[gpfsug-discuss] mmbackup monitoring

[Jonathan Buzzard]

On 25/03/2020 16:32, Skylar Thompson wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 04:27:27PM +0000, Jonathan Buzzard wrote:
>> On 25/03/2020 14:15, Skylar Thompson wrote:
>>> We execute mmbackup via a regular TSM client schedule with an incremental
>>> action, with a virtualmountpoint set to an empty, local "canary" directory.
>>> mmbackup runs as a preschedule command, and the client -domain parameter is
>>> set only to backup the canary directory. dsmc will backup the canary
>>> directory as a filespace only if mmbackup succeeds (exits with 0). We can
>>> then monitor the canary and infer the status of the associated GPFS
>>> filespace or fileset.
>>>
>>
>> I prefer this approach I think than grovelling around in log files that
>> could easily break on an update. Though there is a better approach which in
>> my view IBM should be using already in mmbackup.
>>
>> It came to me this afternoon that one could use the TSM API for this. After
>> a bit of Googling I find there is an API call dsmUpdateFS, which allows you
>> to update the filespace information on the TSM server.
>>
>> Fields that you can update include
>>
>> DSM_FSUPD_OCCUPANCY
>> DSM_FSUPD_CAPACITY
>> DSM_FSUPD_BACKSTARTDATE
>> DSM_FSUPD_BACKCOMPLETEDATE
>>
>> Information on the API call here
>>
>> https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ibm.com%2Fsupport%2Fknowledgecenter%2FSSEQVQ_8.1.9%2Fapi%2Fr_cmd_dsmupdatefs.html&data=02%7C01%7Cjonathan.buzzard%40strath.ac.uk%7C8c7605146223442e8a2708d7d0dab99d%7C631e0763153347eba5cd0457bee5944e%7C0%7C0%7C637207510145541248&sdata=QV9U0WxL5BTtR5%2Fasv1X202d9PqnLXZNg5bzX8KpUOo%3D&reserved=0
>>
>> How do we submit this as a feature request again? That said in my view it's
>> a bug in mmbackup. The latest in a very long line stretching back well over
>> a decade that make mmbackup less than production ready rather than a feature
>> request :-)
>>
>> I feel a breakout of a text editor and some C code coming on in the
>> meantime.
> 
> I actually tried using the API years ago to try to do some custom queries,
> and ran into the problem that custom API clients can only see data from
> custom API clients; they can't see data from the standard BA client. I
> contacted IBM about this, and they said it was a safety feature to prevent
> a rogue/poorly-written client from trashing regular backup/archive data,
> which makes some sense. Unfortunately, it does mean that IBM would have to
> be the source of the fix.
> 


Grrr, I had forgotten that. Well then IBM need to fix this.

Bug mmbackup does not update the occupancy, capacity, backup start date 
and backup end date when doing a backup.


JAB.

-- 
Jonathan A. Buzzard                         Tel: +44141-5483420
HPC System Administrator, ARCHIE-WeSt.
University of Strathclyde, John Anderson Building, Glasgow. G4 0NG