November 2011

Streamline Your IFS Backups With Robot/SAVE 12!

We all store data in the Integrated File System (IFS) directories on the IBM i server. And, some (but not all) of this data needs to be backed up regularly. Do you struggle with IFS backups because you have to back up the entire IFS? Could you use a more flexible approach that lets you group and save specific directories, and restore specific files or directories quickly?

The IFS has been around for a long time, yet many people don’t have a good software solution for flexible backups. Many companies save the entire IFS each time they back it up, which means wasted time and wasted resources for backups because they’re saving data that never changes.

Many software applications store data in IFS directories. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to group these directories to create a dedicated backup for the application? For example, you use SAP on your IBM i server and you want to back up your SAP directories daily and the entire IFS weekly. How would you do that?

Flexible Backups are Important

Robot/SAVE, Help/Systems’ backup and recovery software for IBM i, has been helping customers automate backups for a long time. Robot/SAVE 12, the newest release, now offers flexible IFS backups and restores.

Start by creating one or more IFS Groups—logical groupings of the directories you want to back up (see Figure 1). For example, you might group your Domino, SAP, Oracle EnterpriseOne, or WebSphere directories.

With Robot/SAVE 12, it’s easy to navigate the IFS and select just the directories you want to include. Then, after you build the IFS Group, define a backup class and backup set to execute the backups. (Or, you can add the IFS Group to an existing Robot/SAVE backup set.)

Figure 1. IFS Group DAILY

Figure 1 shows an IFS Group called DAILY that contains multiple Robot product directories. An “I” in the Selected column (S) indicates that the directory is included in the IFS Group. An asterisk (*) in this column indicates that a subdirectory is included in the IFS Group.

Figure 2 shows the directories that make up IFS Group DAILY. Note that these directories don’t have to be in the same parent directory. (The generic character [*] indicates that all of the objects and subdirectories will be backed up.)

Figure 2. IFS Group Directory

It’s Easy

The rules for running your IFS backups are in your backup classes and sets. You can specify the device drive, save-while-active options, any before and after programs, and more. The backup set is where you select the IFS Group(s) to back up. After the backup set is ready, you can run the backup weekly, daily, or even hourly. And, you can schedule it using Robot/ SCHEDULE to automate the entire process.

Painless Recovery

The most important part of any backup is being able to restore your data. Robot/SAVE guides you through an entire system restore if necessary, or whatever part of the IFS you want to restore. You can restore an entire IFS Group, certain directories, or specific files—Robot/SAVE does the hard work.

Robot/SAVE offers an easy-to-use IFS Group Restore option. And, Robot/SAVE preserves the entire path, even if only a single object is restored (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: The IFS Restore Worksheet Panel

For years, Robot/SAVE has helped customers pass hot site tests, pass audits, and automate their backups. If you want to streamline and improve your IFS backups, give Robot/SAVE 12 a try.

Contributed by Tom Huntington, Vice President of Technical Services and Chuck Losinski, Product Support Manager

Purchase any software solution from Help/Systems (Robot Automated Operations Solution); PowerTech (IBM i security solutions); SEQUEL Software (data access/analysis and productivity software); Bytware (anti-virus and monitoring solutions for IBM i) and enjoy big discounts on training, services, and IBM POWER7 systems. For details, contact your local IBM Business Partner, or visit our IBM i Solution Edition web page.

Q & A

I have a Robot/SAVE rotation that failed to complete and now the location is IN USE. Is this a problem?

Since the backup rotation failed to complete the last time it ran, the location will display as IN USE until a successful backup is completed for this rotation. The last volume used will be attached to the rotation, so if there is a problem with that volume, you should remove it from the rotation to make sure that Robot/SAVE selects a scratch tape for the next use.

I just added a new message to a message file but I can’t see this message when I try to add it to a message set in Robot/CONSOLE. How do I see the new message?

If you add a new message ID to a message file that is already defined to Robot/CONSOLE, you need to update the message file with the following command specifying the message file and library name:

RBCCRTMFD MSGF (library/message_file)

After the RBCCRTMFD command completes, you’ll be able to see the new message in the message file.