PowerHA Tools Safeguarded Copy Toolkit

Safeguarded Copy secures data to prevent it from being compromised, either accidentally or deliberately by making immutable copies at regular intervals that are retained for a defined period.

The PowerHA® Safeguarded copy toolkit is designed to help automate and manage the lifecycle of Safeguarded copies with IBM i interactive and batch commands and APIs. This includes commands to create Safeguarded copies, and commands to recover safeguarded copies to recovery partitions where the data can be regularly validated or used to selectively recover data when necessary.

• External Storage Requirements
  • DS8000 Enterprise storage server with code level 8.5+. – Preferred DS89XX with 9.2 for enhanced recovery options
  • Spectrum Virtualize family of products (FlashSystems, SAN Volume Controller, and Spectrum Virtualize for Public Cloud) at version 8.4.2.0 and above
  • CSM 6.3.1 or above
  • If the CSM will use dual control ( all actions require a requester and approver ), then the CSM server(s) for SafeGuarded copy must be different that the CSM servers managing any replication or FlashCopy

• IBM i Requirements
  • IBM Release 7.3, 7.4, or 7.5
  • Java 8 installed to communicate to CSM.
  • PowerHA® licenses are required on the partition that will manage the SafeGuarded copy functions. Note that the partition managing the safeguarded copy does not need to be part of any other clustered environment.
  • A management node is required if using physical isolation with backups. Use the FSFC manual for requirements for that.
  • For DS8K - DSCLI version compatible with DS8000 must be installed on the partitions managing the SafeGuarded copy.
  • For Spectrum Virtualize, ssh is used to communicate to the storage.

• Pre-engagement requirements
  • A Cybervault Architecture workshop (CV-AW) by the Technology Services Storage team is strongly recommended to determine desired architecture and storage sizing, including factors such as where copies should be stored in a high availability environment, and optimal copy frequency and retention period.
  • • The PowerHA® Tools Safeguarded Copy Toolkit is delivered as part of an implementation engagement with the Technology Expert Labs (formerly Lab Services) IBM i team. Our engagement style is to direct the customer on the work involved. While this does extend the time required for the implementation somewhat, it allows them to participate in all the decisions and to understand how the toolkit is installed, take notes, and initiate a dialogue at any point during the skills transfer. If multiple personnel are to be included, a conference room with a projector is beneficial. We rarely need to access the physical hardware.