Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Simple TSM 6.2 Server Restore

I just completed a DR test and we had to restore one of our TSM servers from a Data Domain replicated copy. This was our first time restoring a TSM server from a replicated DD copy and after importing the replicated volumes and defining our initiators we set about restoring the TSM database. Our AIX server had been restored from an image (SysBack) and we had a current volhist and devconfig file so we began our restore. If you think that the restore from a Data Domain is not relevant to your environment because you use tape, think again. The Data Domain mimics an STK library with IBM drives and so we had to follow the same directions as anyone using tape backup.

To restore the TSM 6.x DB from tape you must have your volhist and devconfig files. You will need to modify the devconfig so that the only lines are those defining the devclass, server name, and server password; all other lines should be deleted. Then you need lines defining a manual library, a tape drive, and a line defining a path to the drive (which for us was an LTO3 drive).


DEFINE LIBRARY MANLIB LIBTYPE=MANUAL
DEFINE DRIVE MANLIB DRIVE1 ONLINE=YES 
DEFINE PATH TSMSERV1 DRIVE1 SRCT=SERVER DESTT=DRIVE LIBR=MANLIB DEVICE=/dev/rmt1 ONLINE=YES

Note: Do not define an element address or serial with the drive, TSM will detect these when you run the DSMSERV RESTORE DB command.

When running the DSMSERV RESTORE DB command TSM will start up and query the devconfig file to retrieve the information on the devclass, drive, library type, server name, and password. Once TSM has successfully queried the tape drive it will query the volhist file for the most current DB backup volume depending on whether you are restoring to the most current date or to a specific point in time. When TSM has identified the volume to use it will prompt you to mount the tape. When I saw the mount I went into the Data Domain web based GUI and moved the DB backup volume from its "virtual slot" to the drive that is /dev/rmt1. Once the tape was mounted, TSM was able to recognize the tape had been loaded and began restoring the DB. If more than one tape is required to complete the restore TSM will prompt you for each tape. With the library web GUI available you can move the tapes as needed and accomplish the restore. Once the restore completes you can bring TSM back up and audit/fix anything that could be out of sync. With the switch to DB2 I was expecting a little more work to get TSM back up and running, but surprisingly it was quite simple.

Now if you don't have a SysBack of your TSM server the rebuild can take a lot longer and requires you to recreate some of the DB2 dependent files. I might have to do a BRM restore without an image in the near future and if I do I'll post a step by step process for everyone.  If anyone has already done this and would like to post the process on TSMAdmin let me know.



24 comments:

  1. Chad, you are one of the fines TSM gurus I know (via internet). Got a question regarding this topic:
    We restored a tsm version 6 Db (AIX)for testing purposes. However when we brought it up it tried to start a job that was probably running at the time of the backup and it messed up our production libraries. Is there a way to keep the "test" db from contacting the libraries when we start it up so we don't run into this issue? The job that was start was a stgpool backup job. An i am aware of these commands:

    NOMIGRRECL
    DISABLESCHED YES
    EXPINT

    Your advice would be much appreciated...
    JR

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  2. Did you restore the DB to the same server or LPAR? If not, did you intentionally setup the library to be accessible with the same device ids?

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  3. Chad, we are trying to restore our Production TSM Server Version 6, Release 3, Level 0.0 DB to our TEST TSM server in the lab. The same version of TSM is installed on the test server.
    We tried to run the dsmserv restore db to yesterdays date but received some errors related to the dev.
    Basically wanted to know if TSM is already installed, all we need to do it use the correct volhist.out file, and update the devconfig file and then run the restore? We dont have to do anything with the instance or any of that?
    We have a test automatic library but its not mounting the volume.

    Thanks,
    Michele

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  4. Post the actlog info so I can see the exact errors.

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  5. Hi Chad,

    Do you have any experience restoring a database backup from a FILE devclass? We have a DD890 set up as a VTL for a primary pool but will be removing our ATL (3584) once we set up and test replication. I read somewhere that EMC recommends to backup the DB to a FILE devclass.

    Thanks,
    Brian

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  6. Actually restoring from a file devclass is the easiest restore option available. You just need to make sure your file devclass points to a filesystem large enough to hold a DB backup and also that the user/file system allows for large files. I have used file devclasses alot and in fact used it exstensively with Data Domain disk solutions using NFS mounted file systems that supported DeDupe.

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  7. Is there a way to track progress of the restore? I can't seem to find any pertinent log files and the messages on the screen pretty much just tell you when the restore starts and finishes.
    Thanks!

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  8. Is there any log to verify if system state is restored???what files are restored ..basic details of the restore

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  9. Chad, I need to do a tsm test server version 6.3 restore fro AIX to a different host. So I guess it would be like a BMR. Did you ever post the steps? The server we want to restore is a production server and it will still be up. I know I can create new DB directories but I have some questions (e.g do the directory names, user id, etc have to be the same as on the original server?)/

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  10. oh and another thing: will restoring a production server to a test server (on same vlan but different IP) affect the production server?

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  11. Depends on how you restore the system. Do the directories have to be the same name, no. Would I set them up exactly the same, yes. Make life easier and setup the restore server the same and then follow the steps to perform your restore. Review IBM's directions for restore, they are pretty straight forward. If you have questions let me know.

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  12. Thanks Chad. Any idea if restoring a TSM server to a different host (for testing) while the production server is up will cause any intereference with the production host?

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  13. As long as the physical server has a different name and IP than the only issue will be to make sure you disable all schedules on the restored server (admin and client). I would put the following three options in the dsmserv.opt file.

    NOMIGRRECL (prevents migration and reclamation from kicking off when the server is started)
    DISABLESCHED YES (prevents any schedules from starting when the server is started)
    EXPINT 0 (prevents expiration from running when the server is started)

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    Replies
    1. Hello, I had to do a restore and even though my dsmserv.opt file shows DISABLESCHED NO when I run a "q opt".. it still shows "Yes". I have verified that my opt file is set to no.. thoughts? I can't get any sessions to connect.

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  14. How to restore TSM server without volhist,devconfig ??
    How to speed backup and restore for next day ??

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  15. Restore without a volhist is tricky and impossible without a devconfig. TSM has to have a devconfig file to initialize its devices so if the devconfig is not present you'll have to create one. Typically you do this when you rebuild a TSM instance. For example at a DR site you install TSM on the DR server, define the dsmserv.opt, and then you define base devices on the new install. Once that has been done you can bring down TSM and attempt a restore using the newly defined device(s). Without the volhist, if you don't know what volume(s) were used for DBBAckup your kind of screwed. The old DSMSERV DISPLAY DBBACKUPVOLUME command has been removed/deleted and IBM now says the following

    DSMSERV DISPLAY DBBACKUPVOLUME - Information about volumes used for database backup is available from the volume history file. The volume history file is now required to restore the database.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chad, We have an old TSM Server 5.5 and the disk where the db was is lost, I'm trying to restore the DB but TSM can´t locate the DB tape on library, there is some tutorial to manually update the devconfig file?

      Thanks.

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    2. No but I thought I had a blog post that discusses it. Do you know what element address the DB volume is in? Do you know the volume label? If you do know the label you could do the whole thing using a manual device class and move the tape to the drive you defined for manual and run the restore that way. I've done that a couple times and it works, it's just a little more work.

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  16. Hello all,
    i have to restore tsm db in dr site tsm servers. will you please suggest me how to do it. this is my first time. i have took backup tapes and checkin to dr site library. i have element number also of these volumes. now what changes i have to make in devconfig and volhist files of my production server which i have copied to dr site tsm servers.

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  17. hello Chad,

    On my TSM server host HDD got corrupted and lost my instance home directory file system (/tsminst1/home). Unfortuantely we dont have a backup of this file system on another TSM server. We lost the devconfig and volhist files, but i have the information of volumes that was used for TSM DB backup before the HDD corruption. Now a new filesystem is created on the host. Can you please help me with the process of bringing up TSM? Is that like re-install the TSM and restore the DB?

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  18. hello Chad,

    On my TSM server host HDD got corrupted and lost my instance home directory file system (/tsminst1/home). Unfortuantely we dont have a backup of this file system on another TSM server. We lost the devconfig and volhist files, but i have the information of volumes that was used for TSM DB backup before the HDD corruption. Now a new filesystem is created on the host. Can you please help me with the process of bringing up TSM? Is that like re-install the TSM and restore the DB?

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  19. Hi Chad,

    On our TSM host, one of the HDD got corrupted and we lost the instance home directory filesystem,where the TSM was installed. Now we dont have the backup of this FS on other TSM and we lost the volhist and devconfig file as well. But i have the tape vol serials that was used for TSM DB backup before the TSM went down. Can you please help me with the details of bringing up the TSM . Is it like installing the TSM , configure the instance and restore the DB? If so , how can we configure the devconfig file?

    Thanks in advance.

    Nagaraju Sikharam

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  20. You will not need to reinstall any software but you will need to reinitialize the instance and then restore the DB. Follow the IBM instructions on restoring the TSM server DB after a failure and you should be good.

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  21. Hello Chad,

    Thanks for the update. Can you please help me how to reinitialize the instance, as i lost all my TSM server details in instance home directory.

    Thanks
    Nagaraju S

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