TSM Node Replication Steps (IBM Spectrum Protect)

Below are simplified steps for configuring TSM (IBM Spectrum Protect) node replication between a source and target TSM server. These steps aim to help you quickly complete the configuration without encountering errors and perform a quick test. It’s important to note that there are additional options and considerations to explore for a comprehensive understanding and implementation tailored to your specific requirements. The following configuration variables are referenced in the procedures:

Configuration Variables
  Source TSM Server Name:     srctsm01
  Source TSM Server Password: srctsm01_pwd
  Target TSM Server IP:       192.168.1.11

  Source TSM Server Name:     tgttsm01
  Source TSM Server Password: tgttsm01_pwd
  Target TSM Server IP:       192.168.1.12
Step 1. Run DEFINE SERVER for creating TSM server to server communication

At first, Both TSM Server should register themselves. They should know each other by running the command DEFINE SERVER.

1.1. Run below on source TSM server to define itself 
   set servername      srctsm01
   set serverpassword  srctsm01_pwd
   set serverhladdress 192.168.1.11 
   set serverlladdress 1500
   set crossdefine on
   enable session server 

1.2. Run below on target TSM server to define itself 
   set servername      tgttsm01
   set serverpassword  tgttsm01_pwd
   set serverhladdress 192.168.1.12 
   set serverlladdress 1500
   set crossdefine on
   enable session server 

1.3. Run DEFINE SERVER on the source TSM server. This is how to define target TSM server on source TSM server. Since the option crossdefine turned on, you don't need to define server for the Source TSM server on Target TSM server. 
   define server tgttsm01 hladdress=192.168.1.12 lladdress=1500 serverpassword=tgttsm01_pwd

1.4. Validation. Run below command on Source TSM server to run simple command QUERY STATUS
Protect: SRCTSM01> tgttsm01: query status

NOTE! If the validation failed at the step 1.4, there’s a high chance the TSM server certificates are not exchanged and properly installed for both TSM servers. Please refer to the link for the steps of How to exchange SSL certificate for TSM server to server communication(IBM Spectrum Protect)

Step 2. Set the replication target TSM server on source TSM server

Run on Source TSM server

2.1 Run below command to set the target replication TSM server. 
    set replserver tgttsm01

2.2 Run QUERY STATUS and validate the target TSM server name.
    Target Replication Server: tgttsm01     <--- Find the line from QUARY STATUS output 
Step 3. Enable replication on source TSM server

Run on Source TSM server

3.1 Run below command to set replication target TSM server. 
    enable replication

3.2 Run QUERY STATUS and validate the outbound replication enabled. 
    Outbound Replication: Enabled     <--- Find the line from QUARY STATUS output 
Step 4. Enable replication on TSM client nodes

Run on Source TSM server

4.1 Run below command to set replication target TSM server. 
    update node tsmclient01 replstate=enabled
    update node * replstate=enabled    <--- when updating all TSM client nodes' replication to be enabled. 
Step 5. Validate replication relationship on source TSM server
5.1 Run below command to validate TSM client node replication relationship
    validate replication tsmclient01,tsmclient02,...   verify connection=yes 
Step 6. Execute TSM client node replication
6.1 Run below command to start replication
    replicate node tsmclient01 
    replicate node tsmclient02,tsmclient03,tsmclient04,... <--- You can execute the replication for multiple clients at one line of command. 
    
6.2 Run below commands to replicate nodes by group
    define nodegroup repl_group01
    define nodegroupmember repl_group01 tsmclient01,tsmclient02,tsmclient03,...
    replicate node repl_group01

Considerations

1. Early version of TSM node replication method ensures that TSM client backup retention on source/target TSM server must be the same so that policy domain on Target TSM server should match with source TSM server as well. However, since TSM Server version 7.1.1, it started to support a different backup policy on target TSM server so that you can maintain more or fewer versions of replicated backup files between the source and target replication servers.

validate replpolicy
set dissimilarpolicies on   ###By default, it's off
query replserver $target_tsm_server

2. Cascading TSM node replication is not supported. Replicating TSM client node from the source TSM server to multiple target TSM Servers is supported in a sequential manner. But cascading the replication of TSM client node is not supported. For example, replicating the node from tsmsver01 to tsmserver02 is okay but cascading from tsmserver02 to tsmserver03 is not supported. The replication mode of TSM client node must be “Send” in order to replicate. The replication mode of TSM client node on the target TSM server is “Receive”.

3. After TSM server database recovery, by default replication is disabled. You must enable it manually.

enable replication
enable session server $target_tsm_server direction=both

4. You can replicate TSM client node from one TSM server platform to another. That way, often, TSM client node replication is being leveraged when re-platforming TSM server operating system such as from AIX to Linux, Windows to AIX. Node replication is oblivious to what operating system that TSM server runs.

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