Avamar: How to Check Avamar DB2 Plugin Archivelog Configuration

The goal of this article is to help the reader check the Archivelog Configuration for DB2 backups.

1. Check if Archivelog backups are correctly configured in DB2:

   • Log in as the DB2 user:
     • Run: db2 get db cfg for db <dbname>
       Check if the parameters LOGARCHMETH1 or LOGARCHMETH2 and LOGARCHOPT1 or LOGARCHOPT2 are set to send the backups to Avamar

       db2 get db cfg for testdb
       ...
       First log archive method                 (LOGARCHMETH1) = VENDOR:/usr/local/avamar/lib/libdb2_avamarloader.so
       ...
       Options for logarchmeth1                  (LOGARCHOPT1) = @/home/db2inst1/flags.txt

   NOTE 1:

   • If LOGARCHMETH1 is set, then LOGARCHOPT1 must be set
   • If LOGARCHMETH2 is set, then LOGARCHOPT2 must be set
   NOTE 2:

   • LOGARCHMETH1 must start with: "VENDOR:" (the same if the one set is LOGARCHMETH2)
   • The library referenced by LOGARCHMETH1 must be:
     UNIX/Linux: libdb2_avamarloader.so and not libdb2_avamar.so
     Windows: libavdb2.dll
   NOTE 3:
   LOGARCHOPT1 must start with "@" (the same if the one set is LOGARCHOPT2)

2. Check the library and Option file path are correct by running: ls -ltr <path_to_library_and_option_file>

   ls -ltr /usr/local/avamar/lib/libdb2_avamarloader.so

   ls -ltr /home/db2inst1/flags.txt

   NOTE: User dir or File Explorer on Windows Operating Systems

3. Ensure that the option file has these two statements "--debug=true" and "--logfile=<directory>/filename":

   --id=MCUser
   --sysdir=/usr/local/avamar/etc
   --logfile=/tmp/cli_test/avdb2.log
   --avtar-before-after-days-search=1
   --vardir=/usr/local/avamar/var
   --debug=true
   ...

4. Check that the log files are created during archivelog backups.

   How to check if there are log files created:

   Example:
   Option file contains:

   ...
   --logfile=/tmp/cli_test/avdb2.log
   ...
   
   ls -ltr /tmp/cli_test/avdb2*log
   
   -rw-r--r--. 1 db2inst1 dba 19961878 Jul 27 19:29 /tmp/cli_test/avdb2-avtar-2018-07-27-db2inst1-TESTDB-LOG-BACKUP-00-001.log
   -rw-r--r--. 1 db2inst1 dba  3975178 Jul 27 19:29 /tmp/cli_test/avdb2-lib-2018-07-27-db2inst1-TESTDB-LOG-BACKUP-00-001.log

5. Check Permissions on the directory specified by --logfile and ensure that DB2 can write to that directory.

   Example:

   ...
   --logfile=/tmp/cli_test/avdb2.log
   ...
   
   chmod 777 /tmp/cli_test