DB2 10.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Restrictions for embedded version of Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager

If you are using DB2® Advanced Copy Services (ACS) with the version of Tivoli® Storage FlashCopy® Manager that ships with DB2, you should be aware of some restrictions.

Volume sharing is not supported. If a database partition resides on the same storage volume as any other database partition, snapshot operations are not permitted. In addition, in order to use Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager without a license file (that is, the embedded version) database and log volumes must reside on a file system which supports freeze and thaw requests. Table 1 lists a number of functional restrictions that can be avoided by obtaining a full license for IBM® Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM).

Table 1. Comparison of supported features with the embedded Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager that ships with DB2 with the full version of the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) product
Functional item	Embedded Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager version support	Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager support
Local snapshot backup versions	Maximum of two snapshot versions supported.	No product limit. Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager supports as many versions as the storage device and available resources allow.
Snapshot support integrated with mirroring	No support.	Support for snapshots from either source or target mirror sets for AIX® Logical Volume Manager (LVM) mirroring.
Integrated backup of snapshot image to tape	No integrated support. Traditional and snapshot backups are complementary but not integrated.	Fully integrated support for backup of snapshot image to TSM. A single backup command can drive the snapshot backup together with the backup to TSM.
Backup to tape offloaded from production server	No integrated support for backup to tape.	Fully integrated support for performing backup to TSM from a secondary host.
Integrated backup of Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager repository	No support. External backup can be done when repository is inactive or shut down.	Automatic backup to TSM.

For more information about Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager, consult the most recent documentation at thisdeveloperWorks link.