<font size=2 face="sans-serif">Regarding back level file systems and testing...</font><br><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">1. Did you know that the mmcrfs command
supports --version which allows you to create a back level file system?<br></font><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">2. If your concern is restoring from
a SOBAR backup that was made a long while ago with an old version of GPFS/sobar...
</font><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I'd say that should work... BUT I don't
know for sure AND I'd caution that AFAIK (someone may correct me)</font><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Sobar is not intended for long term
archiving of file systems. Personally ( IBM hat off ;-) ),
for that I'd choose a standard, vendor-neutral archival format that is
likely to be supported in the future....</font><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>My current understanding: Spectrum Scal SOBAR is for "disaster recovery"
or "migrate/upgrade entire file system" -- where presumably you
do Sobar backups on a regular schedule... and/or do one just before
you begin an upgrade or migration to new hardware.<br></font><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">--marc</font><br><br><br><br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">From:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Simon Thompson
(Research Computing - IT Services)" <S.J.Thompson@bham.ac.uk></font><br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">To:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">gpfsug main discussion
list <gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org></font><br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Date:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">01/23/2017 05:17 AM</font><br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Re: [gpfsug-discuss]
SOBAR questions</font><br><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Sent by:
</font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">gpfsug-discuss-bounces@spectrumscale.org</font><br><hr noshade><br><br><br><font size=1 face="Calibri">Hi Mark,</font><br><br><font size=1 face="Calibri">Thanks. I get that using it to move to
a new FS version is probably beyond design. But equally, I could easily
see that having to support implementing the latest FS version is a strong
requirement. I.e. In a DR situation say three years down the line, it would
be a new FS of (say) 5.1.1, we wouldn't want to have to go back and find
4.1.1 code, nor would we necessarily be able to even run that version (as
kernels and OSes move forward). That’s sorta also the situation where
you don't want to suddenly have to run back to IBM support because your
DR solution suddenly doesn't work like it says on the tin ;-)</font><br><br><font size=1 face="Calibri">I can test 1 and 2 relatively easily, but
3 is a bit more difficult for us to test out as the FS we want to use SOBAR
on is 4.2 already.</font><br><br><font size=1 face="Calibri">Simon</font><br><br><font size=2 face="Calibri"><b>From: </b><</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss-bounces@spectrumscale.org"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>gpfsug-discuss-bounces@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">>
on behalf of Marc A Kaplan <</font><a href=mailto:makaplan@us.ibm.com><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>makaplan@us.ibm.com</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">><b><br>Reply-To: </b>"</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">"
<</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">><b><br>Date: </b>Friday, 20 January 2017 at 16:57<b><br>To: </b>"</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">"
<</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri">><b><br>Subject: </b>Re: [gpfsug-discuss] SOBAR questions</font><br><br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I worked on some aspects of SOBAR, but
without studying and testing the commands - I'm not in a position right
now to give simple definitive answers - <br>having said that....</font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>Generally your questions are reasonable and the answer is: "Yes it
should be possible to do that, but you might be going a bit beyond the
design point..,<br>so you'll need to try it out on a (smaller) test system with some smaller
tedst files.</font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>Point by point.</font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>1. If SOBAR is unable to restore a particular file, perhaps because the
premigration did not complete -- you should only lose that particular file,<br>and otherwise "keep going". </font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>2. I think SOBAR helps you build a similar file system to the original,
including block sizes. So you'd have to go in and tweak the file
system creation step(s).<br>I think this is reasonable... If you hit a problem... IMO that would be
a fair APAR.</font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>3. Similar to 2.</font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br><br><br><br><br></font><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif"><br>From: </font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Simon
Thompson (Research Computing - IT Services)" <</font><a href=mailto:S.J.Thompson@bham.ac.uk><font size=1 color=blue face="sans-serif"><u>S.J.Thompson@bham.ac.uk</u></font></a><font size=1 face="sans-serif">></font><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif"><br>To: </font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=1 color=blue face="sans-serif"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"
<</font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org"><font size=1 color=blue face="sans-serif"><u>gpfsug-discuss@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=1 face="sans-serif">></font><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif"><br>Date: </font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">01/20/2017
10:44 AM</font><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif"><br>Subject: </font><font size=1 face="sans-serif">[gpfsug-discuss]
SOBAR questions</font><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif"><br>Sent by: </font><a href="mailto:gpfsug-discuss-bounces@spectrumscale.org"><font size=1 color=blue face="sans-serif"><u>gpfsug-discuss-bounces@spectrumscale.org</u></font></a><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br></font><hr noshade><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br><br></font><font size=2 face="Calibri"><br>We've recently been looking at deploying SOBAR to support DR of some of<br>our file-systems, I have some questions (as ever!) that I can't see are<br>clearly documented, so was wondering if anyone has any insight on this.<br><br>1. If we elect not to premigrate certain files, are we still able to use<br>SOBAR? We are happy to take a hit that those files will never be available<br>again, but some are multi TB files which change daily and we can't stream<br>to tape effectively.<br><br>2. When doing a restore, does the block size of the new SOBAR'd to<br>file-system have to match? For example the old FS was 1MB blocks, the new<br>FS we create with 2MB blocks. Will this work (this strikes me as one way<br>we might be able to migrate an FS to a new block size?)?<br><br>3. If the file-system was originally created with an older GPFS code but<br>has since been upgraded, does restore work, and does it matter what client<br>code? E.g. We have a file-system that was originally 3.5.x, its been<br>upgraded over time to 4.2.2.0. Will this work if the client code was say<br>4.2.2.5 (with an appropriate FS version). E.g. Mmlsfs lists, "13.01<br>(3.5.0.0) Original file system version" and "16.00 (4.2.2.0)
Current file<br>system version". Say there was 4.2.2.5 which created version 16.01<br>file-system as the new FS, what would happen?<br><br>This sort of detail is missing from:</font><font size=1 color=blue face="Calibri"><u><br></u></font><a href=https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/STXKQY_4.2.2/com.ibm.spectrum.s><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/STXKQY_4.2.2/com.ibm.spectrum.s</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri"><br>cale.v4r22.doc/bl1adv_sobarrestore.htm<br><br>But is probably quite important for us to know!<br><br>Thanks<br><br>Simon<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>gpfsug-discuss mailing list<br>gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org</font><font size=1 color=blue face="Calibri"><u><br></u></font><a href="http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss</u></font></a><font size=2 face="Calibri"><br></font><font size=1 face="Calibri"><br><br></font><tt><font size=2>_______________________________________________<br>gpfsug-discuss mailing list<br>gpfsug-discuss at spectrumscale.org<br></font></tt><a href="http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss"><tt><font size=2>http://gpfsug.org/mailman/listinfo/gpfsug-discuss</font></tt></a><tt><font size=2><br></font></tt><br><BR>