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AS/400 Technical Support AS/400 BRMS Workshop Manual: Author: Colin Bangay
AS/400 Technical Support AS/400 BRMS Workshop Manual: Author: Colin Bangay
This workshop was given during the week 19th April to 22nd April 1999.
The purpose of the workshop was to give an overview of BRMS and how it works within
the Cable and Wireless environment.
The overview was given to both new AS/400 members of staff and experienced AS/400
members of staff, and was based on their relative knowledge of BRMS before the
workshop was given.
At the end of the workshop and with this documentation to hand, the AS/400 operators
will be able to use BRMS to a high operational level.
I have presented this workshop based also on the overnight ROBOT backups so the
AS/400 operators were shown the ICMSCALL backup for the purpose of this overview.
Control Groups are used to back up either a single library, a group of related libraries, a
set of objects or folders defined by a backup list or certain pre-defined components of the
system such as configuration or security data. Control groups can also include special
operations to execute an exit program. This program could send a message to operations
to tell them that a backup is starting or completing, and we do use this for our backups
through BRMS. A control group will also include instructions such as what media policy
to use, what tape device to use, default weekly activity (whether to do full saves or
incremental saves), whether to append to media, end of tape option. This is discussed in
more detail in following topics.
As part of the overnight batch run ROBOT backs up the ICMS production libraries. We
will look at the ICMSCALL backup through BRMS throughout this overview as the
default.
You will be presented with the ‘Work with Backup Control Groups screen’.
DISPLAYING ATTRIBUTES OF CONTROL GROUP
Follow instructions on how to get to control groups, then:
Page down to find Control Group ICMSCALL as below:
Press enter and you will be presented with the following screen:
You will notice on this screen that Save access paths is set to *YES, Save contents of
save files is set to *YES, End of tape option is set to *UNLOAD and Journaled objects is
set to *YES. When the save is run using Control Group ICMSCALL all of the above will
be used for the save, so if for some reason we wanted the save to be set to *LEAVE
instead of *UNLOAD this is where you would make the change.
You will also notice that there are a few options that are set to *BKUPCY, this means
that it will use the Backup policy defaults for these specific options (Backup policy is
discussed in more detail in following topics)
Media policies are attached to control groups and define the type and length of Retention
for data saved on media. It also references the Media class and Move Policy to be used
for the save.
You will notice on this screen that the retention is in days, and there is a 31 day retention
on this policy. The media class to be used is CART3590 and the storage location is
TAPLIB02 (Which is the Automatic Tape Loader or ATL as it is called). This means that
this media policy will use tapes of class CART3590 and will only use tapes from location
TAPLIB02 for the saves.
You will also notice that this media policy has a move policy ONEMONTH attached to
it, this is discussed in more detail in following topics.
Move policies are attached to media policies and basically the move policy tells the tapes
where to go, for how long and when to come back onsite to expire.
You will notice that the home location says *SYSPCY (This is the System Policy and
this is discussed in more detail in following topics). This policy will not use containers
but will require verification as Verify moves is set to *YES. The move policy
ONEMONTH will send the tapes used to location OFFSITE for 31 days (this will appear
on the move verification screen for you to verify) and then will come back to location
WARRINGTON to expire (again, you will need to verify this on the move verification
screen).
The backup policy has backup defaults specified so if a control group has specified
*BKUPCY for Append to media it will look at the Backup policy to see what the default
is set to and use it.
You will notice that Default weekly activity is FFFFFFF meaning a full save will be
taken if *BKUPCY is specified in a control group for this option.
You will also notice that some of the options have *SYSPCY against them, this means
that they will take the system policy defaults for these options (System policy is covered
in future topics)
You will notice the defaults for these options are set above, Save access paths is set to
*YES, Save contents of save files is set to *YES, Append to media is set to *NO and
End of tape option is set to *UNLOAD.
Again, there are quite a few options that specify *SYSPCY as the default (System policy
is covered in future topics)
The system policy is like a set of system values. Unless other controls are in effect, the
system policy determines the default for all users. As you will have noticed, some of the
defaults on the Backup policy are set to *SYSPCY, this means that the system policy
defaults will be used.
You will notice that the system default media policy is FULL (to look at this have a look
at topic MEDIA POLICIES), the devices to be used are *MEDCLS (this will use any
device that can be used for the specified media class ie: CART3590). The home location
for media is WARRINGTON, the media class is CART3590, sign off interactive users is
set to *NO and the default output queue is BRMSOUTQ in library QUSRSYS.
This is where the IPL defaults are set, as you can see obviously the ‘IPL after process’ is
set to *NO, the only control group where IPL is set to run is the SAVSYS control group
which is set to IPL after backup *YES.
You need to put the media class in (ie: CART3590), number to add 1 (however, if you
were adding volume 700000 to 700010 then you could put Number to add 10), Initialize
tape should be changed to *YES. Press enter and you will be presented with the
following screen (see next page):
For the purpose of this workshop we will remove tape volume 700000. One thing to note
is that you can only remove a tape volume that is expired and that is owned by the local
machine (ie: You can only delete B machine tapes on the B machine)
Next to Position to put 700000 as below (see next page)
You are now on the Confirm Remove of Media Volume Serials screen, press enter to
confirm and the volume is removed.
This displays all media attributes for this volume, you can see the expiration date,
creation date, current location of tape as well as previous location and media class.
That is how to display a tape, on the next page you will see how to change information on
a tape like the expiration date, location or media class.
From this screen you can change the media class to whatever you need (ie: if doing a
billing run change the tape to be media class @CYCLEDLY), the expiration date can be
changed to whatever you may require, you can also change the move policy if you
require. Once you have made your changes press enter and it will take effect.
To change the location of a tape (as you can see tape 006000 is currently offsite) select
option 8 (Move) and press enter:
You will be presented with the following screen:
Next to Storage location you can put the new location ie: WARRINGTON.
Press enter and the change will take effect, the tape will now say it is in WARRINGTON,
you will have to get the tape back from offsite to reflect this.
Now press F11 (enter), you will be presented with the following screen:
You will see that libraries ICMSXMJRN and ICMSXMRCV have been saved, and that 6
objects and 32 objects have been saves respectively. The QUSRBRM save of 11 objects
is saved every time a save is taken of anything through BRMS, it is the history of the
save. You can also see that no objects were not saved, the control group used for the save
is XMJOURNAL and most importantly object detail is set to *YES.
This is very good as you can now see what objects have been saved from library
ICMSXMJRN.
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
From the WRKMEDBRM screen select option 6 against a cartridge with a + sign next to
it and it will display the set of volumes associated with this cartridge, as well as the
sequence of the set.
DUPLICATE TAPES
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
From the WRKMEDBRM screen select option 14 against the cartridge that you want to
duplicate, press enter and it is exactly the same as a normal DUPTAP except you use
BRMS carts to do it. You input the FROM device and the TO device. The BRMS
cartridge you are copying to must be in BRMS and expired.
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
From the WRKMEDBRM screen select option 15 against a duplicated cartridge (you will
know a duplicated cartridge because it will have a * under DUP STS on the far right of
the WRKMEDBRM screen. This will tell you the original cartridge and the duplicated
cartridge.
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
From the WRKMEDBRM screen select option 10 to reinitialize a tape volume with the
same volume id. This issues the INZTAPBRM command and can only be used on
expired volumes.
We do not use this option so I will leave it alone. If you want more information on this
subject call BRMS support and they will be happy to tell you.
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
From the WRKMEDBRM screen select option 12 against a tape volume. This will mark
the volume as being cleaned and resets the error statistics for this volume.
I will be brief in reviewing this section as you will not use this often.
Many different reports can be produced with the WRKMEDBRM OUTPUT (*PRINT)
command. Volume selection can be done based on the information recorded about a
volume, including creation date range, expiration date range, location, container (which
we do not use), media class, system name and text. This can be sorted by volume id,
creation date, expiration date or location.
You use the Work with Media Information (WRKMEDIBRM) command to create a
report or display of media information, based on libraries, date ranges, and sequences that
you specify.
One of the great uses of this command is if you are asked to restore a library/object you
can use this command to display all saves of that library and select the one you want to
restore. So if a programmer wanted a library called ICMSCALL restored from 2 weeks
ago you can actually find it within seconds using BRMS and it will tell you what tapes it
was saved on so you know straight away what tape volumes to order onsite.
The from system parameter allows you to specify another system that is connected to the
network. This means that you can actually restore libraries/objects from another system
to the system you are signed on to using BRMS. For the purpose of this Workshop we
will just do a restore from the same system. Press enter again on this screen and you will
be presented with this screen (see next page)
You will now see exactly how many objects were saved and not saved. If you are going
to restore a library it is important to make sure that there are no items that are not saved
as you obviously want to restore the WHOLE library. For this Workshop we will pretend
to restore ICMSCALL from 21/04/98. Select option 7 (Restore) and press enter.
If you now press F9 (Recovery defaults) you will be presented with the following
screen:
This is where you must select your command defaults. Specify the tape device, end of
tape option, allow object differences *ALL and most importantly the Restore to library
parameter as you may not want to restore to the same library.
Now press F14 (Submit to batch) and you will be presented with the following screen:
Enter a job name (ie: for this restore call it RSTCALL) and a job queue (normally
RBTSLEEPER) and then press enter. The job will be submitted to RBTSLEEPER and
will restore the library (Make sure you have all the correct tapes loaded first).
This goes inside the library and gives you a list of objects saves (this will only appear if
object detail *YES is specified). You can now put a 7 (Restore object) against the
object you want to restore, then F9 to specify command defaults and F14 to submit to
batch as before in restoring a library above.
Storage locations define any place where media will be stored both before and after use.
LANCING – We use Lancing as a CART3490E base now, so they have all of the
CART3490E carts down there now, as well as some CART3590 carts which are sent
down for saves and restores.
OFFSITE – This is our offsite storage location, we send the carts offsite to DRS who
look after them for us.
TAPLIB02 – This is the 3494 tape library (ATL) that is used on NYNEXA and
NYNEXB only. All carts to be used on these machines have to be at location TAPLIB02
or they will not be used.
TOFIND – This is a location for lost carts, if a cart goes missing then you need to change
the location of the cart to TOFIND.
WARRINGTON – This is our onsite storage location. All tapes actually in Warrington
should have a storage location of WARRINGTON.
The above storage locations are the ones that we use all the time, there are others but we
do not use them.
STRBKUBRM
For control group you must put in the name of the control group that you want to back
up. For this Workshop we will use ICMSCALL (go back to topic Control Groups to see
how to look at control groups to decide which one you want to use).
For control group put ICMSCALL
Leave schedule time as *IMMED unless you want to schedule it to run at a certain time.
Submit to batch you can either put *NO which will run the save interactively or you can
put *YES to submit to a job queue. If you specify yes and press enter it will give you
further parameters to put in the job queue you want to submit to.
This is very similar to the SAVLIBBRM command, you need to specify the Library
name, the object(s) to be saved, the tape device to be used, the media policy, control
group *NONE and the rest of the parameters are as normal for a SAVOBJ command.
We would normally leave the defaults just as they are but would do a SBMJOB for this
command to run. It will delete all save files after saving them.
That is the end of the Workshop, hopefully this manual will help you perform day to day
tasks and give you a better understanding of BRMS.
If you have any questions regarding this workshop, contact Colin Bangay (0411 278403)