Backing up your system

Backup control groups allow you to control and manage your backup operations.

One of the advantages of using Backup, Recovery, and Media Services (BRMS) is that you can use global settings and backup control groups to control your backups and other operations. Global settings control how your system processes backups in a general way.

A backup control group is a group of defaults that controls what information is saved, how it is saved, and where it is saved. After you set up your backup control groups, you can run them at any time or schedule them to run at particular times. This way, you can ensure that your backups are complete and are done when it is most convenient and appropriate for your business.

Several basic backup control groups are included with BRMS. You might be able to meet your backup needs by using these control groups, either alone or in combination. If so, you might not have to create any control groups of your own.

When you back up data using a BRMS backup control group, information about each item backed up is stored in the save history. This information includes the item name, type of save operation done on that item, the date of the save operation, and the volume on which each item is saved. You specify the level of detail you want to track for each item in the properties for the control group. You can then restore items by selecting them from the save history. The information in the save history is also used for full system recoveries.

The IBM® Systems Director web environment plugin for BRMS includes a simplified interface for BRMS. It provides actions to save your system and user data, and restore previously saved items. Also, a summary of the most recent full system save is shown. The summary section includes the date and time of the save and actions to view the BRMS log and history associated with the recent save. This new dialog is intended to guide BRMS users to the basic functions BRMS provides.