VE 7.1.1.1 backup freezing a VM question about megablocks
First, many thanks to Wanda others who have been so helpful in answering my previous VE questions! We had a situation yesterday where 2 VE backups were causing the VM's to go unresponsive. No response to ping, unable to RDP, etc. As soon as the backup finished (or was killed in one case), the servers picked back up where they left off. They never rebooted, but you can actually see in the Windows event logs a gap where no activity happens. Has anyone seen this behavior before? VE is at 7.1.1.1, the Hosts are ESXi 5.0 U2, vCenter is 5.5, windows 2008R2. Secondly, while reading the docs, I ran across the idea of performing periodic full backups in VE due to fragmentation of megablocks? Is this needed? If so, how do you manage it (how frequently, do you try to scatter the fulls across every day, how do these interact with daily incrementals, etc)? If it matters, all our backups land on a VTL. Thanks, Steve Schaub Systems Engineer II, Backup/Recovery Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee 423-535-6574 (desk) 423-785-7347 (cell) - Please see the following link for the BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee E-mail disclaimer: http://www.bcbst.com/email_disclaimer.shtm
DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling
I assume someone has dealt with this I would like to hear how they handled it. The issue: DB2 and/or Oracle database backups that are dependent on completion of external processes. Currently our DBA's utilize a variety of methods to initiate DB2 and Oracle database backups (CRON, external schedulers, etc) which presents challenges to confirm that they are being completed as expected. As a start, I proposed creating a client schedule and using the TSM scheduler to trigger these events, which would minimally provide a completed/missed/failed status. Complemented by routine reporting of stored objects it would give me some assurance that TSM had what it needed to assure their recovery. The DBA's are pushing back (surprise!) claiming that some backups have special requirements, such as not running during other tasks like payroll processing, runstats, etc. so they use the external scheduler to set conditions that are met before the backup is initiated. The question proposed to me is can a TSM schedule be triggered by the external scheduler once the conditions have been met? I would be grateful to hear how others handle this, or if they use a different approach altogether to assure all DP database backups are completing on a timely basis. TIA ~Rick
Re: DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling
Our Oracle backups have three scenarios. 1) Home grown scripts are scheduled via cron on the Oracle server, copy/compress the db to local disk, then pushed the db backup to TSM via a dsmc backup of the backup disk area. 2) RMAN backups are scheduled via cron which push data to TSM via LanFree/SAN or Network. 3) Some RMAN backups run via cron and write direct to DataDomain via NFS. (no TSM involvement) Note - archive logs are pushed to TSM via scripts and run around the clock. Rick -Original Message- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Rick Adamson Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 12:12 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling I assume someone has dealt with this I would like to hear how they handled it. The issue: DB2 and/or Oracle database backups that are dependent on completion of external processes. Currently our DBA's utilize a variety of methods to initiate DB2 and Oracle database backups (CRON, external schedulers, etc) which presents challenges to confirm that they are being completed as expected. As a start, I proposed creating a client schedule and using the TSM scheduler to trigger these events, which would minimally provide a completed/missed/failed status. Complemented by routine reporting of stored objects it would give me some assurance that TSM had what it needed to assure their recovery. The DBA's are pushing back (surprise!) claiming that some backups have special requirements, such as not running during other tasks like payroll processing, runstats, etc. so they use the external scheduler to set conditions that are met before the backup is initiated. The question proposed to me is can a TSM schedule be triggered by the external scheduler once the conditions have been met? I would be grateful to hear how others handle this, or if they use a different approach altogether to assure all DP database backups are completing on a timely basis. TIA ~Rick - The information contained in this message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately, and delete the original message.
Re: DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling
Rick, This all began after a recent audit revealed many systems either had missed backup schedules, excessive retention, or no backups at all, which led to the question of how we can better account for them on a day-to-day basis. Of course then the usual finger pointing ensued and management asked what could be done to address it. How do you assure your business, and auditors, that the expected data is available in the event a recovery is needed? ~Rick -Original Message- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Rhodes, Richard L. Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 12:37 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling Our Oracle backups have three scenarios. 1) Home grown scripts are scheduled via cron on the Oracle server, copy/compress the db to local disk, then pushed the db backup to TSM via a dsmc backup of the backup disk area. 2) RMAN backups are scheduled via cron which push data to TSM via LanFree/SAN or Network. 3) Some RMAN backups run via cron and write direct to DataDomain via NFS. (no TSM involvement) Note - archive logs are pushed to TSM via scripts and run around the clock. Rick -Original Message- From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU] On Behalf Of Rick Adamson Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 12:12 PM To: ADSM-L@VM.MARIST.EDU Subject: DB2/Oracle backup reporting and scheduling I assume someone has dealt with this I would like to hear how they handled it. The issue: DB2 and/or Oracle database backups that are dependent on completion of external processes. Currently our DBA's utilize a variety of methods to initiate DB2 and Oracle database backups (CRON, external schedulers, etc) which presents challenges to confirm that they are being completed as expected. As a start, I proposed creating a client schedule and using the TSM scheduler to trigger these events, which would minimally provide a completed/missed/failed status. Complemented by routine reporting of stored objects it would give me some assurance that TSM had what it needed to assure their recovery. The DBA's are pushing back (surprise!) claiming that some backups have special requirements, such as not running during other tasks like payroll processing, runstats, etc. so they use the external scheduler to set conditions that are met before the backup is initiated. The question proposed to me is can a TSM schedule be triggered by the external scheduler once the conditions have been met? I would be grateful to hear how others handle this, or if they use a different approach altogether to assure all DP database backups are completing on a timely basis. TIA ~Rick - The information contained in this message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the recipient(s) named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this document in error and that any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately, and delete the original message.
Re: VE 7.1.1.1 backup freezing a VM question about megablocks
We had a situation yesterday where 2 VE backups were causing the VM's to go unresponsive. No response to ping, unable to RDP, etc. As soon as the backup finished (or was killed in one case), the servers picked back up where they left off. They never rebooted, but you can actually see in the Windows event logs a gap where no activity happens. Has anyone seen this behavior before? VE is at 7.1.1.1, the Hosts are ESXi 5.0 U2, vCenter is 5.5, windows 2008R2. ooo! Haven't seen that one before. My basic VE debugging steps when a VM won't back up (all from the VM side): *check from VCenter that there are no outstanding VM snapshots for those VM's (trigged by TSM or otherwise) *check from VCenter that there is no current performance alert for those VM's *check from Vcenter that vmtools are up to date (it tells you if they aren't) *do a VMware snap from VCenter (If VM can't snap it, nobody can). If you can't get this far, it's a VMware problem.. Wanda Prather TSM Consultant ICF International Enterprise and Cybersecurity Systems Division
