Administrator's Guide

Automating a Basic Client Operation

To automate client operations, you can define a new schedule or update an existing schedule. 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. The example uses ADSM defaults. To later update or tailor your schedules, see "Tailoring Schedules".

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).

Defining the Client Schedule

To define a schedule for 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 weekly_backup

This command results in the following:

• Schedule WEEKLY_BACKUP is defined for policy domain ENGPOLDOM.

• The following defaults are in effect:

  • The scheduled action is an incremental backup (the default action).

  • The priority for the operation is 5. If schedules conflict, the schedule with the highest priority (lowest number) is run first.

  • The schedule window begins now and the schedule itself has 1 hour to start.

  • The start window is scheduled every day.

  • The schedule never expires.

To change the defaults, see "Tailoring Schedules".

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:

• Policy domain to which the schedule belongs
• List of client nodes to be associated with the schedule

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 ADSM administrator can be initiated.

To start the client scheduler, the client must issue the SCHEDULE command provided with the ADSM 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 ADSM 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.

Verifying the Schedule

You can verify what you have scheduled by using the QUERY SCHEDULE command. 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:

• Schedule name
• Policy domain name
• Type of operation to be performed
• Start date and time for the initial startup window
• Duration of the startup window
• Time period between startup windows
• Day of the week on which scheduled operations can begin

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 07/21/1997 12:45:14      2 H    2 Mo Sat |
|ENGPOLDOM      WEEKLY_BACKUP    Inc Bk 07/21/1997 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 Scheduled Event Records".