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 8.1.8 server:

• Optimize your storage environment by automatically tiering data to tape. With IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.8, you can tier data from directory-container storage pools on disk to both cloud storage and tape storage. In previous releases, you could tier data only to cloud storage.
• Offload data from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to tape storage. With IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.8, data can be offloaded from an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.4 object client and stored on physical tape media or in a virtual tape library (VTL). Data is sent to IBM Spectrum Protect by using the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) protocol and specifying the S3 Glacier storage class.
• Send data to an Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class. With IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.8, you can send data to an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Intelligent-Tiering storage class. When you configure a storage pool with the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class, data will be sent to the storage pool by using the Amazon S3 protocol.
• Provide Write Once Read Many (WORM) protection for archived data. To help meet strict regulatory requirements for archived data, you can protect your data by using Write Once Read Many (WORM)-protected file volumes. IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.8 introduces a new solution for providing WORM protection for archived data.
• Start processing a storage tiering rule immediately. With IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1.8, you can start to process a storage tiering rule immediately without waiting for its scheduled start time. In this way, you can verify that the storage tiering rule works as expected.

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 What you need to know before you install or upgrade the product.

New features are available in IBM Spectrum Protect™ Operations Center Version 8.1.8:

• Improvements to storage tiering. These improvements include the following new capabilities:
  • The capability to tier data from directory-container storage pools on disk to tape storage. In previous releases, you could tier data only to cloud storage. When you tier data to tape, you can optimize your storage environment because you release space on disk storage and tier the data to physical tape devices or virtual tape libraries. In this way, you can take advantage of the relative scalability and cost efficiency of tape for long-term storage of data.
  • The capability to start processing a storage tiering rule immediately. A tiering rule defines policies for moving data from a source storage pool to a target storage pool. In previous releases, a tiering rule was processed only if it was active and then only at its scheduled time. You can now start a tiering rule outside of its scheduled time and you can also start a tiering rule that is not active.
• The capability to offload data from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to physical tape devices or to virtual tape libraries. In a previous release, you could offload data from IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to disk or to a cloud-based object storage system. With this new feature, you can benefit from cost-efficient tape storage for long-term data availability and disaster recovery preparedness.
• Support for the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) Intelligent-Tiering storage class. In previous releases, if a cloud-container storage pool was configured to send data to the Amazon S3, all data was stored in the S3 Standard storage class. Now, you can configure a storage pool to store data in the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class. The S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class has two storage tiers, and the service automatically moves data to a lower-cost tier, when appropriate, based on the frequency of data access. For more information about the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class, see the documentation on the Amazon S3 website.

For more information about these enhancements, see the Operations Center help.

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ Version 8.1.8 backup-archive client:

• Web user interface for file restore operations is available on additional Linux operating systems.
  The web user interface for file restore operations is now available on the Linux on IBM® Z and Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian) operating systems. With the web user interface feature, you can perform file-restore operations on behalf of an end user, without the need to have access to the client web server machine. This feature is available as an optional component. For installation instructions, see the following topics:
  • Installing the Linux on System z client
  • Installing the backup-archive client on Linux on Power Systems (Little Endian)
  For instructions about starting the web user interface, see Starting a web user interface session for file-restore operations.
• Download system logs of file restore operations. You can download system logs and obtain problem determination information pertaining to file restore operations. The information includes file names, download tokens and download states. The system administrator can configure this feature to determine the system logs that can be downloaded and the users who can download the logs. For more information, see Downloading system logs.
• Maintenance updates. Updates for APARs and other minor updates are provided.

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

New features and other changes are available in IBM Spectrum Protect Plus V10.1.4:

• Copy snapshots to tape or to cloud archive storage for long-term data protection. For data archiving and disaster recovery purposes, you can complete a full copy of snapshots to tape or to cloud archive storage.
  • Copy to tape: Copy snapshots to an IBM Spectrum Protect server that stores the data on physical tape media or in a virtual tape library.
  • Copy to cloud archive storage: Copy snapshots to one of the following archive storage services: Amazon Glacier, IBM Cloud™ Object Storage Archive Tier, or Microsoft Azure Archive. For more information about copying snapshot data to tape or to cloud archive storage, see Offload to secondary backup storage.
• Protect multi-partitioned IBM® Db2® databases. Protect all your Db2 databases, including databases in multi-partitioned environments across multiple hosts, with the Db2 Database Partitioning Feature (DPF). For more information about protecting Db2, see Db2.
• Simplify the data restore process by using the new wizard. When you are restoring data, you can step through the Restore wizard to select the options that you require. The wizard helps you to ensure that no options are missed when you are setting up a restore operation. For more information about how to use the restore wizard, see Protecting applications or Protecting hypervisors to find which component you want to restore.
• View the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus user interface in your selected language. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is now available in different languages. All menu items, labels, and messages are displayed in the language that is chosen for operating IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
• Find message documentation in IBM Knowledge Center. All messages that are generated by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, including errors, warnings, and informational messages now have unique identifier codes. By using the identifier code, you can look up the full message documentation in IBM Knowledge Center. The message documentation can help you to determine the system state and resolve any detected issues. For more information about messages, see Product messages.
• Support is extended for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus workloads. In this version, support is extended to include the following environments for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus protected workloads:
  • On Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019, Hyper-V.
  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Version 7.5, all applications that support RHEL.
  • On RHEL V7.6, all applications that support RHEL.
  • On Linux on IBM Power Systems (little endian), IBM Db2, and MongoDB.
  • On CentOS V7.5, all applications that support CentOS V7.
  • On CentOS V7.6, all applications that support CentOS V7.
  • On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) V15, all applications that support SLES.
  • On Oracle Database 18c, Oracle.

  For more information about supported levels, see System requirements.

• Improved tracking of virtual machines and applications with real-time inventory. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus runs regular global inventories to track newly added virtual machines and applications to your environment. Real-time inventory of the objects in the job ensures that any changes to the environment are captured.
• Run IBM Spectrum Protect Plus updates and hotfixes online. Update your IBM Spectrum Protect Plus environment more easily with online updates from the Administration console. Available fixes and updates are listed automatically when you have internet access, otherwise you can download the fixes and run offline updates. For more information about updating your environment, see Updating the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus virtual appliance.
• Oracle multithreaded configuration support. Protect all your Oracle databases, including multithreaded configurations, in Oracle 12c and later versions. For more information about protecting Oracle, see Backing up and restoring Oracle data.
• Set global preferences. You can centrally set global preferences for parameters for all your IBM Spectrum Protect Plus operations. This gives you flexibility to choose to modify default values once for all your operations, or choose to set values for individual operations. For more information about global preferences, see Applying global preferences.
• Do more with Jobs and Operations. Use the Jobs and Operations pages to interact with your backup, inventory, maintenance, and restore jobs. Review running jobs, job history, active resources, and job schedules. Choose to pause schedules, cancel jobs, or rerun jobs from the tabbed pages.
• Security enhancements. New rules for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus password control and administrator access are applied to ensure secure connections. For more information about security and passwords, see Start IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.
• Test with a service level agreement (SLA) configuration. For new deployments of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, you can use the built-in demonstration SLA configuration before you move to full production mode. The demonstration configuration automatically creates policies for a local vSnap backup repository for testing and demonstration purposes.
• View What’s new information in the user interface. What’s new information for your version of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus can be accessed from the user interface. To read about new features for your release, go to your User ID menu and click What’s New.

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

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ for Databases: Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server Version 8.1.8:

• Post-snapshot registry volumes cleanup. After Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server backs up an Exchange or SQL database, the snapshot is dismounted and registry volumes are cleaned up successfully.
• Documentation updates. The Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server documentation has been updated to describe the behavior of Data Protection for Microsoft SQL Server and Volume Shadow Copy Services in Thin Provisioning support for IBM SAN Volume Controller and IBM Storwize V7000.

For information, see What’s New.

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ Version 8.1.8 backup-archive client for Mail: Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server Version 8.1.8:

• Post-snapshot registry volumes cleanup. After Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server backs up an Exchange or SQL database, the snapshot is dismounted and registry volumes are cleaned up successfully.
• Documentation updates. The Data Protection for Microsoft Exchange Server documentation has been updated to enhance the description of silent installation on Windows Server Core.

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

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware Version 8.1.8:

• Monitor your data protection environment across multiple backup servers from a single view.

  You can now view information about all completed backup and restore operations, and operation schedules, across multiple backup servers from the IBM Spectrum Protect vSphere plug-in.

  After you install IBM Spectrum Protect, you can configure an initial backup server by using the setup wizard. This server is designated as the default backup server, because it continues to be the server used for the web application on the GUI host. Additional backup servers can then be added or removed by using the plug-in. The default backup server cannot be removed from the plug-in.

  You can then assign multiple IBM Spectrum Protect backup servers to support data centers on a vCenter. Each data center can be associated with one backup server out of a pool of IBM Spectrum Protect servers. All the backup servers can be managed from the IBM Spectrum Protect vSphere plug-in.

• Set up multiple backup servers. Use the configuration wizard to configure the default IBM Spectrum Protect backup server. For instructions, see Configuring a default backup server.

  When the default back server is configured, you can use the vSphere plug-in for the following tasks:

  • Set up additional backup servers. For instructions, see Configuring additional backup servers.
  • Set up default and tagged schedules for backup servers. For instructions, see Creating schedules with additional backup servers.
  • Perform individual backups. For instructions, see Running individual backups.
  • Restore individual VMs. For instructions, see Running individual restores.

• Take advantage of new installation features. For product maintainability, fixed locations are now used for all installations. The fixed installation locations are detailed in Installable components.

  In previous releases, you had to manually set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable on the Linux operating system to enable the Data Protection for VMware data movers and mount proxies to access required libraries. For Linux GUI host and data mover installations, a file script named spve.sh is now installed in etc/profile.d to ensure that the following Data Protection for VMware executable files will have the correct path:

  • dsmc
  • dsmcad
  • dsmj

  In all other instances, the global setting for the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable will continue to be used. For more information about the streamlined installation process on Linux, see Configuring a new installation with the wizard on Linux.

• Manually configure file restore capabilities on a secondary server on a remote Windows system. You can now manually configure file restore capabilities on a secondary IBM Spectrum Protect server on a remote Windows system. To support these capabilities, you must deploy multiple file-restore mount proxy pairs to service the secondary IBM Spectrum Protect servers. For instructions, see Manually configuring file restore capabilities in a secondary server on a remote Windows system.

  In addition, you can use either a Windows mount proxy node or a Windows data mover node to run instant restore and instant access operations. For more information, see Full VM instant restore environment requirements.

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

New features and other changes are available in the IBM Spectrum Protect™ for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V Version 8.1.8:

• Use parallel processing to help enhance the performance of backup operations. Use the vmmaxbackupsessions option along with the vmmaxparallel option to back up multiple VMs simultaneously. For more information, see:
  • Optimizing backup operations
  • Backing up multiple virtual machines in parallel (optimized backup)
  • Vmmaxbackupsessions
  • Vmmaxparallel
• Installation modification. For ease of maintenance, you can install Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V only in the default location (C:\Program Files\IBM\SpectrumProtect). For more information, see:
  • Upgrading Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V by using the installation wizard
  • Running a typical installation of Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V
  • Installing only the Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V Management Console
  • Installing only the Data Protection for Microsoft Hyper-V data mover
• Maintenance updates. Updates for APARs and other minor changes are provided.

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

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.