Snapshot backups, Enabling snapshot backups, Snapshots – Storix Software SBAdmin TSM Edition Users Guide User Manual

Page 50: Snapshot, Backups

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13. Snapshot Backups

Snapshot feature is available only for

AIX

systems running AIX 6.1 and later, for

Linux

data contained in LVM logical volumes, and

Solaris

data contained in ZFS

datasets.


SBAdmin provides an option of creating a “point-in-time” backup of data contained in logical volumes and
filesytems. This is typically referred to as a

snapshot backup. Although the feature is available for AIX, Solaris

and Linux systems, the internal process differs to some extent:

• For

Linux, a LVM snapshot logical volume is created for each logical volume to be backed up. Snapshots

may be created for any logical volume, whether or not it contains a filesystem. This snapshot LV is
generally smaller than the original LV, but large enough to contain any changes which occur to the original
logical volume for the duration of the backup.

• For

AIX, snapshots are available only for logical volumes containing JFS2 (Extended JFS) filesystems. For

AIX 6.1, only internal snapshots are supported (i.e. snapshots are recorded within the logical volume itself),
and at AIX 6.2 and later, either internal or external snapshots may be used (external snapshots created a
temporary snapshot logical volume similar to Linux snapshots described above).

• For

Solaris, snapshots are available on ZFS filesystems and ZFS volumes. Snapshots may be created for

any dataset, whether or not it contains a filesystem.

As the backup is performed, original data to be changed by another process is first copied to the snapshot
device (or internal snapshot area for AIX 6.1), and the data from the snapshot device is backed up in place of
the changed data. When the backup is complete, the snapshot is simply removed. Any process which reads or
writes data to the original device (or filesystem within) during the backup will use the most up-to-date data,
while the backup contains only the original data as it was when the backup began.

Enabling Snapshot Backups

Snapshot backups are configured on each client a backup will be performed. On each client, you may specify
each logical volume/ZFS dataset for which a snapshot is created, or you may indicate that all logical
volumes/ZFS datasets will use snapshot backups, when possible.

Although logical volumes and filesystems may be configured to allow snapshot
backups, a snapshot will not be created by default when a backup job is run. You
must also select to Perform Snapshot Backup?
from the

job configuration screen

before a snapshot backup will be performed.


To enable snapshot backups, select the following from the menu bar:

Configure

!Snapshot Backups

The configuration screen will appear as in the following sample:

Storix System Backup Administrator

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Version 8.2 TSM Edition User Guide

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