Overview

XYZ, Inc. is a medium sized business company using already IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) as the company’s backup solution for their main (file) servers.

Not all workstation and mobile computer data are protected yet by IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. Due to the rapidly increasing number of viruses and other serious computer threats, XYZ, Inc. is afraid of losing data or facing any kind of data corruption (see 1.1.2, “Why Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files is needed” on page 4). They are now looking for an efficient and effective way to protect important data on their workstations and mobile computers, but can still continue using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. The reason therefore is to secure the investments made already in IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.

A perfect product to fulfill the needs of XYZ, Inc. is Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, as it can be used as a stand-alone product on end-user systems like workstations or mobile computers, and as a complement to traditional backup solutions like IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.

Note: Let us quickly review the three main features of Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files (For more information, please refer to 1.3, “Main features of Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files” on page 12):

򐂰 Continuous protection of high-importance files

򐂰 Real-time remote protection of high-importance files

򐂰 Scheduled backup to remote targets (all disk based and journal style) with versions to support point-in-time restore

As simple as those three main features sound, there are many various configuration possibilities of Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, especially when combined with traditional backup solutions like, for example, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.

The scenario described here is just one simple scenario out of many possible scenarios you can think of. It will be used to demonstrate the basic setup of Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files in combination with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager in a simplified and straightforward environment.

Note: XYZ, Inc. is a fictitious company and all similarities with real company names are coincidental.

Figure 4-4 Overview about the computer environment of XYZ, Inc.

Figure 4-4 shows a simplified overview of the basic computer (hardware and software) environment of XYZ, Inc. using Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. It consists mainly of four parts:

1. Mobile computers

Mobile computers are used by mobile employees like, for example, sales people of XYZ, Inc. who spend most of their time outside the office travelling around the country. Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files is the only backup product being installed on these systems.

A second partition (D:) on the internal hard drive will be used for continuos local backups of the most important files (local backup area). As the mobile computers are rarely connected to the company’s network, the remote backup location for the high-importance files is not a file server but instead a

removable disk like an external USB drive. To protect the rest of the mobile computer’s files, a scheduled backup has been defined to store the data to the removable disk.

Using Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files (CDP) Using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM)

Backup &

2. Workstations

Workstations are connected to the company’s network and used by the non-mobile employees of XYZ, Inc. On these systems, Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files has been installed as well as an optional TSM

Backup/Archive client.

The area for continuous local backups of the high important files is also, like on the mobile computers, a second partition (D:) on the internal hard drive.

Due to the (mostly) permanent connection to the network of XYZ, Inc., the continuous remote backup location is a shared network drive on a file server especially set up for holding data of computers using Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files. The scheduled backups are defined to store the other workstation files on the same file server location on a daily base.

3. File server

The file server is the remote location for continuous and scheduled backups of Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files systems. On the file server itself, Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files is not installed, but only a TSM Backup/Archive client, a TSM scheduler service, and a TSM Backup/Archive Client Acceptor Daemon (CAD) to manage/control the scheduler service of the TSM Backup/Archive client. The file server will be backed up to a TSM

Note: As a removable drive can be lost, stolen, or unavailable in any other way, the files from the external disk can be copied (manually or via script) to the file server once the mobile computer is connected to the company’s network again for ultimate data protection. In this case, the files from the mobile computer are also sent to the TSM server on a daily base using the TSM Backup/Archive client scheduler service running on the file server as an additional safeguard.

Note: For additional protection, Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files can send files to a TSM server using the TSM Backup/Archive client being installed on the same system as Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files. Using both continuous remote backups to a file server and a TSM server at the same time might be too much in the sense of over-protecting data, but we will discuss it here in this scenario to show you how this can be realized.

Please see “IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) server (Florence)” on page 160 for more details about the definitions that should be made on the TSM server concerning the TSM Backup/Archive clients running on the workstations.

server once a day, usually during the night, according to a defined schedule on the TSM server.

4. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) server

The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) server is the final backup destination for long-time retention of data in the computer environment of XYZ, Inc. It receives the data being sent by the TSM Backup/Archive client (scheduler service) on the file server as well as the files from the TSM Backup/Archive client on the workstations. The TSM server is responsible for storing files on disk storage or tape storage, and for versioning and expiring files with respect to the policy settings being made.