IBM Spectrum Protect

IBM® Spectrum Protect™, formerly IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager, is a data protection platform that gives enterprises a single point of control and administration for backup and recovery operations.

It enables reliable, cost effective backups and fast recovery for virtual, physical, and cloud environments of all sizes.

Spend less on data protection and more on innovation

• By switching to IBM Spectrum Protect, you can reduce backup infrastructure costs by up to 53 percent, based on IBM assessments using Butterfly software.
• Incremental “forever” backup operations in conjunction with data deduplication can reduce backup storage requirements up to 95 percent for virtual and physical environments.

Manage and protect data with confidence

• Control virtual, physical, and cloud backup data from a single point, with greater visualization and administrator productivity.
• Monitor system status at a glance by using the IBM Spectrum Protect Operations Center dashboard.
• Take advantage of cloud integration to store data by using one of the following cloud service providers and protocols: Amazon Web Services with Simple Storage Service, IBM Cloud Object Storage with Swift or S3, Microsoft Azure, and OpenStack with Swift using Keystone Version 1 or Version 2.
• VMware administrators can manage backup and restore operations by using familiar user interfaces. There is no need to interact directly with backup servers.
• Convert file and virtual tape library (VTL)-type deduplicated storage pools to IBM Spectrum Protect directory-container storage pools. This automated conversion function enables organizations to take advantage of the space, management, and database improvements in the new storage pools.
• Take advantage of server-side data compression, which adds capacity to IBM Spectrum Protect container pools without adding more storage.

Deploy flexible solutions in any size organization

• IBM Spectrum Protect is highly scalable; a single backup server can protect billions of objects and can ingest, deduplicate, and replicate up to 100 TB per day of new or changed client data.
• Specially priced and packaged entry versions are available for small and mid-sized organizations. These versions are full featured and offer a choice of capacity and component-based license plans.
• Learn more about how to spend less time and money on backups with IBM Spectrum Protect. See the following report, which was published by the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) lab: ESG Lab Review: IBM Data Protection for Virtual Environments.

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ Version 8.1.5 server:

• To help detect and prevent ransomware attacks, view the security notifications in the Operations Center. After each client backup operation, statistics are analyzed for signs of ransomware infection. If signs are present, a warning message is displayed in the Operations Center. You can use the new Security Notifications page to view details for each security notification.
• Lower the cost of cloud-container storage pools by reclaiming space. You can use the new cloud reclamation feature to reclaim space in cloud-container storage pools. You can move data from a larger, fragmented cloud container into a smaller, more fully utilized cloud container.
• Manage your storage environment to help support General Data Protection Regulation compliance strategies. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to harmonize data privacy requirements across the European Union (EU). You can use existing features of IBM Spectrum Protect and enhancements that are delivered with IBM Spectrum Protect V8.1.5 to help you manage your storage environment to support GDPR compliance strategies.
• Generate data deduplication statistics for specified nodes and file spaces. You can generate data deduplication statistics on a regularly scheduled basis for specified nodes, node groups, and file spaces. By using the DEFINE STGRULE command, you can generate statistics at the same time each day, or at specified intervals.
• Schedule audit operations to identify corrupted files in a storage pool. To schedule the audit operations, use the DEFINE STGRULE command with the ACTIONTYPE=AUDIT setting. If you retain the default value of 7 for the DELAY parameter, the audit operation runs weekly at the same time.

For more information about product updates and new features, see What’s new.

Tip: Significant security enhancements were introduced in recent releases of IBM Spectrum Protect. For the latest information about security enhancements, see technote 2004844.

New features and other changes are available in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.1:

• Protect Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle databases. You can back up and restore SQL Server and Oracle databases with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. For both SQL Server and Oracle databases, full restore and Instant Access scenarios are supported.
• Generate reports for supported application databases. Reports are now available that provide insight into the state of your backup operations for database applications. With these reports, you can review the protection status of your supported application databases, the backup history of application databases, and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) compliance status of databases.
• Asynchronously replicate backup data from one vSnap server to another. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus supports backup storage replication, which enables asynchronous replication of backup data from one vSnap server to a secondary vSnap server.
• Create user roles with associated permission groups and resource groups. The role-based access control feature is enhanced to streamline the process of creating, revising, or discontinuing roles as the needs of the data protection enterprise evolve. Predefined roles are included for commonly performed tasks.
• Register VADP proxies through the user interface. The process for installing and updating VADP proxies is enhanced. VADP proxies can now be registered by using the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus interface. Similarly, when updates to the VADP proxy software are made available, they can be installed by using the VADP proxy pane in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
• Run scripts before or after jobs. The ability to upload scripts to be run at the job level is supported. Scripts can be executed before or after backup and restore jobs. Scripts enable you to extend the features and benefits of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. Supported scripts include shell scripts for Linux-based machines and batch and PowerShell scripts for Windows-based machines.
• Search for, filter, and expire recovery points. The capability to search the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus catalog to review available recovery points is enriched. You can filter recovery points by the associated backup job name and creation date. Additionally, you can expire recovery points by using the Catalog Retention pane.
• Filter VMware resources based on tags. Tags allow you to attach category metadata to objects to make the objects more searchable, sortable, and filterable. In IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, tags are applied in vSphere, and the metadata gets assigned to virtual machines. Sorting, searching, or filtering by category is enabled.
• Filter audit logs by description and date. Filtering options are introduced for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus audit log. With this feature, you can filter the audit log by specific action descriptions and date ranges during which the action was performed.
• Exclude resources from backup job definitions. Virtual machine and application resources can now be excluded from backup jobs. The Exclude Resources option allows you to enter exclusion patterns and wildcards to remove specific resources from backup job definitions. This feature can help you improve the efficiency of backup operations.
• Protect non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) files. When you back up a VMware virtual machine, the backup now includes the NVRAM file, which stores the state of the BIOS software for the virtual machine.
• View REST API development guides. Application programming interfaces (APIs) define the criteria and protocols that underlie IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. You can extend the capabilities of the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus application by developing scripts that utilize the APIs. To access the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus REST API Guide, click the user icon from any window in the user interface. A separate guide is provided for vSnap APIs.
• Access the application through the IBM Cloud. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is available as an IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions service. IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions enables you to integrate or migrate your on-premises VMware workloads to the IBM Cloud by using the scalable IBM Cloud infrastructure and the VMware hybrid virtualization technology.

Media Gallery

Documentation

IBM Knowledge Center

• V8.1.0 IBM Knowledge Center

Blueprints

• IBM Spectrum Protect Blueprints

Technotes

• Tivoli Storage Manager Supported Operating Systems
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Supported Devices for Linux
• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Supported Devices for AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, and Windows
• Latest IBM Spectrum Protect Server and Client Downloads – Fix Packs and Interim Fixes
• IBM Spectrum Protect Server-Client Compatibility and Upgrade Considerations

White papers

• Best practices for recovering Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
• Best practices for recovering Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, and Windows Vista
• ESG Lab Review: IBM Data Protection for Virtual Environments

Redbooks

• IBM Tivoli Storage Manager as a Data Protection Solution
• Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware Solution Design Considerations

IBM Spectrum Protect Customer Feedback Programs

IBM is looking for customers and business partners to provide feedback on IBM Spectrum Protect offerings in order to influence future enhancements and improve the product experience. IBM is trying to better meet the needs of its customers through our early interaction programs. We have three program offerings:

• Beta program: Participants will be given access to pre-released code and asked to provide focused input related to the time-to-value and overall user experience.
• Early Access Program (EAP): Participants are invited to quarterly sessions to provide feedback on potential future designs.
• Sponsor User program: Selected participants will be chosen to work closely with the design and development teams to improve new enhancements.

If you are interested in a more direct interaction with the Spectrum Protect development, consider registering for one of these programs:

• To request enrollment in the beta program, submit the IBM Spectrum Protect Beta sign-up form
• To request enrollment in the EAP program, submit the IBM Spectrum Protect EAP sign-up form

Sponsor users are selected from the beta and EAP programs.

Note: Because new features and functionality are unannounced, the material presented throughout these programs will be classified IBM Confidential and participants will be required to accept a standard legal agreement that has been approved for use within IBM Software Group at IBM before acceptance into the beta and/or EAP programs.