BRMS

How do I setup to use TCP/IP for my BRMS network?

With V5R1 or later, you can now use native TCP/IP for the BRMS Networking Feature.

Perform the following steps to enable a BRMS networked system for TCP/IP operations.

Step 1: Check TCP/IP

Use the following command to verify TCP/IP is running on each of the systems in the BRMS network:

PING RMTSYS(remote-system-name)

If TCP/IP is not running, then you will need to configure and/or start TCP/IP.

Step 2: SET TCP/IP DDM Connection Security

You need to determine whether you intend to use secured or non-secured DDM connections to the remote systems in the BRMS network. In order to use a non-secured DDM connection, the user id must exist on the remote system, although the user's password will not be validated. To use a secured DDM connection the user id and password must be the same on both the local and remote systems. You may want to review this setup with your site security administrator before taking specific actions.

For Non-secured DDM connections:

Use the following command to change the TCP/IP DDM attributes for non-secured operations:

CHGDDMTCPA PWDRQD(*NO)

If you are going from a secured DDM connection to a non-secured DDM connection make sure to remove the server authentication entries. Use the following command to remove server Authentication entries for each user

RMVSVRAUTE USRPRF(user-profile)
SERVER(QDDMSERVER)

NOTE: "QDDMSERVER" must be uppercase!

Go to step 3:

For Secured DDM connection:

Use the following command to change the TCP/IP DDM attributes for secured operations:

CHGDDMTCPA PWDRQD(*YES)

Automated secure TCP/IP DDM operations are not possible if authentication passwords cannot be stored. Use the following command to change the QRETSVRSEC system value so that passwords used for authentication can be stored on the system:

CHGSYSVAL QRETSVRSEC VALUE('1')

Use the following command to add server authentication entries for each user who will be authorized to perform secured TCP/IP operations to the remote systems:

ADDSVRAUTE USRPRF(user-profile)
SERVER(QDDMSERVER)
USRID(remote-system-userid)
PASSWORD(remote-system-password)

NOTE: "QDDMSERVER" must be uppercase!

Use the following command to add a server authentication entry for the QBRMS user profile. (This user profile is used for network syncronization. )

ADDSVRAUTE USRPRF(QBRMS)
SERVER(QDDMSERVER)
USRID(remote-system-userid)
PASSWORD(remote-system-password)

NOTE: "QDDMSERVER" must be uppercase!

If the remote-system-userid does not have *ALLOBJ special authority then the user should have QBRMS as a group profile and special authority must be *NONE. Use the following command on the remote system to change user's profile.

CHGUSRPRF USRPRF(remote-system-userid) GRPPRF(QBRMS)

In addition, the remote system user should have *USE authority to the CRTDDMF command on the current system.

A server authorization entry can be removed using the RMVSVRAUTE command or changed using the CHGSVRAUTE command. See the CL Reference manual for a complete description of these commands and command parameters.

Note: There can only be one server authorization entry for a user no matter what remote system is specified. This means that for a user to access multiple systems in the network, that user's id and password must be the same on all BRMS networked systems.

Step 3: Configure the TCP/IP DDM Server Automatic Restart

Use the following command to change the TCP/IP DDM server attributes if you want the server automatically started when TCP/IP is started:

CHGDDMTCPA AUTOSTART(*YES)

Step 4: Starting and Ending the DDM Server

Use the following command to end the TCP/IP DDM server if you changed any of the attributes:

ENDTCPSVR SERVER(*DDM)

Use the following command to start the TCP/IP DDM server:

STRTCPSVR SERVER(*DDM)

Step 5: Enable BRMS to use TCP/IP

On a V5R1 system use the following command to create a specific data area object that BRMS uses to determine whether or not to perform TCP/IP operations:

CRTDTAARA DTAARA(QUSRBRM/Q1ATCPIP) TYPE(*CHAR) LEN(1) TEXT('TCP/IP Enabled system')

On a V5R2 and above system use the following command to enable TCP/IP.

WRKPCYBRM TYPE(*SYS)

Select option 4 to Change network group
Enter *YES in Enable for TCP/IP and press Enter.

Note: Customers upgrading from V5R1 also need to make this change even if they were using TCP/IP in V5R1.

Step 6: Setup BRMS network.

Refer to the BRMS User Guide, Chapter 13, Networking with BRMS for instructions on how to set up a BRMS network.

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 How do I enable/disable SNA for my BRMS network?

Use the following commands to enable or disable the SNA network for a specified system or for all systems that currently exist in your BRMS network.

QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('ALIASNAME' '5' '*SNA' '*ENABLE' 'SYSTEM_NAME')

QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('ALIASNAME' '5' '*SNA' '*DISABLE' 'SYSTEM_NAME')

Where 'SYSTEM_NAME' specifies the name of the system for which you want to enable or disable the SNA network. SYSTEM_NAME is specified as nnnnnnnn.cccccccc or cccccccc where nnnnnnnn is the network identifier and cccccccc is the system name.

*ALL can be specified as the 'SYSTEM_NAME' if you want to enable or disable the SNA network for all the systems that currently exist in your BRMS network. Prior to the application of SI16658 (V5R3), SI16659 (V5R2) or SI16655 (V5R1), the *DISABLE *ALL will only apply to systems that are currently in the BRMS network. After applying the above PTFs, issuing

QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('ALIASNAME' '5' '*SNA' '*DISABLE' '*ALL')

will also apply to any new systems that are subsequently added to the BRMS network and prevent the SNA network from ever being used.

NOTE:
1. You must issue these commands on all of the systems in your BRMS network.
2. All parameters for this command must be entered in uppercase.

On a V6R1 and above systems, use the following command to disable SNA.

WRKPCYBRM TYPE(*SYS)

Select option 4 to Change network group

Enter one of the following options for Communication method and press enter:

*AVAIL - BRMS will attempt to use TCP/IP first, but if that is unsuccessful, BRMS will then attempt to use SNA for its network operations.

*IP - BRMS is enabled to use TCP/IP for its network operations only.

*SNA - BRMS is enabled to use SNA for its network operations only.

Note: Customers upgrading from lower releases also need to make this change even if they had previously run the commands.

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 How do I setup to use TCP/IP or Virtual IP Address (VIPA) in restricted state?

You may want to review this with your site network administrator before taking specific actions.

When you are running SAVSYS backup procedures, the operating system must be in restricted state. In a shared media inventory, if the current system does not have any volumes available, then BRMS needs to communicate with the remote systems for volume selection. In order to do this while in restricted state, BRMS will need to start the TCP/IP or VIPA interfaces that will be used to communicate with the remote systems. You will need to specify those interfaces to BRMS.

On V5R2M0 and above systems use the following command to specify the TCP/IP or VIPA interfaces that BRMS is to use during restricted state.

QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('TCPIPIFC' '*ADD' 'interface')
QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('TCPIPIFC' '*REMOVE' 'interface')

Where:
The interface is the internet address of the system from which you issued this command and which you are using to communicate with the remote systems. Specify the interface in the form of nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

Example:
QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('TCPIPIFC' '*ADD' '19.71.1.28')

Note: BRMS will not start any TCP/IP interfaces if the system is not completely in restricted state. Therefore any user-defined exit that is used to bring system to restricted state must make sure that system is completely in restricted state before starting the backup process.

Note: You can specify multiple interfaces by issuing the QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('TCPIPIFC' '*ADD' 'interface') command multiple times.

Once this command is run, it need not be run again unless you want to disable or re-enable restricted state TCP/IP.

Restrictions:
The following restrictions apply when the operating system is running in restricted state:

1. The interface must use a line description of type *ELAN, *TRLAN or *DDI.
   (To view the line type for your interface, at a command line interface enter CFGTCP and select option 1 - Work with TCP/IP interfaces.)
   
   
2. The line description may not be attached to an NWID or NWSD.
   (To verify the interface is not attached to a NWID or NWSD, from a command line interface enter DSPLIND lindesc (where lindesc is the name of your line description). Verify that the Resource name is not *NWID or *NWSD.)
   
   
3. BRMS can only start one interface per line description type.
   
   
4. BRMS needs to be at V5R2 or higher in order to use this function.
   
   
5. The system has to be in restricted state for this to work. If any subsystems are started after going into a restricted state, this will function will not work.
   
   
6. To verify the IP address entered, run this command:
   
   DSPDTAARA DTAARA(QUSRBRM/Q1ATCPIFC)

For more information, please visit the System i and i5/OS Information Center.

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 How do I setup an RDB directory entry for my BRMS network?

The BRMS networking feature uses relational database (RDB) entries for BRMS networked systems.

Use the following command on each system in your BRMS network to verify that RDB entries already exist for all of your remote systems on every system in the network.

WRKRDBDIRE RDB(*ALL)

All systems in your BRMS network must have an entry in the RDB directory. If an entry does not exist for any system name then you need to add a relational database entry, using the ADDRDBDIRE command, specifying the relational database, the remote location and the type of connection - either *SNA or *IP.

If the relational database (RDB) entry name does not match the system name specified in the BRMS network then you need to specify a relational database (RDB) entry name to be used for that system.

On V5R3 and above systems, you can use iSeries Navigator to specify a relational database (RDB) entry name.

The following steps are used to specify the required relational database (RDB) entry name using iSeries Navigator:

1. Open iSeries Navigator.
2. Expand My Connections.
3. Expand your iSeries Server.
4. Click on Backup, Recovery and Media Services.
5. Select Display global policy properties.
6. Select the Network tab.
7. Select Manage Systems.
8. Select required system and click Edit Button.
9. Enter required Relational database entry name.
10. Click OK to accept and apply the specified changes or Cancel.

Customers not using iSeries Navigator can use the following command on V5R1 and above systems to specify the relational database (RDB) entry name.

QSYS/CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('ALIASNAME' '6' '*DRDA' 'SYSTEM_NAME' 'NETWORK_ID' 'RDB_ENTRY')

Where:
SYSTEM_NAME specifies the name of the system in the BRMS network
NETWORK_ID specifies the name of the network ID for the specified system
RDB_ENTRY specifies the relational database (RDB) entry that is reported by WRKRDBDIRE RDB(*ALL) for the system.

Note: These steps should be performed on all systems when you add any new system in BRMS network.

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 How do I remove a system from my BRMS network?

Step 1:

On the system that you are removing from the network, issue the following command:

WRKPCYBRM TYPE(*SYS)

and select option 4 to Change network group.

This will bring up the Change Network Group panel. Select option 4 (Remove) for all network entries on the Change Network Group panel.

Step 2:

On one of the systems remaining in the network group, issue the following command:

WRKPCYBRM TYPE(*SYS)

and select option 4 to Change network group.

Select option 4 (Remove) for the system name being removed from the network group on the Change Network Group panel. This removes the system name from all systems remaining in the network group.

When selecting option 4 (Remove), you are transferred to the Confirm Remove of Network Systems panel. You should select *YES for the Remove media field if you do not want the rest of the systems to have any information about media owned by the system being removed. If you want one of the remaining systems to assume ownership of these volumes, use the *RENAME option.

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