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  • 1.  Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    Posted Tue May 03, 2022 02:53 PM
    H, my name is Roberto de Britto and I work with IBMi in Brazil. I will be participating in a project where we will be migrating the current Backup solution, based on BRMS and Data Domain to a solution with Comvault metallic and Azure.

    This project will be led by the Commvault team and on my side we will support the setups that occur within IBMi, so I don't have much more information besides the minimum requirements for this installation within IBMi. I would like to know if anyone has had recent experience in a similar project using Metallic and IBMi and on my side my biggest concern concerns the replacement of the current backup tool (BRMS), so I was put forward. What should be the main points of attention with this backup solution change?? Any additional points to consider?

    Soon I should have more information to share, but for now I consider any contribution useful to my understanding.

    Obrigado!! 


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    Roberto de Britto Goncalves Filho
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  • 2.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    IBM Champion
    Posted Tue May 03, 2022 10:14 PM
    Edited by Satid Singkorapoom Tue May 03, 2022 10:23 PM
    Dear Roberto

    Has there been a Proof of Concept test before? I suspect not because if there was, then the PoC would have provided you with answers.  So, my opinion is that you should ask for PoC first rather than an outright migration.    

    I used to be consulted (as an outsider to the project) a few years ago in a PoC with Commvault for an IBM i customer and it was a failure because the data backup performance was dismal.  In IBM i, only SAVOBJ and SAVLIB were used to compare Commvalut against the existing LTO tape.  Instructions on how to set up IBM i for connection to Commvault was supplied by  Commvalut team and I see that this should be the same for your case.  The provided exact instructions may not work in your case but it should give an idea of what functions are needed to be set up on IBM i side.

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    Satid Singkorapoom
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  • 3.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    IBM Champion
    Posted Wed May 04, 2022 02:54 AM

    Hello Roberto,

    BRMS allows you to store meta data of the backup. Allowing you to restore data using the commands WRKOBJBRM and WRKLNKBRM and of course the Recovery reports can be used to restore the complete system. 

    So I am curious what Commvault has as an alternative for this. 

    Greetings,



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    Rudi Van Helvoirt
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  • 4.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    IBM Champion
    Posted Wed May 04, 2022 04:00 AM
    Hi Roberto,

    Having seen Commvault in action, I can only echo the previous replies and strongly recommend conducting a full backup, but more importantly a full recovery with Commvault. Then compare the two. Commvault certainly looks the part but from my experience IBM i seems to be very much an afterthought, whereas BRMS was designed for IBM i.

    Please continue to share your experience as there is lots of interest around Commvault, especially for environments moving to the cloud.

    Thanks, Ash.


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    Ash Giddings
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  • 5.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    Posted Wed May 04, 2022 08:31 AM
    Thanks for the quick response and contribution. I can see that everyone has reinforced my concern, but I will soon learn from Commvault's architects, the answers and functional equivalences if they exist. This solution is being implemented in all environments (AIX, Linux and Windows), with IBMi being one of the smallest, consisting of 3 LPAR's with Full Backup's between 16TB and 20TB each. It is a global project that in 2023 will take these environments to the IBM Cloud, but it will definitely need to meet the current requirements of Backup and Restore via BRMS. We also have frequent demands for restoring tables with saves on specific dates. As you all reinforced, I will be attentive to these functional validations and not just the latency and recovery times.
    I will share the evolution of this implementation that will start with QA/DEV environment.
    Thanks again for the comments. 

    Obrigado!!

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    Roberto de Britto Goncalves Filho
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  • 6.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    Posted Thu May 05, 2022 05:00 PM
    Roberto

    We having been using Commvault to back up three partitions for sometime now and after the initial toothing problems its pretty stable. This replaced our physical tape backups. I still create a monthly period end tape using the Commvault tape library. We have not done a partition restore and I'm currently wading though their documentation to get a good idea of the process. One thing I noticed is that you need sufficient storage on your restore client, be it the Linux proxy host, the IHOST, or VIOS for the images, In our case we are backing up nearly 6TB, so I'm not sure about this.

    One final point is appears that Commvault restores the entire library before restoring an individual file, be it an in or out of place restore. In our case this meant over six hours to restore a production library of over 5,000 objects before we got our single file. I hope they are going to do something about this.

    I hope that helps and it should give you some questions to ask

    cheers Keith

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    Keith Nichol
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  • 7.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    IBM Champion
    Posted Wed May 04, 2022 07:39 AM
    I have done multiple bare metal restores simply by following the report you get from running'
    STRRCYBRM ACTION(*REPORT)
    Do you get such a step-by-step with the replacement product?
    I have heard of some products which require you do the system stuff from media and then the rest over communications using their special software.  However we do not even have any physical tape drives.

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    Robert Berendt
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  • 8.  RE: Moving from IBMi Backup (using BRMS) with Data Domain Metallic and Azure for IBMi solution

    Posted Thu October 05, 2023 10:28 AM

    I just stumbled upon this link while helping a Commvault customer, Commvault 1-touch resotre/bare metal restore info can be found on these links,

    Performing an IBM i 1-Touch Disaster Recovery Operation (commvault.com)

    https://kapost-files-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/kapost/53cd86f5f05d99b1ff0000b4/studio/content/57cee44c1fbe85179f000097/published/commvault-iseries-protection-technical-whitepaper.pdf?kui=nrLEYWGnPoQipqL1VoSaBA

    Full disclosure - I am a Commvault technical implementation contractor. Happy to help answer related questions.



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    Joseph Dizon
    Technical Specialist
    Clear Technology Solutions
    Rosebery
    (40) 514-3917
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