You can manage backups, recovery operations and your media with BRMS by using either the BRMS plug-in to iSeries™ Navigator or through the character-based interface. If you have used the character-based interface in the past and want to use the BRMS plug-in, you should be aware of the differences between these two interfaces.
Terminology differences
The following table describes the different terminology that exists in each interface and the definitions of these terms.
| BRMS plug-in to iSeries Navigator | Character-based interface | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Backup policy | Backup control group and media policy | A backup policy is the combined attributes of a backup control group and the media policy in the character-based interface. Both of these functions control how, when, and where a backup is performed. |
| Changes-only save |  Non-incremental cumulative backup |
Saves only those items that have changed since the last full save was performed. |
| Media pool | Media class | A grouping of media based on similar characteristics, such as density and capacity. |
| Disk pool | Auxiliary storage pool | A software-defined group of disk storage units on a system. |
| Disk pool group | Auxiliary storage pool class | A group of disk pools that are organized by similar purpose. |
| Container pool | Container class | A grouping of similar types of containers that hold similar media volumes. |
Compatibility differences
If you are currently using the character-based interface control groups and they do not reference the system policy (*SYSPCY), archive policy (*ARCPCY), backup policy (*BKUPCY) and do not share media policies among control groups, then using the BRMS plug-in should have no functional impacts to your character-based control groups. If this is not true, read the following information:
- The BRMS plug-in backup and archive policies are designed to be independent of each other. Thus, if you make changes to one policy, it will not affect the others. To ensure this independence, control groups updated with the BRMS plug-in will have all references to the character-based interface system policy (*SYSPCY), archive policy (*ARCPCY), and backup policy (*BKUPCY) removed. These references will be resolved and replaced with the actual values when the backup policy is saved by the BRMS plug-in. The archive policy, backup policy, or system policy do not affect backup or archive policies created or edited by the BRMS plug-in. The exceptions to this are the network function, sign off exceptions, and subsystem to check controls in the system policy, which are used by the BRMS plug-in.
- The BRMS plug-in hides the media policy from the user (no BRMS plug-in functions exist to show or edit media policies). Media policy attributes are indirectly shown and edited through backup and archive policy properties. As mentioned earlier, the BRMS plug-in backup and archive policies are designed to be independent of each other. To ensure this, the BRMS plug-in will create a new media policy based on the currently used one if the control group being edited contains a media policy that is used by other control groups or is a shipped BRMS media policy. If a new media policy is created, the control group will be changed to use the new one.
- When you create a new backup or archive policy using the BRMS plug-in, it will use a new media policy that is dynamically created.
- Changes made to other, non-IBM supplied policies are reflected in the BRMS plug-in.