Hi team,
Below a proposed news item for some changes in app-backup/tsm that may
require manual user intervention.
See also: https://bugs.gentoo.org/963329
Best regards,
Nowa
Title: app-backup/tsm changes to scheduled backups
Author: Nowa Ammerlaan <[email protected]>
Posted: 2025-09-24
Revision: 1
News-Item-Format: 2.0
Display-If-Installed: >=app-backup/tsm-8.1.27.0
In version 8.1.27.0 some changes were made to the way the init
service scripts for systemd and openrc are distributed by
app-backup/tsm. As a result some user intervention may be required.
What changed?
====================
Gentoo now uses the init service scripts distributed by IBM as part
of the DSM client rpm packages. Previously we used custom versions,
which came with a number of drawbacks. Notably, in some configurations
certain files could be skipped by the backup client during a scheduled
backup operation [1].
To avoid such issues in the future it was decided to avoid straying
too far from how upstream intends for this software to be used. A side
effect of this is that the "dsmc" service script was removed, and only
the (upstream) "dsmcad" service script remains. This effects both
systemd and openrc.
The DSM Client Acceptor Daemon (dsmcad) is a more lightweight and
modern alternative to continuously running a "dsmc sched" process. It
can be configured to manage scheduled backup operations as well as the
webclient [4]. Note that the localisation options of the dsmcad
service are configured in /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsmcad.lang.
Users may change this setting, but please note that it is not
recommended to use an UTF8 character set here [1].
User Action Required (systemd)
====================
Users who are using the DSM backup client on systemd systems and are
currently using "dsmc.service" to perform scheduled backups should
migrate to the more modern "dsmcad.service".
# Verify the status of dsmc
systemctl status dsmc
If it is enabled, then first configure dsmcad to run the scheduler in
your /etc/tivoli/dsm.sys [4]. For example:
# nano /etc/tivoli/dsm.sys
Servername <MY-SERVER>
<snip>
ManagedServices SCHEDULE
<snip>
# Then, disable dsmc and enabled dsmcad
systemctl disable --now dsmc
systemctl enable --now dsmcad
User Action Required (openrc)
====================
Users who are using the DSM backup client on openrc systems and are
currently using "/etc/init.d/dsmc" to perform scheduled backups should
migrate to the more modern "/etc/init.d/dsmcad".
# Verify the status of dsmc
rc-update show
If it is enabled, then first configure dsmcad to run the scheduler in
your /etc/tivoli/dsm.sys [4]. For example:
# nano /etc/tivoli/dsm.sys
Servername <MY-SERVER>
<snip>
ManagedServices SCHEDULE
<snip>
# Then, disable dsmc and enabled dsmcad
rc-update del dsmc default
rc-update add dsmcad default
Questions or issues?
====================
As usual, please report any issues you find in the 8.1.27.0 version on
bugs.gentoo.org. And feel free to contact the author of this news item
on IRC (Nowa) should you have any further questions.
Further information
====================
For further information, please read the following documentation
pages:
[1]
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-protect/8.1.27?topic=solaris-set-language-environment-variables
[2]
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-protect/8.1.27?topic=spso-setting-client-scheduler-process-run-as-background-task-start-automatically-startup
[3]
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-protect/8.1.27?topic=problems-starting-stopping-client-service
[4]
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-protect/8.1.27?topic=reference-managedservices
[5]
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/storage-protect/8.1.27?topic=cs-comparison-between-client-acceptor-managed-services-traditional-scheduler-services
