IBM Spectrum Protect for Linux Desktops

Backups of Linux desktops and notebooks at IPP Garching and MPCDF are configured only on request. If you have a Linux machine you want to include in the backup, please contact the helpdesk.

Client Setup

To use our service to backup your system once a day please follow the steps below.

Registration

Please provide the helpdesk with the following information about your system:

  • Hostname

  • Contact (Name, Phone, Room)

  • Notebook or desktop PC

  • Operating System

The ‘nodename’ will be your FQDN and a password will be set by the administrator.

Installation

IBM offers packages for rpm and dpkg based distributions. You will receve a download link from us.

  1. Extract the files from the tar archive, the “8.1.x.x” represents the client version.

    tar xfv 8.1.x.x-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar
or
tar xfv 8.1.x.x-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86_DEB.tar

  2. Install the GSKit packages.

    rpm -U gskcrypt64-8.x.x.x.linux.x86_64.rpm gskssl64-8.x.x.x.linux.x86_64
or
dpkg -i gskcrypt64_8.x.x.x.linux.x86_64.deb gskssl64_8.x.x.x.linux.x86_64.deb

  3. Install the IBM Spectrum Protect API.

    rpm -i TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm
or
dpkg -i tivsm-api64.amd64.deb

  4. Install the backup-archive client.

    rpm -i TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm
or
dpkg -i tivsm-ba.amd64.deb

For further explanation please have a look at the IBM documentation.

Configuration

The BA client will be installed in /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin. You can also find the configuration files in this directory.

Important files are dsm.opt and dsm.sys. Those will be provided by the helpdesk.

Once you have the right configuration please run dsmc in your terminal and login:

  • confirm the username (=nodename)

  • enter the password provided by the helpdesk

After your client is configured start the scheduler service:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now dsmcad.service

Basic Operations

How to view and restore your backups.

With a graphical user interface

  1. Make sure you have OpenJDK 7 installed.

  2. Open your terminal and run dsmj.

  3. Click on Restore on the upper right of the window.

  4. If you want to recover one file or a few files which you just lost, proceed to step 5.

  5. If you want to recover one file or a few files which you lost before the last backup (typically, before last night), then the file is probably still in the backup, but it is marked inactive. In this case, first you need to select from the top menu: View -> Display active/inactive files. Then proceed to step 5.

  6. Click on the + sign next to File level on the left hand side of the window, then open the folder and subfolder where the file(s) you lost were located.

  7. Mark the files you want to recover by clicking on the grey square to the left of the file name. You can also mark a whole folder.

  8. Click on the Restore button (on the top left). You must then specify the location where you want to restore the files to. After that, click on OK and wait until the program finishes getting the files.

On the command line

  1. Open your terminal

  2. Start dsmc

  3. Use TSM client commands to query and restore files, for example:

    query filespace                      # shows your backup mountpoints
query backup <path>                  # path = <mountpoint>/
query backup <path> -subdir=yes      # list your files recursively
restore <path> <new location>        # restore backup to specified location
restore -pick <path> <new location>  # pick from previous file versions

  4. For more details, options and examples, see the IBM documentation for performing incremental backups for quering backups for restoring backups.