IBM Spectrum Scale data protection and disaster recovery
The IBM Spectrum Scale installation should be protected against data loss to ensure that operations continue after a malfunction.
- Data loss can be avoided by safeguarding four types of critical data:
- Data on cluster configuration
- Data about file system configuration
- Contents of the file system (user data, metadata, configuration)
- Protocol configuration information
Cluster configuration data is administrative information that links nodes, addresses, networks, and software installations on each node. System administrators should save the following configuration information:
The output of the mmlscluster command ensures that this data can be rebuilt if necessary. Depending on the repository type, the CCR backup or the mmsdrfs file is used.
File system configuration data includes a wide range of information about all of the file systems in the cluster. To safeguard this information, use the mmbackupconfig command for each file system and save the output files for later use. This configuration data specifies which discs are associated with which file systems as NSD components, how much storage is in use, the filesets defined, the quotas defined, and other useful configuration data that describes the file system structure. The file data in the user files are not included. User file data is the most basic and frequently changing information that requires protection.
IBM Spectrum Scale GUI Overview
The IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI makes it simple to configure and manage the IBM Spectrum Scale system’s various features.
The IBM Spectrum Scale management GUI allows you to perform the following critical tasks:
- Monitoring the system’s performance across multiple dimensions
- System health monitoring
- Creating and administering file systems
- Make file sets and snapshots
- Object, NFS, and SMB data export management
- Creating administrative users and assigning them roles
- Creating object users and assigning them roles
- Quotas for the default, user, group, and files
- Making and managing node classes
- Monitoring capacity details at multiple levels, including the file system, pools, file sets, users, and user groups.
- Monitoring and administration of the system’s different services
- Remote cluster monitoring
- Setting up a call home
- Setting up and monitoring thresholds
- Creating as well as managing custom node classes
- Setting up authentication process for NFS as well as SMB consumers.
You can use the IBM Spectrum Scale management API to create scripts that automate time-consuming cluster management tasks. These APIs enable integrating and then using the IBM Spectrum Scale system.
The IBM Frequency band Scale management API is a REST-style interface that allows you to manage IBM Spectrum Scale cluster assets. It operates over HTTPS and frames data within HTTP requests and responses with JSON syntax.
The GUI stack is used to implement the IBM Frequency Scale management API. The API requests, as well as commands, are managed and processed by the GUI server.
IBM Spectrum Scale data backup options
Creating a data backup
IBM Spectrum Scale makes a backup copy of the data within the system. Supplementary copies are typically point-in-time copies of data created on a routine, month-by-month, or fortnightly. The process utilizes the backed-up copy to recover files to a prior point when the original data has been lost.
The mmbackup command can be used to back up user information from a GPFS file system or impartial fileset to a TSM domain controller or servers. Only file systems run by the local cluster can be backed up using the mmbackup instruction.
Data recovery
The scheme can reinstate data that has become subverted due to user inconsistencies, hardware failure, destruction, or even bugs in other business applications.
IBM Spectrum Scale data mimicking
In IBM Spectrum Scale, you can copy information from one place to another, creating a carbon copy of the predecessor. This type of replication is known as data mirroring.
Because data is copied in live time in data mirroring, the data held in the supplementary copy is always an identical copy of the data in the primary copy. Information mirroring aids in the rapid recovery of critical data following a disaster. Data mirroring can be done locally or remotely at a different location.
Utilizing snapshots to protect file data
To retain the components of a file system or an impartial fileset at a specific time, a snapshot of the complete file system or impartial files can be generated.
A fileset screenshot is a complete inode spatial snapshot. Any snapshot of an individual fileset contains any dependent filesets encapsulated within that individual fileset. A snapshot of a reliant fileset is not possible.
Snapshots can be used in situations where multiple healing points are required. Before rebuilding the snapshot, make sure the file system is hung. Mounting a file system contains information on how to do so.
