IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Practical Guidance for Deployment, Configuration, and Usage

Book description

IBM® Spectrum Protect Plus is a data protection solution that provides near-instant recovery, replication, retention management, and reuse for virtual machines, databases, and applications backups in hybrid multicloud environments.

IBM Knowledge Center for IBM Spectrum® Protect Plus provides extensive documentation for installation, deployment, and usage. In addition, build and size an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus solution.

The goal of this IBM Redpaper® publication is to summarize and complement the available information by providing useful hints and tips that are based on the authors' practical experience in installing and supporting IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in customer environments. Over time, our aim is to compile a set of best practices that cover all aspects of the product, from planning and installation to tuning, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Chapter 1. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus product architecture and components
    1. 1.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus overview
      1. 1.1.1 Key concepts
    2. 1.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus architecture
      1. 1.2.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server
      2. 1.2.2 Site
      3. 1.2.3 vSnap Backup Storage server
      4. 1.2.4 VADP proxy server
      5. 1.2.5 Data flows
    3. 1.3 SLA backup policies
      1. 1.3.1 Backup parameters and retention management
      2. 1.3.2 Backup jobs: Associate Backup Clients to an SLA
      3. 1.3.3 SLA to Site to vSnap server relationship
  5. Chapter 2. Solution architecture, planning, and design
    1. 2.1 Solution design introduction
    2. 2.2 Design
      1. 2.2.1 Understand the IT infrastructure to be protected
      2. 2.2.2 Solution requirements
      3. 2.2.3 System context
      4. 2.2.4 Architectural Overview Diagram
    3. 2.3 Planning the solution
      1. 2.3.1 Deployment options for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      2. 2.3.2 Scaling the environment
      3. 2.3.3 Disaster Recovery and high availability with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      4. 2.3.4 Network
      5. 2.3.5 Encryption
      6. 2.3.6 Architectural decisions template
    4. 2.4 Sizing
  6. Chapter 3. Installation and deployment
    1. 3.1 Overview
    2. 3.2 Prerequisites for an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus deployment
      1. 3.2.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server requirements
      2. 3.2.2 vSnap Backup Storage server requirements
      3. 3.2.3 VADP proxy server requirements
    3. 3.3 Installation and deployment
      1. 3.3.1 Deploying the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server
      2. 3.3.2 Deploying the vSnap Backup Storage server
    4. 3.4 Configuring IBM Spectrum Protect Plus environment
      1. 3.4.1 Configuring the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server
      2. 3.4.2 Configuring the vSnap Backup Storage server
      3. 3.4.3 Configuring NTP for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus and vSnap servers
      4. 3.4.4 Connect vSnap and VADP servers with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server
      5. 3.4.5 Adding an SLA for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog backup
      6. 3.4.6 Backing up the vSnap server system configuration
      7. 3.4.7 Changing and verifying the schedules of the predefined jobs
  7. Chapter 4. Networking
    1. 4.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus networking
    2. 4.2 Understanding network data flows
      1. 4.2.1 VADP backend data flow
      2. 4.2.2 VADP front end data flow
    3. 4.3 Establishing connections through firewalls
      1. 4.3.1 Communication between IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components
      2. 4.3.2 Communication to VMs, applications, and file systems
    4. 4.4 Configuring IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to use a dedicated backup network
      1. 4.4.1 Preparing the VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V Hypervisors
      2. 4.4.2 Preparing the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance
      3. 4.4.3 Preparing the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus vSnap server
      4. 4.4.4 Preparing the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus VADP proxy (VMware only)
      5. 4.4.5 Enabling or disabling specific protocols on a network interface
      6. 4.4.6 Special Configuration: Forcing VADP front end traffic to use a dedicated interface
      7. 4.4.7 Editing firewall ports
      8. 4.4.8 Testing network connectivity
  8. Chapter 5. Daily operations and maintenance
    1. 5.1 Role-based access control overview
      1. 5.1.1 Planning user, roles, and resource groups
      2. 5.1.2 Creating resource groups
      3. 5.1.3 Creating roles
      4. 5.1.4 Creating users
    2. 5.2 Daily operations
      1. 5.2.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus in Spectrum Protect Operations Center
      2. 5.2.2 Built-in and custom reports
      3. 5.2.3 Morning Healthcheck routine
    3. 5.3 Maintenance
      1. 5.3.1 Update IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components
      2. 5.3.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus troubleshooting (log files)
      3. 5.3.3 Managing the vSnap server
      4. 5.3.4 Configuring LDAP and SMTP
      5. 5.3.5 Administrative Console
      6. 5.3.6 Managing global preferences
      7. 5.3.7 Managing the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog
      8. 5.3.8 Search guidelines
      9. 5.3.9 Testing network connectivity
      10. 5.3.10 Messages
    4. 5.4 vSnap server CLI
    5. 5.5 vSnap server initialization
    6. 5.6 Checking vSnap server status
    7. 5.7 vSnap server preferences
      1. 5.7.1 Changing replication streams and timeouts
    8. 5.8 vSnap server volumes and snapshots
      1. 5.8.1 Volumes and snapshots for backup data
      2. 5.8.2 Volumes and snapshots for replication data
  9. Chapter 6. Backing up and restoring virtualized systems
    1. 6.1 VM backup configuration basics
      1. 6.1.1 Create an identity
      2. 6.1.2 Add a virtualized system resource
      3. 6.1.3 Assigning an SLA policy
      4. 6.1.4 Running a backup job for an SLA
      5. 6.1.5 Running a backup for a single VM
      6. 6.1.6 Distributing VM backups to multiple vSnap servers
      7. 6.1.7 Backup options
    2. 6.2 Catalog file metadata for single file restore
      1. 6.2.1 Configure requirements
      2. 6.2.2 Configuring file metadata discovery
      3. 6.2.3 Restoring single files and directories
    3. 6.3 VM restore and data reuse
      1. 6.3.1 Restore wizard
      2. 6.3.2 Restore schedule
      3. 6.3.3 Restore Source (Location) and Restore Points
      4. 6.3.4 Restore destination
      5. 6.3.5 Restore methods
      6. 6.3.6 Restore Options
      7. 6.3.7 Restoring a VDisk
      8. 6.3.8 Restoring a VM from primary site
      9. 6.3.9 Restoring a VM from secondary (replication) site
      10. 6.3.10 Restoring a VM and changing static IP address on one NIC
      11. 6.3.11 Restoring a VM and changing static IP addresses on two NICs
    4. 6.4 Protecting and recovering Amazon EC2 data
      1. 6.4.1 Amazon EC2 requirements and account management
      2. 6.4.2 Amazon EC2 data protection and recovery
  10. Chapter 7. Backing up and restoring Windows file system data
    1. 7.1 Supported platforms and browser requirements
    2. 7.2 Prerequisites and configuration
      1. 7.2.1 SLA policy configuration and requirements
      2. 7.2.2 Microsoft Windows File Systems backup configuration
      3. 7.2.3 Exclude syntax rules for the file systems
    3. 7.3 File systems backup with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      1. 7.3.1 Microsoft Windows files systems ad hoc backup
    4. 7.4 File systems restore with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      1. 7.4.1 Step 1: Restore sequence of the file systems recovery process
      2. 7.4.2 Step 2: Restoring sequence of the file systems recovery process
  11. Chapter 8. Backing up and restoring databases
    1. 8.1 Database backup configuration basics
      1. 8.1.1 Creating an Identity
      2. 8.1.2 Adding an application server
      3. 8.1.3 Assigning an SLA policy
      4. 8.1.4 Running a backup
    2. 8.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus database restore and data reuse
      1. 8.2.1 Test restore
      2. 8.2.2 Instant access
      3. 8.2.3 Production restore
    3. 8.3 Database protection and vSnap server operations
      1. 8.3.1 Backup operations
      2. 8.3.2 Restore operations
    4. 8.4 Oracle overview
      1. 8.4.1 Server registration
      2. 8.4.2 Oracle multi-threading
      3. 8.4.3 Oracle backup
      4. 8.4.4 Oracle Block Change Tracking
      5. 8.4.5 Compression
      6. 8.4.6 Troubleshooting hint
      7. 8.4.7 Oracle commands used by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
    5. 8.5 Database backup with pre-script and post-script
  12. Chapter 9. Backing up and restoring MongoDB databases
    1. 9.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requirements for MongoDB
      1. 9.1.1 Fundamental IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requirements for MongoDB
      2. 9.1.2 MongoDB databases without authentication
      3. 9.1.3 MongoDB databases with authentication enabled
      4. 9.1.4 Register a MongoDB server
    2. 9.2 MongoDB backup and restore with Spectrum Protect Plus
      1. 9.2.1 MongoDB backup
      2. 9.2.2 MongoDB restore
  13. Chapter 10. Backing up and restoring Db2 databases
    1. 10.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Db2 features
    2. 10.2 Prerequisites for Db2 databases
    3. 10.3 Protecting Db2 databases
      1. 10.3.1 Registering the Db2 database server
      2. 10.3.2 Backup Db2 data
      3. 10.3.3 Restoring Db2 databases
  14. Chapter 11. Backing up and restoring SQL Server
    1. 11.1 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus SQL Server features
    2. 11.2 Prerequisites for SQL Server databases
    3. 11.3 Protecting SQL Server databases
      1. 11.3.1 Register the SQL Server
      2. 11.3.2 Defining an SQL Server backup job
      3. 11.3.3 SQL database backups logs
      4. 11.3.4 vSnap commands used to manage SQL database backups logs
      5. 11.3.5 Parallel ad-hoc SQL database backups
      6. 11.3.6 SQL Server global preferences
    4. 11.4 Restoring SQL Server databases
  15. Chapter 12. Backing up and restoring Microsoft Exchange data
    1. 12.1 Microsoft Exchange server
      1. 12.1.1 Server roles
      2. 12.1.2 Stand-alone or availability group databases
      3. 12.1.3 Mailbox movement
      4. 12.1.4 Microsoft built-in data loss prevention
    2. 12.2 Prerequisites for protection in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      1. 12.2.1 Granular restore remote package installation
    3. 12.3 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus configuration for Exchange
      1. 12.3.1 Log backup
      2. 12.3.2 Database Availability Groups
    4. 12.4 Backup jobs overview
      1. 12.4.1 Assigning an SLA policy
      2. 12.4.2 Backup types
      3. 12.4.3 Scheduled backup
      4. 12.4.4 Ad hoc backup
    5. 12.5 Restore jobs
      1. 12.5.1 Complete Restore
      2. 12.5.2 Restoring individual items with granular restore
  16. Chapter 13. Backing up and restoring Microsoft 365 data
    1. 13.1 Solution overview
    2. 13.2 Prerequisites
      1. 13.2.1 Proxy host server
      2. 13.2.2 Microsoft 365 application registration and API permissions
    3. 13.3 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus configuration for Microsoft 365
    4. 13.4 Protecting Microsoft 365 accounts
      1. 13.4.1 Planning considerations
      2. 13.4.2 Configuring Microsoft 365 protection
      3. 13.4.3 Restoring Microsoft 365 data
    5. 13.5 Exchange Hybrid Environments
  17. Chapter 14. Backing up and restoring containers
    1. 14.1 Containers and orchestration with Kubernetes
      1. 14.1.1 Kubernetes and virtualization analogies
      2. 14.1.2 Applications and containers
      3. 14.1.3 What to protect within Kubernetes
    2. 14.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Integration with Kubernetes
      1. 14.2.1 Use cases and personas
      2. 14.2.2 Solution architecture, planning, and design
    3. 14.3 Installing the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus service in Kubernetes
      1. 14.3.1 Installation prerequisites
      2. 14.3.2 Preparing the installer configuration file
      3. 14.3.3 Running the installer
    4. 14.4 Protecting data
      1. 14.4.1 Defining SLAs for Kubernetes Backup Support
      2. 14.4.2 Assigning SLAs to protect persistent volumes
    5. 14.5 Restoring data
  18. Chapter 15. Replication and additional copies
    1. 15.1 Reasons to create more copies of backup data
    2. 15.2 Extra copies: Overview and options comparison
      1. 15.2.1 Replication of backup data
      2. 15.2.2 Additional copies to Object Storage
      3. 15.2.3 Additional copies to a repository server
      4. 15.2.4 Dual-site backup using multiple SLAs
      5. 15.2.5 Comparing the options
    3. 15.3 Replicating backup data
      1. 15.3.1 Configuring vSnap replication
      2. 15.3.2 Running the vSnap replication
      3. 15.3.3 Determining space that is replicated on the Target vSnap
      4. 15.3.4 vSnap commands for data replication
    4. 15.4 Additional copies to Object Storage, tape, or archival storage
      1. 15.4.1 Prerequisites
      2. 15.4.2 Preparing Object Storage providers
      3. 15.4.3 Preparing repository server storage
      4. 15.4.4 Configuring an Object Storage provider in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      5. 15.4.5 Configuring additional copies to Object storage in the SLA
      6. 15.4.6 vSnap commands for Object Storage data
    5. 15.5 Configuring a multi-site backup
    6. 15.6 Creating incremental and full copies of backup data to an IBM Spectrum Protect server
      1. 15.6.1 Preparing the IBM Spectrum Protect server
      2. 15.6.2 Registering an IBM Spectrum Protect server as Repository server in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
      3. 15.6.3 Creating an SLA that creates regular additional copies to IBM Spectrum Protect
      4. 15.6.4 Running the SLA and observe the job results
  19. Chapter 16. REST API
    1. 16.1 REST API overview
    2. 16.2 IBM Spectrum Protect Plus REST API
      1. 16.2.1 REST API documentation
    3. 16.3 Discovering the REST API
      1. 16.3.1 CURL
      2. 16.3.2 Firefox RESTclient
    4. 16.4 Use Case: Starting a VM backup of VMs by using a REST API with Python
      1. 16.4.1 Overview
      2. 16.4.2 Trace GUI REST operations by using Firefox
      3. 16.4.3 Python code overview
    5. 16.5 The sppclient: a Python library for REST operations
      1. 16.5.1 The sppclient scripts: General usage information
      2. 16.5.2 The sppclient script overview and selected examples
    6. 16.6 API response code
  20. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  21. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Practical Guidance for Deployment, Configuration, and Usage
  • Author(s): Bert Dufrasne, Gerd Becker, Chris Bode, Alberto Delgado Ramos, Andre Gaschler, Axel Westphal, Mikael Lindström, Peter Minig, Julien Sauvanet, Martin Stuber, Markus Stumpf, Jozef Uríča, Joerg Walter, Daniel Wendler
  • Release date: March 2021
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738459196