IBM Support

Linux on IBM Z requirements: IBM Storage Protect Client

Troubleshooting


Problem

Hardware and software requirements for IBM Storage Protect Linux® on IBM Z backup-archive client and API.

 

Resolving The Problem

Hardware and Software Requirements

This document is divided into linked sections. Use the following links to go to the section of the document that you require.


 

Note: IBM Storage Protect backup-archive client support for third-party operating systems, applications, services, and hardware depend on the respective vendor. If a third-party product or version moves into extended support, self-service support, or end-of-life, IBM Storage Protect backup-archive client supports the product or version at the same level as the vendor. See also IBM Support General Guidelines and Limitations - IBM support for software on unsupported operating systems



 

Release 8.1

Note: The product now known as IBM Storage Protect was named IBM Spectrum Protect in levels earlier than 8.1.19. To learn more about the brand change, see IBM Spectrum brand change to IBM Storage.


Hardware
 
System Any z system, as supported by Linux distribution in 64-bit mode
Disk Space 500 MB disk space required to install the client
Note: using the web user interface requires a minimum 4.4 GB disk space (preferred 9 GB disk space)
Memory No extra Random-Access Memory (RAM) is required for product installation. RAM requirements for running the product vary widely and depend on your environment, configuration, and tasks that you fulfill. More RAM might be required to run the product.
Note: using the web user interface requires a minimum 4 GB RAM (preferred 8 GB RAM)

Software
 
Communication Protocol
  • Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which comes standard with Linux
  • Shared Memory (with Linux on IBM Z IBM Spectrum Protect server only)
Operating systems
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11(2)
  • SLES 12
  • SLES 15 (Beginning with 8.1.6)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6(2)
  • RHEL 7
  • RHEL 8 (Beginning with 8.1.9)
  • RHEL 9 (Beginning with 8.1.15)
Note:
  1. Later maintenance levels and service packs are also supported.
  2. Due to security reasons, the backup-archive client 8.1.19 and later packages are built with OpenSSL level 3. On RHEL 6, and SLES 11 those rpm packages are not installable. Therefore, beginning with IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client level 8.1.19, the operating systems RHEL 6, and SLES 11 are no longer supported, see also APAR IT44180.
  3. The operating system kernel in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) versions 7.8 and 8.2 is incompatible with the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client journal-based backup kernel extension. If you are running an earlier version of RHEL with journal-based backups, and then you upgrade to RHEL 7.8 or later, or 8.2 or later, then journal-based backup no longer works. This issue is fixed in the backup-archive client 7.1.8.9 and 8.1.11 on all Linux platforms, see also APAR IT33132.
File system For supported file systems, see: File system and ACL support

Supported IBM Spectrum Scale (previously known as GPFS) versions:
IBM Spectrum Scale
Or later fix pack level		 SLES
Or later service pack and maintenance levels		 RHEL
Or later service pack and maintenance levels
IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.1(Beginning with 8.1.0) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.2 (Beginning with 8.1.0) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3 (Beginning with 8.1.2) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.0 (Beginning with 8.1.4) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.1 (Beginning with 8.1.6) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.2 (Beginning with 8.1.6) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.3 (Beginning with 8.1.7) SLES 12.1 RHEL 7.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.4 (Beginning with 8.1.8) SLES 15 RHEL 8(1)
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5 (Beginning with 8.1.9) SLES 15 RHEL 7.8(2), RHEL 8
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.0 (Beginning with 8.1.11) SLES 15.2 RHEL 7.9, RHEL 8.2
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.1 (Beginning with 8.1.12) SLES 15.2 RHEL 7.9, RHEL 8.3
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.2.1 (Beginning with 8.1.13) SLES 15.3 RHEL 8.4
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.3, and 5.1.4 (Beginning with 8.1.15) SLES 15.3 RHEL 8.5
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.5 (Beginning with 8.1.15) SLES 15.4 RHEL 8.6
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.6 (Beginning with 8.1.17) SLES 15.4 RHEL 9.1
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.1.9 (Beginning with 8.1.21) SLES 15.5 RHEL 9.2
IBM Spectrum Scale 5.2.0 (Beginning with 8.1.22) SLES 15.5 RHEL 9.2
(1) Beginning with 8.1.9
(2) Beginning with IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5.1
Attention: Upgrade to IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client 8.1.11 before you upgrade to IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5 or later. See Flash: (Linux only) Upgrade to IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client 8.1.11 before you upgrade to IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.5 or later.

More Software
 
The web backup-archive client requires Java™: JRE 7 or JRE 8
Note:
  • Backup-archive client 8.1.0: web client is supported when it is running in a Mozilla Firefox browser.
  • Backup-archive client 8.1.2-8.1.7: you can no longer use the web client to connect to the IBM Spectrum Protect 8.1.2 or later 8.1 server or the 7.1.8 or later 7.1 server. For more information, see Using the web client in the new security environment.
  • Backup-archive client 8.1.8 and later: a new web user interface is supported when it is running in a Mozilla Firefox browser.
    Note: The web user interface requires the IBM Spectrum Protect 8.1.2 or later 8.1 server or the 7.1.8 or later 7.1 server.
For EXT2/EXT3/XFS access control list (ACL) support, you need the ACL package.
Linux kernel 5.2 or later introduces the Ext 4 casefold feature. This feature is not supported for backup and restore operations with the 8.1 backup-archive client.
The image backup and restore functions for LVM2 volumes require libdevmapper.so V1.01 or later. If the library is at an older level than required or it is not available, image backups for LVM2 volumes fail.
The libdevmapper.so library is distributed with the device mapper packages. On RHEL, the package is called device-mapper-libs and on SLES it is called device-mapper.
IBM Spectrum Scale - Scale Out backup and restore (SOBAR) supported.
Note:
  • On IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3, you need at least the IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3.5 fix pack.
  • Installation of IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client and IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management client in the same (matching) release level is required.
  • There is no IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management client 8.1.4, use the 8.1.2.1 client (both IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive and IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management) if SOBAR function is needed.
  • For IBM Spectrum Protect for Space Management client requirements, see: Linux on IBM Z HSM requirements.
The function mmbackup in the IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.4 or earlier does not work in combination with the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client 8.1.10. For IBM Spectrum Scale 5.0.4, see APAR IJ22017,  for IBM Spectrum Scale 4.2.3 see APAR IJ22035.
The IBM Global Security Kit (GSKit) provides libraries and utilities for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or the Transport Layer Security (TLS) communication, which is used by IBM Spectrum Protect product components. The GSKit levels included in IBM Spectrum Protect are listed in GSKit levels distributed by IBM Spectrum Protect.



 

End of Support (EOS) releases


Note: The LAN-free client also requires IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Storage Area Networks (5608-SAN).



 

Client Components Offered

Administrative Backup-archive client Space management client
(Beginning with 7.1.4)		 API
Command line interface Graphical user interface
(Beginning with 8.1.10)		 Command line interface Web browser interface Graphical user interface Command line interface Interface
✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ -- ✔ ✔



 

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Product Synonym

IBM Spectrum Protect;

Document Information

Modified date:
03 April 2024

UID

swg21066436

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