Appliance Administration:Back Up and Restore

From rPath Wiki

The rPath Appliance Platform Agent (rAPA) includes a Back Up and Restore task which is enabled by default. In this task, a rAPA user can specify a particular backup location, to configure a backup schedule, to perform an on-demand backup, and to restore from a backup.

Identify What to Back Up

Appliance administrators can create and manage backups, but appliance developers configure what is included in an appliance backup. See the Backup plugin page for more developer information.

Configure Backup Settings

Before any backups can be performed, either on-demand or scheduled, rAPA requires initial backup settings. The Back Up and Restore tab is inaccessible until these settings are saved in the Backup Settings tab. Use the following steps for the initial configuration: Use the following steps to launch an on-demand system backup:

1. Access and log in to the rPath Appliance Platform Agent web interface.
2. Click Back Up and Restore from the rAPA menu at the left.
3. Select the Backup Settings tab.
4. For Enable backup schedule?, select Yes to enable scheduled backups, or select No to disable the schedule. If enabling the schedule, use the following to complete the schedule settings:
   1. Use the Schedule radio buttons to select the frequency for scheduled updates: daily, weekly, or monthly.
   2. Use the Daily/Weekly/Monthly Options drop-down lists to select the day of the week or month and the time for backups to occur on the selected day.
   3. In the Number of backups to keep text box, type the whole number of backups that should be stored at the location specified. Note that the minimum number of backups that the system maintains by default is 2, even if the number is set less. If this number is ever reduced, the number of existing backups does not change until the next backup is performed.
5. Set up the backup location by selecting the appropriate Backup type radio button and completing the corresponding text boxes. Use the following sections to determine which type to select and what to use in the text boxes.

Downloadable Backup File (HTTP)

When this option is available, the appliance creates a backup file on its local system and allows the user to download it over HTTP to his or her local system.

Network File System Share (NFS)

Select this for backup locations accessible by the appliance as NFS shares. The Connection host is the DNS hostname or IP address of the system providing the NFS share, and the Connection path value is the full path of the NFS export and subdirectories where the backups should be stored. In the following example, the NFS export is /mnt/nfsshare, but the connection path indicates to save all backups in the backups subdirectory in that export:

• Connection host: sharehost.example.com
• Connection path: /mnt/nfsshare/backups

"Windows" File System Share (CIFS/SMB)

Select this for backup locations accessible as Common Internet File System (CIFS), Server Message Block (SMB), or Samba shares. The title indicates that this is the type referred to when people say "Windows shares" in reference to file systems on Microsoft(R) products. The Connection host is the DNS hostname or IP address of the system providing the filesystem share, and the Connection path is the full path of the share and subdirectories where the backups should be stored. User credentials must be configured if they are required for access to the share, but they can be left blank otherwise. In the following example, the CIFS share is WinShare with a subdirectory of backups, and the credentials are provided for backupuser.

• Connection Host: sharehost.example.com
• Connection Path: /WinShare/backups
• User Name: backupuser
• Password: ***********

Note that the direction of the slashes in the path are forward ("/") in the style of DNS rather than backward ("\") in the style of Windows file paths.

Mountable File System (Label)

Select this for backup locations that are mounted to the local filesystem on the appliance. The Disk label is the "LABEL" value associated with the mounted filesystem, and the Connection path is the directory path relative to the mountpoint where the backups should be stored. In the following example, SAN_FS_LABEL is the disk label that refers to the mountpoint, and backups is a directory in that mountpoint:

• Disk Label: SAN_FS_LABEL
• Connection Path: /backups

Back Up Now

Use the following steps to launch an on-demand system backup:

1. Access and log in to the rPath Appliance Platform Agent web interface.
2. Click Back Up and Restore from the rAPA menu at the left.
3. Select the Back Up and Restore tab.
4. Click Back Up Now.
5. When the backup is complete, click OK to refresh the page, revealing the new backup in the Restore from Backup list.

Backups that are followed by a scheduled reboot have a one-minute delay after the backup before the scheduled reboot.

As stated in the interface, this on-demand backup will not interrupt the normal backup schedule.

Restore from a Backup

Use the following steps to restore the appliance from a backup:

1. Access and log in to the rPath Appliance Platform Agent web interface.
2. Click Back Up and Restore from the rAPA menu at the left.
3. Select the Back Up and Restore tab.
4. Choose the backup file from which to restore using one of the following options:
   1. To restore from a backup listed in the interface, click the corresponding button in the Restore column for the desired backup.
   2. To restore from a backup file your local system, click Browse to select that file, and click Restore.
5. Click Restore in the dialog box to verify the restore, or click Cancel to cancel the action. Note the warning dialog that advises the appliance will be rebooted when the restoration process completes.
6. When the restore is complete, click OK to refresh the page.

Restores followed by a scheduled reboot have a one-minute delay after the restore before the scheduled reboot.

Planning and Troubleshooting Backups

Consider the following with regards to backing up and restoring your system through the rPath Appliance Platform Agent:

• Ensure the backup directory and the backup file within it are world-readable.
• Credentials are required for accessing the target share when configuring backups for CIFS or SMB file shares.
• For backups to locally visible filesystems, specify the disk label. This is the same value that, at a Linux command line, would be passed to the {{{1}}} argument of the mount command, or specified in the filesystem table as having that LABEL value.
• By default, the Back Up and Restore task stores data for download backup types in /var/lib/raa/backups on the local system. This location can be specified in the Backup plugin configuration file /etc/raa/plugins.d/backup.cfg using the backup.local_storage directive, such as in the following example. Designate ample storage for the filesystem specified in backup.local_storage based on the backup image size for your appliance and the number of backups which are to be retained:

# Location to store backups when using the DOWNLOAD
# backup type
backup.local_storage = '/var/lib/raa/backups'

• Perform a test backup of an appliance at the time of deployment, and restore from the test backup. Verify these operations are successful.
• After a successful test, compare the names of the backup file created and the backup file from which you are restoring. Verify the names are the same except for the time stamp embedded in the name.
• When necessary, check appliance agent logs on the filesystem as stored in /var/log/raa.