Architecture, planning, and installation
This domain tests how you plan and install an IBM Spectrum Protect server and place its components correctly. Expect questions on the server instance, options files, directories, communication ports, and capacity planning rather than daily backup commands.
Core components
The server is a Db2-backed instance with a database, recovery log, archive log, and instance directory. The server options file is dsmserv.opt; client options are dsm.opt on Windows and dsm.sys plus dsm.opt on UNIX. The default server TCP port is 1500. Installation does not normally create a usable instance by itself: you prepare directories, create the instance, start dsmserv, register an administrator, and define devices and pools. Plan database and log capacity from retained data, concurrent sessions, migration, and reclamation workload, not just initial backup size.
Worked example
You install the server and want a new instance. Create /tsm/instance, /tsm/db, /tsm/actlog, and /tsm/archlog; set ownership; run dsmserv format dbdir=/tsm/db activelogdir=/tsm/actlog archlogdir=/tsm/archlog; start dsmserv; connect with dsmadmc; register an admin ID; then define a device class and primary storage pool before registering clients. The reasoning is order: database and logs first, server process second, administrative access third, storage fourth, clients last.
Traps
Do not confuse dsmserv.opt with client dsm.opt; do not omit archive log planning; do not assume the installer sizes the database; and do not register client nodes before a destination storage pool exists.