Options and Information for creating duplicate View backup tapes to be sent offsite as Disaster Recovery (DR) tapes

Products

• OM View

Issue/Introduction

Is there a feature in VIEW that will allow for duplication of backup tapes (SARTAPE) that can be sent offsite and used for Disaster recovery in an emergency situation?

Will SARPAC create duplicate/DR tapes of our already existing tapes that currently don't have a DR counterpart?

 

Environment

View, Disaster Recovery, 14.0 DUPLEX, DR, off, site, backup, tape, SARPAC

Cause

Database and sysout/report recovery

Resolution

Regarding your View case and question on duplication of SARTAPE to be used at a backup site, View does in deed provide a couple of options.

Please refer to the following areas of documentation for additional information. 

- Configuration Best Practices
  Scroll down to: Backup/Cleanup Task
  Where you'll see: Backup tape types:

You can configure your View initialization parameters to create up to three different types of backup tapes: Primary, Duplex, and DR (Disaster Recovery) tapes.
Primary - main backup tape
Duplex tapes - mirror images of the Primary tapes
DR (Disaster Recovery) - can be taken offsite for disaster recovery purposes

More Information:
See the information about backing up and recovering the database in Reference Guide.

Back Up the Database
As part of its backup cycle, View optionally backs up to tape the current disk archive generation of SYSOUT, along with the master index. The TBACKUP initialization parameter determines whether backup and DR processing are done.

- View allows you to produce a duplicate of its backup tapes. A sub parameter of the STORGRPn parameters (unit2-name) determines whether tape duplexing is done.

- View can also create a DR tape if the DRTAPE parameter is set to YES or ACTIVE. Be aware of the following conditions:

* This tape is not a mirror image of the primary or duplex tape. The DR tape is written during the current Standard or Interim backup cycle and can be sent to the DR site.

* A new DR backup tape can be created for both the Standard and Interim backup cycles depending on how the DRMOD parameter is set, as follows:

- NEVER -- The backup cycle does not append reports to an existing DR backup tape.
- ALWAYS -- The backup cycle always appends reports to an existing DR backup tape until it becomes full.
- STD -- The backup cycle appends reports to an existing DR backup tape during Interim backup cycles and creates a new DR backup during Standard backup cycles.

If you define tape storage groups with the STORGRPn initialization parameters, we recommend that you make STORGRP1 the largest group, to enhance the performance of the backup cycle.

The master index contains the location and attributes of all archived SYSOUT; therefore, we recommend that you let View back up the master index automatically. The master index is always backed up to the tape storage group defined by the initialization parameter STORGRP0.

- Applicable Disaster Recovery SARINIT PARMS:

DRMOD
DRTAPE
DRTIDX
DRTSEQ
DRUNITB
DRUNITP

- Both DUPLEX and DR tapes can be mounted by SARSTC and EAS in lieu of a primary.

- Both DUPLEX and DR tapes can be used for database and individual sysout recovery.

- The basic difference between a DUPLEX and a DR tape is that because a DUPLEX tape is a mirror image of it's primary, it can be used to recreate it's damaged primary tape counterpart. Chances are you would not be able to recreate a primary tape from a DR tape, because DR tapes are not necessarily a mirror image of a primary.

- The "DR Tape Backup List Report" is created when the standard/interim BACKUP cycle is run. The DR Tape Backup List report shows SYSOUTs that were backed up to the DR tape, with their corresponding tape numbers.

  To create this report, include the //SARDRLST DD statement in your SARSTC JCL.

Additional Information

Additional information regarding DR tapes that you might find useful...

- The View database knows about all of your DR tapes.

- Just like it does for your PRIMARY tapes, View applies your defined retention rules to sysouts on your DR tapes, deletes the DR entries from the database, and frees the DR tapes up for scratch when all sysout retentions have expired.

- Execution of the SARPAC utility with the "REPORT" parameter option does not show the DR tapes.

- The Broadcom provided SARGRW2 utility will show the DR tapes.

- The SARTSLST utility (Using PARM='dbhlq,tseq#,DR') will show what sysouts/reports are on the DR tapes.

- Question: If I turn on the DR functionality will execution of a SARPAC put the data on a new PRIMARY tape and create the DR copy/version?

Answer: Yes. If you configure the SARINIT DRTAPE parameter as DRTAPE=YES, (in conjunction with the other appropriate DRxxxx parameters), and then run a SARPAC, the SARPAC utility will create both new primary tapes as well as new DR tapes. (SARPAC would also create new DUPLEX tapes if the SARINIT STORGRPn unit2 parameter is specified).

- Sysouts/reports that are available on DR tapes are identified on the Sysout Selection List screen as having a 'B' under the T(ape) flag 

CA View ALL --------------- Sysout Selection List ------
                                                       
  Sel  Sysout ID                        D T O I ERO ID    
  ==>  REPORTA                          * * * * *        
       REPORTA                          Y B    

  ( B - Report also resides on DR Tape )