Question for the IBM Community:
We are currently running IBM i V7.3 and encountering significant performance and configuration issues with BRMS backups. Despite documentation indicating otherwise, we are still NOT able to access the BRMS Graphical User Interface (GUI). We are looking for guidance or shared experiences related to the following challenges:
Environment Details:
OS Version: IBM i V7.3
Backups performed via BRMS
System utilizes a VTL with iSCSI
Issues/Challenges:
BRMS GUI Access: We cannot still access the BRMS GUI despite IBM documentation stating it is deprecated for our version. Is anyone else seeing this behavior?
Performance Constraints:
1TB incremental backup takes 31+ hours to complete
Nightly backups >750GB exceed 24 hours
Full system backups estimated to take over 72 hours for ~2.8TB
QBATCH used for backups but is not recommended due to resource limitations
Full System Backup Failures:
Backup in restricted state fails; system does not recognize VTL media library
BRMS cannot communicate with VTL during restricted state
In non-restricted mode, backup completes but misses restricted objects
Configuration Concerns:
BRMS documentation does not mention iSCSI/VTL support in V7.3
No official IBM documentation on iSCSI support until V7R5
Third-party sources claim iSCSI is supported on V7R3
Proposed Changes Being Considered:
Switch from Incremental-Cumulative to Incremental-Incremental
Add additional drives/Vcartridges (new VTL may be required)
Increase VTL compute resources (e.g., N2 High Mem from 8/64 to 16/128)
Questions for the Community:
Has anyone successfully configured BRMS to use iSCSI/VTL on IBM i V7.3?
Are there known workarounds for enabling full system backups when restricted state fails to detect the VTL?
Any recommendations to optimize or speed up BRMS backups in this environment?
What could be preventing access to BRMS GUI?
Any insights, documentation references, or experience shared would be greatly appreciated!