BRMS and IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i

Learn about how BRMS can work with IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i to save backups to a cloud location

About using BRMS with cloud-based storage

While the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i using BRMS may be convenient, it may not be ideal for users or organizations that transfer large amounts of data from a backup. This solution is intended for small environments saving less than 2TB of data per day. Cloud connectivity was not developed as a replacement alternative for physical or Virtual Tape Library (VTL) devices.

It is important to be aware that backup and restore operations to the cloud involve two stages. BRMS manages one stage of the operation and the other stage is controlled by the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i product.

BRMS and IBM Cloud Solution for i supports parallel backup and restore functions and support FlashCopy environments in versions 7.3 and later with the PTFs:

7.4 SI76738
7.3 SI76737

The backup process

The first stage of a cloud backup is a BRMS backup to internal tape or virtual optical images. These require resources on the backup system that can be intensive and does consume space. The second stage is the transfer of the virtual images to the cloud.

The restore process

The first stage of the restore is a transfer of the virtual images from the cloud. The cloud transferred images are a whole file. The entire virtual image transfers back to the backup system from the cloud. The transfer of the virtual images back to the backup system can be resource intensive and consumes space on the backup system. The second stage is the BRMS restore operation from the virtual image.

Warning

Changing the system name while it has active virtual images in the cloud will cause the automatic transfer and restore process to fail. Reference Renaming a BRMS/ICC cloud solution system for more details.

The transfer process

The transfer operations to the cloud are not owned by the BRMS component. The cloud connection, transfer operations, and transfer performance is managed by the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i product. Additionally, any journal receiver maintenance needed for the IBM Cloud Storage Solutions for i product has to be handled separately since this journaling is not part of a BRMS owned process.

Warning

Large backup virtual images can cause lengthy transfer times when the images are moved and may degrade network performance.

System storage and cloud backups

Because BRMS performs the backup to local media or media images, the backup system requires at least as much storage space as the size of the backup. When using virtual optical images to store a backup, significantly more storage space may be required.

Using BRMS and cloud-based storage

Follow these links for information about implementing and managing backup and restore operations with BRMS and the cloud: