IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 Available for System x

The following products are now available for ordering in System x ordering systems from IBM Corp.:

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Microsoft Exchange V6.1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Bare Machine Recovery V6.1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack Center V6.1
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1
IBM General Parallel File System Multiplatform V3.3

These offerings can be configured with or without System x servers, IBM BladeCenter blades, and IBM IntelliStation workstations, with their respective operating systems.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1
Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 delivers enhancements to help you achieve increasingly demanding recovery point, recovery time, and business continuity objectives for Linux servers and applications.

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 combines a number of leading-edge and patented technologies to deliver a data protection and recovery solution for servers and applications, whether they reside in the enterprise data center, at remote branch offices, or at small businesses. It helps eliminate the need for traditional backup windows by continuously tracking data changes at the block level, with extremely low overhead on the systems it protects. Its flexible policy engine can help you improve recovery service levels and meet stringent data protection and retention requirements.

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 extends platform coverage to include Linux to help you meet stringent recovery time objectives and business continuity requirements for Linux servers and applications on Linux. Tivoli Storage Manager Fastback V6.1 support for Linux enables the storage administrator to take frequent and very efficient low-impact, block-level incremental snapshots. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 supports the rapid recovery of full snapshot images and individual file or directories from a snapshot image. Using Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1, it is fast and easy to extract files or application objects from the stored data blocks of any stored snapshot.

With Tivoli Storage FastBack V6.1 Linux support, you can mount a snapshot virtually to a mount point, allowing validation of the backup data as well as file-level and directory-level restore. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 is a software-based solution and does not rely on any particular hardware to enable snapshots. It can enable LAN-based and SAN-based backup of Linux servers and applications that run on Linux servers. With SAN backup, the impact of backups can be removed from the LAN. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 is designed to read and write data directly from a SAN (bypassing the server that is being protected), offering a server-free and network-free backup capability.

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 support
for the Linux environment delivers:

Volume-level recovery from a snapshot
The ability to quickly mount a snapshot to help restore individual files, directories, and application objects
Out-of-the-box scripted application quiescing support for Oracle, IBM DB2, and Lotus Domino running on Linux
FastBack server data deduplication

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 can provide significant data reduction through a block-level, incremental backup model that dramatically helps reduce the amount of backup data. It takes data reduction to an even higher level by introducing built-in data deduplication on the FastBack server.

Key benefits
of Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1
data deduplication:

Helps reduce FastBack server storage requirements
Requires no dependency on specific hardware because it is an integrated component of Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1
Helps minimize impact to backup duration through post-ingestion (out-of-band) deduplication processing on the Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack server
Applies to almost all types of stored data
Delivers transparent client access to deduplicated objects

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 integration
with Tivoli Storage Manager – unified recovery management
You may be facing a data and information tidal wave throughout your enterprise. As a result, you may need more holistic and unified data protection solutions to help ensure data recovery and business continuity, and to address compliance both across your data centers and remote offices. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 is enhanced to help you deal with these challenges. The Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center integrates configuration of policies between Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 Windows clients and Tivoli Storage Manager.

With the Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center user interface, businesses that use Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 in a Tivoli Storage Manager environment can configure policies that help control retention of Windows client snapshots on a FastBack server for short-term operational recovery and manage long-term data management, retention, and retrieval of Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 data within Tivoli Storage Manager. This policy-based, intelligent data movement is controlled from the Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center and helps align value and needs of the data to the cost and performance characteristics of the storage media. In addition, administration of an environment that has both Tivoli Storage Manager and Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 is simplified with an enhancement to launch the Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1 manager user interface from the Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack
for Microsoft Exchange V6.1
Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Microsoft Exchange V6.1 extends Microsoft Exchange protection capabilities through quick and easy restore of individual Microsoft Exchange objects such as e-mail messages and attachments, contact lists, calendars, tasks, journal entries, entire folders, and so on. It uses an intuitive Windows-style GUI that can result in reduced downtime and improved productivity.

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Microsoft Exchange V6.1 continues to deliver extensive support for the Windows environment with enhancements that can enable fast and easy restore of public folders such as:

Mail public folders
Calendar public folders
Contact public folders
Tasks public folders
Notes public folders

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack
for Bare Machine Recovery V6.1
Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Bare Machine Recovery is enhanced in Version 6.1 to enable Windows bare machine recovery from data stored in a deduplicated Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack repository.

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack Center V6.1
Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack Center V6.1 is a single, convenient bundle of Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack V6.1, Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Microsoft Exchange V6.1, and Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Bare Machine Recovery V6.1.
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1 is based on IBM Tivoli Continuous Data Protection product technology. It is a real-time, continuous data protection solution for Windows laptops and desktops with centralized management capabilities. It is designed to work well even if you are intermittently connected to a network. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1 can back up your most important files the moment they are saved (real-time) instead of waiting for a scheduled interval. Noncritical files can be backed up on a traditional interval.

Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1 is designed to back up your files to the local disk of your computer and to a remote storage device that is not on your computer. The backup copies are versioned and can be restored by date. The local storage area is available to help create backup copies and restore your data even when your computer is not connected to a network. You can restore your data from the remote backup copies in the event that your computer is lost or damaged.

The following are supported
by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack
for Workstations V6.1:

Network file system
WebDAV server
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager server

Centralized management
Key to providing a unified data protection infrastructure is the ability to centrally control and manage your data protection operations. Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1 provides a centralized management interface that helps you manage thousands of laptops and desktops. This central management interface runs in the same integrated solutions console in which the Tivoli Storage Manager Administration Center runs, helping you to manage data protection across the data center, remote office, and mobile users in a centralized way.

This new centralized management capability allows you to:

Discover Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Workstations V6.1 clients automatically
View client information such as: Deployment information (operating system version, Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack version, and so on); Amount of storage that a client is using; Client activity; Current client configurations for potential editing; Information about a client’s storage target; Log files; Alerts
Take client actions such as: Initiate an incremental backup; Push a client configuration; Lock a client configuration so it cannot be changed; Deploy updates; Configure e-mail alerts for administrators based on your own criteria

IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1
In today’s business world, where application servers are operational 24 hours a day, the data on these servers should be fully protected. With the rapid increase in the amount of data on these servers, their critical business needs, and the shrinking backup windows, traditional backup and restore methods may be reaching their limits in meeting these challenging requirements. Snapshot operations can help minimize the impact caused by backups and provide near-instant restore capabilities. Because a snapshot operation typically takes much less time than the time for a tape backup, the window during which the data is being backed up can be reduced. This helps facilitate more frequent backups and increase the flexibility of backup scheduling and administration because the time spent for forward recovery through transaction logs after a restore is minimized.

In addition, application data availability can be significantly improved due to the reduction of the load on the production servers. The snapshots can be retained as backups on local disk and, with optional integration with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, sent to Tivoli Storage Manager server storage pools.

IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 utilizes storage snapshot capabilities to provide high-speed, low-impact application data backup and restore functionality for the application and storage environments. Automated policy-based management of multiple snapshot backup versions, together with a simple and guided installation and configuration process, provide an easy-to-use and quick-to-deploy data protection solution that can help meet the most stringent database recovery time requirements.

Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 supports clustered application environments (Microsoft Cluster Server and Veritas Cluster Server) on Microsoft Windows and high availability cluster multi-processing (HACMP on IBM AIX) and Microsoft Exchange 2007 continuous replication configurations (local continuous replication (LCR), cluster continuous replication (CCR), and standby continuous replication (SCR)).

Online, near-instant snapshot backup and restore
of critical business application data

Microsoft Exchange protection:

Snapshot restore of Microsoft Exchange storage groups
File copy restore of a storage group or database from a mounted snapshot image: Restore into a recovery storage group, alternate storage group, or relocated storage group
File copy restore of transaction logs from incremental or differential backups

Microsoft Exchange individual mailbox restore
from a snapshot backup
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 enables individual mailbox and mail item restores of Microsoft Exchange 2007 servers from a snapshot backup. Specifically, the following granular Microsoft Exchange restore capabilities are provided:

Single or multiple user mailbox support
Restore selectable based on user name and date and time specification
Recovery of the following mailbox items: Inbox, deleted items, and drafts; Outbox, sent items, journal, and calendar; Contacts, notes, tasks, and user folders
Limit the scope of items to be restored based on filters such as sender name, subject texts, attachment name, folder name, message delivery date and time range, message body, and all content (searches subject text, message body, and attachment names)
Recovery into the production Microsoft Exchange server into the original mailbox or alternate mailbox and folder
Recovery into a .PST file

Microsoft SQL protection:

Snapshot restore of a full database backup
File copy restore of a full database from a mounted snapshot image to an alternate database name or an alternate location

IBM DB2 protection:

Snapshot backup and restore of a full database, including and excluding log files
Backup and restore of individual partitions for multi-partition IBM DB2
Support of databases that are mirrored (between sites) using Logical Volume Manager (LVM) mirroring technology

Oracle protection:

Snapshot backup and restore of a full database
Support of databases that are mirrored (between sites) using LVM mirroring technology
Support for Oracle Automated Storage Management (ASM) configurations and failure groups

SAP protection:

Snapshot backup and restore of a full SAP database running on IBM DB2 or Oracle
Support of databases that are mirrored (between sites) using LVM mirroring technology

Simplified deployment of snapshot capabilities
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 includes wizards to install, configure, and execute application snapshot protection. In addition, Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 can check to help ensure that all of the needed prerequisite software is installed and configured.

Integration
with IBM System Storage hardware snapshot technology
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 utilizes the incremental FlashCopy backup capabilities of IBM System Storage DS8000 and IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and exploits near-instant restore with space efficient (SE) target volumes on the SAN Volume Controller (Version 5.1). When used with IBM XIV Storage System, Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 utilizes XIV Storage System’s highly efficient, auto-provisioned snapshots. In addition, Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 integrates with IBM System Storage DS3000, DS4000, and DS5000 via the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) interface.

Optional Tivoli Storage Manager integration
The optional integration with Tivoli Storage Manager allows Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager V2.1 users to take advantage of the robust data protection and data reduction capabilities of Tivoli Storage Manager, such as:

Enhanced data protection scalability with a relational database, based on IBM DB2 technology, designed to store many more objects and help manage more data
Near real-time monitoring and operational reporting capabilities
Built-in data deduplication that helps eliminate redundant data, enabling significantly more backup data to be stored on disk
Centralized backup and archive of the data stored on the networked computers throughout an organization
Automated, progressive incremental backup-restore and archive-retrieve of the data
Automated, policy-based disaster preparation, planning, and recovery

Changes to Tivoli Storage Manager
and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition pricing
When Tivoli Storage Manager or Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition are used in conjunction with Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager, changes apply to the licensing requirements for Tivoli Storage Manager and Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition. For information on these changes, refer to the Pricing examples subsection of the IBM Tivoli Enhanced Value-Based Pricing section.

IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS)
Multiplatform V3.3
GPFS Multiplatform V3.3 provides file system services to parallel and serial applications. It gives parallel applications simultaneous access to the same or different files from any node that has the GPFS file system mounted, while managing a high level of control over all file system operations. GPFS is particularly appropriate in an environment where the aggregate peak need for data bandwidth exceeds the capability of a distributed file system server.

GPFS Multiplatform V3.3 enhancements
GPFS introduces a new pricing, licensing, and entitlement structure for Version 3.3 and Version 3.2.

GPFS has two types of licenses, a server license and a client license. For each node in a GPFS cluster (see Permitted use of GPFS Server and GPFS Client below), the customer obtains the appropriate number of server or client licenses that correspond to the way GPFS is used on that node.
During GPFS cluster configuration, the customer will be prompted to identify whether a particular node is a GPFS Server or a GPFS Client. If a GPFS Client is chosen, function that requires a GPFS Server license will be disabled on this node. Because the node that acts as the GPFS cluster configuration server requires a GPFS Server designation, at least one node in the GPFS cluster will require one or more GPFS Server licenses.
A node is defined as an individual operating system image that may appear on a single computer within a cluster, on a system within a cluster, or on a partition.
Permitted use of GPFS Server and GPFS Client: You may use the GPFS Server in order to perform the following GPFS functions: Mounting GPFS file systems and accessing data from operating system block devices and NSD servers; Performing GPFS management functions such as cluster configuration manager, quorum node, manager node, and Network Shared Disk (NSD) server; Sharing data through any application, service protocol, or method, such as Network File System (NFS), Common Internet File System (CIFS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
You may use GPFS Client in order to perform the following functions: Mounting GPFS file systems and accessing data from operating system block devices and NSD servers; Exchanging data between nodes that locally mount the same GPFS file system

GPFS for Windows Multiplatform now supports the Windows Server 2008 operating system running on 64-bit architectures (AMD x64, Intel 64). GPFS on Windows participates in a new or existing GPFS cluster (Version 3.2.1.5, or later) in conjunction with AIX and Linux (32- or 64-bit) operating systems. GPFS does not support homogeneous Windows clusters. GPFS V3.3 support is limited to Windows Server 2008.

Administration improvements include:

The scope of password-less remote shell command execution is now reduced. GPFS can now be configured so that password-less remote shell execution is not required between all nodes. Prior to GPFS V3.3, GPFS had to be configured so that all nodes can run commands on other nodes via a remote shell without being prompted for a password. GPFS V3.3 can be configured so that only the terminal session where a GPFS administrative command is being executed has to be able to execute remote shell commands on other nodes without being prompted for a password. All other nodes in the cluster do not have to have the ability to run password-less commands everywhere else.
GPFS for Linux improves the build process for the GPFS portability layer by: Eliminating the dependency on the imake utility through the use of the kernel Kbuild infrastructure; Optionally generating an RPM package containing the GPFS portability layer binaries to facilitate the installation process
Users are now allowed to define custom commands to be executed after certain GPFS events. The administrator can use the mmaddcallback command to register a user exit script, the mmdelcallback command to delete a user exit script, and the mmlscallback command to list all the callback scripts currently registered in the GPFS configuration.

Performance and scaling improvements include:

The limit on the number of snapshots per file system has been raised from 32 to 256.
Performance enhancements have been made to the mmrestripefs, mmfsck, and mmcheckquota commands, and directory locking for concurrent file creates and deletes from multiple nodes.
GPFS V3.3 adds support for the Linux AIO APIs io_submit and io_getevents (pread and pwrite only) for workloads that open files using the O_DIRECT flag when the file system is created on local disks.

Policy improvements include several enhancements
to the GPFS mmapplypolicy command
and the associated GPFS SQL-based policy language:

A new command option (-g) is provided to enable a fully parallelized (multi-node and multi-threaded) directory traversal and faster metadata scan with policy rule set evaluation.
When invoked with the new (-g) option, mmapplypolicy can tolerate and recover from faults in individual nodes.
New command options and policy language extensions allow finer control and customization of the generation of the file lists and the execution of the user scripts associated with the EXTERNAL POOL and EXTERNAL LIST features of the policy language. File lists can be generated by the mmapplypolicy command, generated or manipulated by user programs, and input to the mmapplypolicy command for execution.
The policy language now provides for access to Posix and Windows file attributes and to extended attributes.
The THRESHOLD file selection criteria can be interpreted with respect to GPFS quotas for EXTERNAL POOLs or EXTERNAL LISTs.

Existing calls for the Inode Scan Interface are enhanced and new calls are available.

GPFS V3.3 provides
additional scalable filesystem backup facilities
through the enhanced mmbackup command.
Enhancements include:

Improved performance by use of the policy engine
The processing of unlinked filesets
Parallel backup to TSM servers
Backup of snapshots as filesystem data versus being under the .snapshots/ directory
Backup of a live system

Improvements have been made in the GPFS trace subsystem on Linux. The trace subsystem can be configured to run in an overwrite mode for reduced trace overhead and to perform raw trace data compression for extended trace coverage.

Improvements have been made in detecting and diagnosing network problems. GPFS can now automatically detect lost GPFS network messages.