Tivoli FlashCopy Manager offers a great amount of options when it comes to backup. This section will cover the most used ones. The type of features & destination types available will be limited if you don’t have TSM integration. The features & destinations which is only available with TSM integration will be pointed as they are covered.
1- To start the IBM Tivoli FlashCopy Manager in a stand alone server all you have to do is to click on the IBM Tivoli FlashCopy Manager on the desktop or your program files menu. If you are running in a clustered environment, then you would want to to ensure you start your FCM with the /sqlserver parameters. An example of the command to run the FCM GUI in a clustered environment with an SQL Cluster name sqlsrvpoc is:
C:\Program Files\Tivoli\FlashCopyManager\flashcopymanager.msc /sqlserver=sqlsrvpoc
2- Lunch the Backup & Restore GUI as shown in the image below:
3- Choose the database you want to backup. You will have to choose what type of backup you want to take a Legacy Backup which refers to the normal TDP backup, or to take a VSS Backup which is a flashcopy backup of a database. If you are going to perform VSS Backup & you have TSM integration then you will have to choose the backup destination. Hit backup to start the backup.
Note: If you don’t have TSM integration you will not get the Legacy backup option & Local will be the only available backup Destination option.
4- The image below show the Backup Groups/Files backup tab which is the same one available with the normal Tivoli Data Protection. This tab is only available when TSM integration is used.
5- Another important note is when TSM integration is available log backup using TDP & the integration of the log backup with the VSS Full backup will be available.
6- All the backup opertation can be initiated using the command line. To find out more about the command line backup options run:
“C:\Program Files\Tivoli\tsm\TDPSql\tdpsqlc.exe” backup help
An example of the FCM backup command which carry a full backup of a database called AdventureWorks using VSS & send it to a flashcopy on the storage. This command should be executed on one line.
“C:\Program Files\Tivoli\tsm\TDPSql\tdpsqlc.exe” backup AdventureWorks FULL /sqlserver=sqlsrvpoc /backupdestination=local /backupmethod=vss
7- Although the I/O freeze only go for few seconds when you run the backup operation, the background copy of the data will take sometime to complete. Though the background copy of data is done on the storage level & will not affect your database operation. To monitor the status of the background copy you can run the following command:
Ibmvcfg list infc
Note: You should not try to restore from a VSS backup before the background copy complete.
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