IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) guest support for Virtual Machines and Virtualization

The support position and restrictions for Tivoli Storage Manager products running inside virtual machine guest operating systems and through virtualization is listed below.

Note for all virtualization technologies:

• The guest must be running an operating system supported by the TSM product. See Related URLs below for the TSM product Operating System support pages.
• TSM products and components which rely on other IBM and third-party products will only be supported if the requisite IBM and third-party components are also supported by the virtualized environment. Examples of these dependencies are listed but not limited to the following:
  • For the TSM Server product, IBM DB2 must also support running within the virtualized environment
  • For the Data Protection products, the application being protected must also support running on that operating system inside a guest
  • For TSM for Copy Services products using a Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) provider for creation of VSS snapshots, the VSS provider must also support the virtualized environment.

Links to virtualized environment sections below:

Physical and Virtual Partitions

VMware ESX and ESXi Guest
z/VM Hypervisor Guest
Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Guest
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)

IBM Workload Partitions for AIX (WPAR)
Solaris Containers

Physical and Virtual Partitions

All TSM products and components are supported on physical machines that have been physically or virtually partitioned such that each partition is provisioned with dedicated, discrete resources (CPU, memory, I/O).

Some examples of such supported physical or virtual partitions:

• IBM Logical Partitions (LPAR)
• IBM Dynamic Logical Partitions (DLPAR)
• IBM System z Processor Resource/System Manager (PR/SM)
• HP nPartitions
• HP vPartitions
• Sun Dynamic System Domains (DSD)

If other virtualization technologies are used in conjunction with the physical or virtual partitions, such that the resources are then purely virtual (not dedicated) and/or are not discrete, you must use the support tables below for that virtualization technology to determine whether TSM products or components are supported in that environment.


VMware ESX and ESXi Guest

The support position for the following TSM products and components is for backup and recovery within the VMware ESX virtual guest. This includes all versions of ESX and ESXi currently supported by VMware. A separate Technote details the TSM client backup support using VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) or backups from the ESX Service Console OS.

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server TSM Administration Center TSM Reporting and Monitoring	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment No support for attached tape drivers or tape libraries, either virtual or physically attached No support for LAN-Free data movement to tape or disk
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	No	No support
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM HSM for Windows clients	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM for Mail (DP for Domino, DP for Exchange)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle, DP for SQL)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Copy Services	Yes	Supports Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)-based backups Instant restore and off-loaded (transportable) backups must be supported by the VSS hardware provider
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	Yes (Linux only)	Only network attached volumes are supported within Linux virtualized environments Product components may only support a subset of supported ESX/ESXi Linux platforms. Platform support information can be found in this Technote
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM FastBack	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM for SysBack	Not applicable	Not applicable

z/VM Hypervisor Guest

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server TSM Administration Center TSM Reporting and Monitoring	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment Attached tape drivers, attached tape libraries, and LAN-Free data movement to tape support requires IBM Linux on System z 900, IBM Linux on System z 800, or IBM Linux on System z 990 server
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	No	No support
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM HSM for Windows clients	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Mail (DP for Domino, DP for Exchange)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement Not applicable to DP for Exchange
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle, DP for SQL)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement Not applicable to DP for SQL
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Copy Services	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM FastBack	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for SysBack	Not applicable	Not applicable

Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Guest
The support position for the following TSM products and components is for backup and recovery within the virtual guest.

Backups of the Hyper-V virtual machines from the parent partition using Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) is supported using the Tivoli Storage Manager Windows Backup-Archive client Version 6.2 and above. See the IBM Tivoli Storage Management Information Center for more information about this topic.

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment No support for attached tape drivers or tape libraries, either virtual or physically attached No support for LAN-Free data movement to tape or disk No support for TSM Administration Center No support for TSM Reporting and Monitoring
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	No	No support
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM HSM for Windows clients	No	No support
TSM for Mail (DP for Domino, DP for Exchange)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle, DP for SQL)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Copy Services	Yes	Supports Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)-based backups Instant restore and off-loaded (transportable) backups must be supported by the VSS hardware provider
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	Yes (Linux only)	Only network attached volumes are supported within Linux virtualized environments Product components may only support a subset of supported Hyper-V platforms. Platform support information can be found in this Technote
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM FastBack	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM for SysBack	Not applicable	Not applicable

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM)
The support position for the following TSM products and components is for backup and recovery within the virtual guest.

The Tivoli Storage Manager Backup-Archive client does not provide integrated backups of KVM virtual machine images from the Linux host environment. Customers who wish to use the Backup-Archive client on the Linux KVM host to backup and recover virtual machine images must ensure that the images are placed in a consistent state before the backup (for example, by suspending the virtual guest machine) to ensure that the data will be recoverable.

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment No support for attached tape drivers or tape libraries, either virtual or physically attached No support for LAN-Free data movement to tape or disk No support for TSM Administration Center No support for TSM Reporting and Monitoring Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) KVM only supports TSM Server in RHEL guests SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) KVM only supports TSM Server in SLES guests
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	No	No support
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM HSM for Windows clients	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM for Mail (DP for Domino, DP for Exchange)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement.
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle, DP for SQL)	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Yes	No support for LAN-Free data movement
TSM for Copy Services	Yes	Supports Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)-based backups Instant restore and off-loaded (transportable) backups must be supported by the VSS hardware provider
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	Yes (Linux only)	Only network attached volumes are supported within Linux virtualized environments Product components may only support a subset of supported KVM Linux platforms. Platform support information can be found in this Technote
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Yes	No known restrictions
TSM FastBack	No	No support
TSM for SysBack	Not applicable	Not applicable

IBM Workload Partitions for AIX (WPAR)

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment Supported with non-shared System WPARs No support for shared System WPARs No support for global environments or Application WPARs Support for tape devices and libraries in a WPAR is documented in this Technote No support for LAN-Free data movement to tape or disk No support for TSM Administration Center No support for TSM Reporting and Monitoring
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	Supported in global environments Supported with non-shared System WPARs Supported with shared System WPARs1 No support for Application WPARs No support for image backup No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	Yes	Support for tape devices and libraries in a WPAR is documented in this Technote
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Yes	Space Management can only be installed in global environments Data migrated from the global environment can be transparently recalled from a system WPAR No support for non-shared System WPARs No support for shared System WPARs No support for Application WPARs
TSM HSM for Windows clients	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Mail (DP for Domino)	Yes	Supported in global environments Supported with non-shared System WPARs Supported with shared System WPARs1 No support for Application WPARs
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle)	Yes	Supported in global environments Supported with non-shared System WPARs Supported with shared System WPARs1 No support for Application WPARs
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Yes	Supported in global environments Supported with non-shared System WPARs Supported with shared System WPARs1 No support for Application WPARs
TSM for Copy Services	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	No	No support
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM FastBack	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for SysBack	Yes	Supported in global environments Limited support with non-shared System WPARs Limited support with shared System WPARs1 Limited support means to back up and restore the data located within a WPAR with SysBack's File / Directory backup option only (i.e./usr/sbin/mkdirback). No support to use SysBack to boot / reinstall / recreate the WPAR or to recreate LVM or file system structures inside of the WPAR

¹ Tivoli Storage Manager logs and configuration files must be defined to non-default locations


Solaris Containers

TSM PRODUCT/COMPONENT	SUPPORT?	ADDITIONAL SUPPORT INFORMATION
TSM Server	Yes	IBM can make no guarantees with respect to the performance and scalability in a virtualized environment Full TSM Server support in global zone Non-global Whole Root zone support for LAN-free and tape drives; no support for SAN discovery No support for non-global Sparse Zone No support for TSM Administration Center No support for TSM Reporting and Monitoring
TSM Backup-Archive and API clients	Yes	Supported in global and non-global zones No support for image backup No support for backupset restore from tape
TSM Storage Agent	Yes	Supported in global and non-global Whole Root zones No support for non-global Sparse zones No support for SAN discovery in non-global Whole Root zones
TSM UNIX HSM (Space Management) clients	Yes	Space Management can only be installed in the global zone and not in non-global zones Data migrated from the global zone can be transparently recalled from a non-global zone
TSM HSM for Windows clients	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Mail - DP for Domino	Yes	Supported in global and non-global zones
TSM for Mail - DP for Exchange	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Databases (DP for Oracle, DP for SQL)	Yes	Supported in global and non-global zones. However, DP for Oracle non-global zones are only supported with the use of non-RAC Oracle databases, as that is what Oracle supports
TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning	Yes	Supported in global and non-global zones
TSM for Copy Services	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for Advanced Copy Services	No	No support
TSM FastBack for Workstations / CDP for Files	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM FastBack	Not applicable	Not applicable
TSM for SysBack	Not applicable	Not applicable