Back up to Softlayer using ON-Bar and the PSM

You can use ON-Bar and the Primary Storage Manager to back up and restore data to or from the Softlayer Object Storage. You are responsible for terms and any charges associated with your use of the Softlayer.

Before you begin

Prerequisites:

  • You must have a Softlayer account to perform cloud storage backups. See the Softlayer website for instructions about setting up an account.

About this task

The following steps show how to back up data to the Softlayer System and restore from it by using ON-Bar and the PSM. In this context, cloud storage refers to an online storage service over the Internet. If you choose to back up to cloud storage, you do not need to provide tapes. Instead, you back up the data to a virtual device, most likely located on the Internet.

Procedure

  1. Create an Account Name.
    1. Using a web browser, navigate to the Softlayer website and log on.
    2. Select Storage tab and click Object Storage.
    3. Click Order Object Storage.
    4. Select Storage type and click Continue.
    5. In the Confirm Order page, accept the Master Service Agreement and click Place Order.
    The account is created. Now, you can retrieve the credentials which will include an authentication endpoint (URL) both private and public, a username, and a Key or password.
    Note: If you have a machine with access to the internal private network to Softlayer, you should use the private URL if not, you should use the public one.
  2. The PSM command line will request you to provide a container, you can provide any name you want, the container does not need to be created in the SOFTLAYER GUI, it will be created automatically by PSM.
  3. Configure Primary Storage Manager.
    Create a device in PSM of type CLOUD using SWIFT as provider.
    onpsm -D add SOFTLAYER1 \
    -g DBSPOOL \
    -p HIGHEST \
    -t CLOUD \
    --url https://dal05.objectstorage.softlayer.net/auth/v1.0 \
    --provider SWIFT \
    --user IBM33456-2:arturo_cavero  \ 
    --password bc076837ba9959859c306051c1cda7fb2fe3f012cba15a60c \
    --container ifmx_dev \
    --max_part_size 25600
    
    In this command line:
    1. SOFTLAYER1, is the arbitrary name given to this device. With FILE type devices, this is actually the full path of the directory that will store the data, but in the case of CLOUD type devices, it is just any name that will help you organize your devices. This name and the pool (DBSPOOL in this case) must be unique.
    2. ‘-t CLOUD’, is the device type that enable PSM to store/retrieve the data to/from a CLOUD infrastructure.
    3. ‘--provider SWIFT’, is the target cloud provider (Softlayer) in this case. At present, only SWIFT (OpenStack SWIFT ) is supported.
    4. ‘--url https://dal05.objectstorage.softlayer.net/auth/v1.0 is the URL where your backups will go.
    5. --user IBM33456-2:arturo_cavero, for SWIFT is the User Name provided to you when your user was created.
    6. --password bc076837ba9959859c306051c1cda7fb2fe3f012cba15a60c, for SWIFT is the Secret Key provided to you when the user was created.
    7. --container ifmx_-dev is the Softlayer container.
    8. —-max_part_size 25600 will fragment your objects in 25MB pieces, in the case of SWIFT, size between 25 and 100 MB is recommended.
  4. Check the created device:
    $ onpsm -D list                                                                                                                                                      
    
    Informix Primary Storage Manager Device List
    
    Type   Prio     Block/Size (MB)  Pool Name     Device Name
    CLOUD  HIGHEST      --/--        DBSPOOL       SOFTLAYER1
    
    CLOUD  HIGHEST      --/--        LOGPOOL       SOFTLAYER1
    
  5. Take a Level Zero Backup:
    $ onbar -b -L 0 -w
    
    $ echo $?
    
    $ 0
    
  6. Check Backup Data in your Bucket using Softlayer management console.