM DB?

[shankar763]

Hi



I am currently implementing DR for my site and as part of the scenario is that I would not have the latest TSM database copy. In this event, say I only have a copy of TSM DB which is 24 hours old, how can I recover data backed up after this point.

The latest backup info would not be in that DB, sp how can I access the information from the cartridge?



I have tried asking around and most of the answer I got is that I cannot recover if I dont have the latest TSM DB. Is this true?



Is there any workaround for this problem.



Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[jcoats]

In my experience, the sad answer is No.



Question: If you have your copypool offsite, why don't you have a backup of the DB offsite too?



If your datacenter is a smoking hole in the ground, you won't have anything left except your data that is already offsite. Or am I missing something here?



If you are doing remote copy pools to a remote TSM server, you can do fulls plus incremental backups of the database to the same remote server(s). Doing a incremental backup whenever you do a remote copypool durning the day, plus a daily full backup. ... Just a thought.

 

[jcoats]

In my experience, the sad answer is No.



Question: If you have your copypool offsite, why don't you have a backup of the DB offsite too?



If your datacenter is a smoking hole in the ground, you won't have anything left except your data that is already offsite. Or am I missing something here?



If you are doing remote copy pools to a remote TSM server, you can do fulls plus incremental backups of the database to the same remote server(s). Doing a incremental backup whenever you do a remote copypool durning the day, plus a daily full backup. ... Just a thought.

 

[shankar763]

Hi



I do have a copypool offsite which is sent daily at 6am. Together with my offsite data is also the TSM DB. So in the event of disaster, my offsite copy would be as recent as 6am.



But the issue is, between 6am to the next 6am, there are backup jobs running.

So assuming a backup job kicks in at 5pm, and at 10pm there is a problem with the disk causing me to lose the TSM DB on top of my appls database. I would not be able to restore the apps db from the latest backup copy even though I physically have the cartridge with me, since my last backup of TSM was 6am.



I am exploring solutions to overcome this because this seems to me like I'm dependent on TSM to be able to recover my data. In the event I lose my TSM DB and assuming I do not have any backup, I would have lost my entire backup.



regards

 

[run]

blah

 

[run]

Well, this is a problem every TSM administrator has to live with. This expectation /understanding need to be communicated well to your customer and management.. A couple ways to address this problem assuming you have some major bucks:



1) Put your TSM database and recovery log and storage pool disk on disks that are mirrored in separate geographic location. IBM solution to this is HAGEO (hacmp across two physical sites). Or you could use an EMC / Hitachi / (almost every other big array vendor) hardware solution which has some geographic mirroring function.



2) Use the geographic mirroring function + some HA (like IBM HAGEO) for the application instead of the backup, since it's the application that needs to be high availability right? and not your backups of it....



3) Do more DAtabase backups throughout the day/night which gives someone the great pleasure of checking out more tapes throughout the day. At least limits the exposure.



4) last option, you can actually pay IBM money to pull data off your tape if you lose your TSM database. What a novel idea, paying IBM so that I can access my data that runs on my server with my licensed copy of TSM, on my tape.



Otherwise, you'll probably set it up like almost every other TSM admin. RAID 5 (or something on the TSM database and recovery logs), additionally/optionally do TSM mirroring (at least 1 additional mirror), run the recovery log in roll-forward mode, and pray that the worst never happens



rick

TSM = stress + ulcers

 

[shankar763]

Hi



I was told that I could use the backupset option is I wouldl like to in future recover my data without the TSM database. Is this true? What are the drwabacks using this option?



Thanks

 

[run]

yes, that is correct. The backup set will allow you to create a fully independent tape that can be used by the client (if it has the same tape drive attached) or from another TSM server that can import (not the import command) the information in the backup set.



having said this. I know the functionality should work I've never had the opportunity to test this (read between the lines, too lazy and little desire to). Hopefully someone can respond to you who has experience.



The only real problem I see with this is in environments where there are many clients and high volitility of data. Imagine the number of tapes that you would have to checkout/manage every single day. The number of tape to generate every day, then checkout, then send offsite, then request back the tapes from offsite that are expired. Basically doing double the work of just having a standard copy storage pool...yikes.