IT20236: B/A CLIENT ON LINUX MAY BACKUP AUTOMOUNT FILE SYSTEMS AS DIRECTORIES BENEATH THE ROOT FILE SYSTEM

IBM Spectrum Protectâ„¢ Client 8.1.2 Downloads and READMEs
IBM Spectrum Protectâ„¢ Client 7.1.8 Downloads and READMEs

APAR status

• Closed as program error.

Error description

• During an incremental or selective backup operation, the IBM
  Spectrum Protect B/A client on Linux may incorrectly backup
  automount file systems.  The automount file systems are backed
  up as directories beneath the root file system and, thus, they
  are not excluded via the DOMAIN statement (e.g. ALL-LOCAL) as
  expected.  The automount file systems will only be backed up if
  they are not mounted at the time of the backup, either manually
  or via the AUTOMOUNT parameter.
  
  IBM Spectrum Protect Versions Affected:
  The problem affects IBM Spectrum Protect client versions 7.1.6
  (and higher) and 8.1.0 running on non-systemd based Linux
  distributions like RHEL 5.x/6.x and SLES 10.x/SLES 11.x.
  
  Initial Impact:
  Medium
  
  Additional Keywords:
  automount automounter nfs btrfs IT16782 IT13998 IT13933
  
  | MDVREGR 7.1.6.0-TIV_5698MCL |
  

Local fix

• Most users can circumvent this problem behavior by creating an
  AUTOMOUNT definition in the client options file for each
  automount file system, as is documented in APAR IT16782.  The
  AUTOMOUNT parameter will attempt to ensure that each automount
  file system is mounted at the time of the backup.  In some
  environments, due to the large number of automount maps, it may
  not be viable to define an unique AUTOMOUNT entry for each
  automount file system.  An alternative circumvention would be to
  define an exclude.dir statement to exclude the parent directory
  under which the automount file systems are mounted.  For
  example, in environments where the -hosts map is used to
  automount file systems beneath the /net directory, the following
  exclude.dir statement can be defined:
  
  exclude.dir /net
  
  This statement would prevent any automount filesystems mounted
  beneath the /net directory (e.g. /net/home, /net/test) from
  being backed up.
  

Problem summary

• ****************************************************************
  * USERS AFFECTED:                                              *
  * Spectrum Protect backup-archive client versions 7.1 and 8.1  *
  * on all Linux platforms.                                      *
  ****************************************************************
  * PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:                                         *
  * See ERROR DESCRIPTION.                                       *
  ****************************************************************
  * RECOMMENDATION:                                              *
  * Apply fixing level when available. This problem is projected *
  * to be fixed in levels 7.1.8 and 8.1.2 on all Linux           *
  * platforms. Note that this is subject to change at the        *
  * discretion of IBM.                                           *
  ****************************************************************
  *
  

Problem conclusion

• Upon the fix, "autofs" mount points' directories and automounted
  file systems will be processed as follows:
  - the directories which are created by the automounter to form
  the mount point for an automounted file system and which belong
  to an appropriate "autofs" file system will be backed up to the
  file space on the server side that corresponds to the "autofs"
  file system (like '/net', '/misc' etc);
  - the file system automounted on such mount point will be backed
  up to the file space on the server side that corresponds to the
  mount point.
  Note: to be included into an appropriate domain like
  'ALL-AUTO-NFS' or 'ALL-AUTO-LOFS', the automounted file system
  should still be configured via an appropriate AUTOMOUNT option
  (for more details, see "Automounted file systems" subsection of
  the DOMAIN option description in the "Installation and User's
  Guide" client manual).
  

Temporary fix

Comments

APAR Information

• APAR is sysrouted FROM one or more of the following:

• APAR is sysrouted TO one or more of the following:

Modules/Macros

• dsmc
  

Fix information

• Fixed component name

  TSM CLIENT

• Fixed component ID

  5698ISMCL

Applicable component levels

• R71L PSY

     UP

• R81L PSY

     UP