Tivoli Storage Manager for Sun Solaris Administrator's Guide


Automating a Basic Client Operation

To automate client operations, you can define new schedules. To later modify, copy, and delete these schedules, see Chapter 14, Managing Scheduling Operations for Client Nodes.

When you define a schedule, you assign it to a specific policy domain. You can define more than one schedule for each policy domain.

This section describes how to automate a basic client operation, incremental backup.

To set up a client schedule on the server:

  1. Define a schedule (DEFINE SCHEDULE command).
  2. Associate client nodes with the schedule (DEFINE ASSOCIATION command).
  3. Ensure that the clients start the client scheduler to use the server's schedule.
  4. Verify the schedule (QUERY SCHEDULE and QUERY EVENT commands).

Task Required Privilege Class
Define client schedules System or unrestricted policy
Define client schedules for specific policy domains System, unrestricted policy, or restricted policy for those domains
Display information about scheduled operations Any administrator

Defining Client Schedules

To define a schedule for daily incremental backups, use the DEFINE SCHEDULE command. You must specify the policy domain to which the schedule belongs and the name of the schedule (the policy domain must already be defined). For example:

define schedule engpoldom daily_backup starttime=21:00 
duration=2 durunits=hours

This command results in the following:

To change the defaults, see the DEFINE SCHEDULE command in the Administrator's Reference.

Associating Client Nodes with Schedules

Client nodes process operations according to the schedules associated with the nodes. To associate client nodes with a schedule, use the DEFINE ASSOCIATION command. A client node can be associated with more than one schedule. However, a node must be assigned to the policy domain to which a schedule belongs.

After a client schedule is defined, you can associate client nodes with it by identifying the following information:

To associate the ENGNODE client node with the WEEKLY_BACKUP schedule, both of which belong to the ENGPOLDOM policy domain, enter:

define association engpoldom weekly_backup engnode

Starting the Scheduler on the Clients

The client scheduler must be started before work scheduled by the administrator can be initiated.

To start the client scheduler, the client must issue the SCHEDULE command provided with the TSM backup-archive client. For example, on an OS/2 client, issue the following command:

> dsmc schedule

The client can choose to start the client scheduler when the operating system is started, or can start it at any appropriate time. For example, an OS/2 client can include the SCHEDULE command in the startup.cmd file to start the client scheduler when the operating system is started.

For more information, refer to the appropriate Using the Backup-Archive Client.

After the client node starts the client scheduler, it continues to run and initiates scheduled events until it is stopped.

Creating Command Files to Run on Schedules

Application clients and Tivoli Data Protection host servers require schedules that can run command files. The command files (also known as a macro or batch file on other operating systems) contain sequences of commands that are run at a scheduled start date and time. The default schedules are not set up to support command files.

Administrators must create schedules with the ACTION=COMMAND parameter to support command files. For example, using the DEFINE SCHEDULE command, define a schedule called daily_incr that will process a command file called c:\incr.cmd:

define schedule standard daily_incr description="daily incremental file" 
action=command objects="c:\incr.cmd" starttime=18:00 duration=5 
durunits=minutes period=1 preunits=day dayofweek=any 

Assuming that the scheduler is started on the client, application client or Tivoli Data Protection host server directory, the schedule runs the file called c:\incr.cmd once a day at 6:00 pm, any day of the week.

Displaying the Scheduling Information

You can verify the status of scheduled operations by displaying scheduling information. This includes information about schedules and information about scheduled operations called events. You can check whether the schedule ran successfully by using the QUERY EVENT command.

When you request information about schedules, the server displays the following information:

The following sample output shows an example of a report that is displayed after you enter:

query schedule engpoldom


+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Domain       * Schedule Name    Action Start Date/Time      Duration Period Day |
|------------ - ---------------- ------ -------------------- -------- ------ --- |
|ENGPOLDOM      MONTHLY_BACKUP   Inc Bk 07/21/1998 12:45:14      2 H    2 Mo Sat |
|ENGPOLDOM      WEEKLY_BACKUP    Inc Bk 07/21/1998 12:46:21      4 H    1 W  Sat |
|                                                                                |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Checking whether the Schedule Completed Successfully

A scheduled client operation, called an event, is tracked by the server. You can get information about projected and actual scheduled processes by using a general query. You can get information about scheduled processes that did not complete successfully by using exception reporting.

For example, you can issue the following command to find out which events were missed in the ENGPOLDOM policy domain for the WEEKLY_BACKUP schedule in the previous week:

query event engpoldom weekly_backup begindate=-7 begintime=now
enddate=today endtime=now exceptionsonly=yes

For more information about managing event records, see Managing Event Records.


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