Unix - Backups
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Backups -

There are different ways to take a backup of your server and it's filesystems.

ADSM is one of the most common. Also known as TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager), this is a product offered by Tivoli. You can also find infomation and a simple user's guide at Berkley's Technical site.

Verify that ADSM is running on a server
  1. login as yourself
  2. > ps -ef | grep dsm
You should see a process for "dsmc sched"
 
View the included and excluded filesystems for the ADSM back up
  1. > cd /usr/bin
  2. > more inclexcl
 
To check for a specific filesystem in the inclexcl:
  1. > cat inclexcl www
 
To check the status and errors of the last back upcheck the dsm logs.
  1. See below
View ADSM Configurations
During the installation and configuration, the Unix SA will define various options for the Storage Manager. These configurations are defined in vaious files under the ADSM installation (ie: /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin)
  • Client User Options file (dsm.opt)
  • Client System Options file (dsm.sys)
This file contains such things as, where your dsmerror.log and dsmsched.logs will be placed.
Reviewing logs -
There are two primary log files to get information about your backup. The two files are stored in the baclient folder within your ADSM directory:
dsmsched.log - This file logs all files backed up during a scheduled backup.
This log will tell you when the last back up executed and what was backed up. It will tell you if the back up was full or incremental, and it will tell you when the next back up is scheduled. If you're looking for a specific file from a back up, this is where to look.
dsmerror.log - This file logs all errors encountered during backup.

Restoring Files 

What you'll find here are some basic user commands to verify that adsm is running on a server, how to view the include/excluded file systems for the server and how to pick and chose files to be restored from a previous adsm back up.

The best way to restore a file(s) is to execute the ADSM client's pick list. Then pick the file(s) you want to restore from the back up. This is performed by the Unix Admin.
  1. login as root
  2. > dsmc
  3. This starts the ADSM client. At the prompt:
  4. dsm> restore "/filesystem/*" -ina -pick
    1. A list of files will be displayed where you can pick the file(s) you'd like to restore.
  5. You can also restore a specific path ie: restore "/filesystem/path1/subpath2/*"