15.9 Disaster Recovery Plan using DSBK

A disaster recovery plan enables you to recover your disk back to the configuration at the time of corruption. You have to backup your server’s disk to a remote location, so that you can recover the server even if the operating system gets corrupted.

This section provides a sample disaster recovery plan for an eDirectory server:

15.9.1 Disaster Recovery Plan on Linux

To take a backup of the server’s disk:

  1. Configure DSBK:

    1. Create a file dsbk.conf in /etc.

    2. Create a temporary file. For example, /tmp/dsbk.tmp.

    3. Specify the location of the temporary file created in the previous step in the /etc/dsbk.conf file.

  2. Mount the server's disk to a remote machine in the read/write mode, to store all backup files on a remote machine disk.

    For example, eDirServer# mount <remote machine IP>:/home/backup/ /mnt/dsbkBkp

  3. Set the custom backup location using the following command:

    dsbk setconfig -L -T -r /mnt/dsbkBkp

    NOTE:Ensure that you run DSBK from the following location on the server: /opt/novell/eDirectory/bin.

  4. Take a full backup along with NICI to the remote location file system: 

    dsbk backup -f <backup file location> -l <log file location> -e <password for NICI backup> -t -b

    For example, dsbk backup -f /mnt/dsbkBkp/fb1.bak -l /mnt/dsbkBkp/fb1.log -e novell -t -b.

    NOTE:The -e option is used to back up NICI. In the example, novell is password for NICI Backup. You may choose your own password, and the same password must be used during NICI restore.

  5. Take incremental backups using the following command:

    dsbk backup -f <incremental backup file location> -l <incremental log file location> -t -i

    For example:

    Day 1: dsbk backup -f /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib1.bak -l /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib1.log -t -i

    Day 2: dsbk backup -f /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib2.bak -l /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib2.log -t -i

    NOTE:While taking an incremental backup, you do not have to back up NICI.

If the eDirectory server gets corrupted, then perform the following steps to recover the eDirectory server using the remote location backup:

  1. If the operating system is corrupted, install the operating system as before.

  2. If only eDirectory is corrupted, then do a clean up of the system for eDirectory by removing the eDirectory RPMs.

  3. Install the same eDirectory as before and configure a single server dummy tree. For example,

    ndsconfig new -t dummy_bkp_tree -n novell -a admin.novell -w novell

  4. Restore NICI from the full backup file (without the -d, -r, -a, -o options):

    dsbk restore -f <backup file location> -l <log file location> -e <password used to NICI backup>

    For example, dsbk restore -f /mnt/dsbkBkp/fb1.bak -l /mnt/dsbkBkp/restore1.log -e novell

  5. After restoring NICI, restart the eDirectory server.

  6. Restore both the full and incremental backup files. For example,

    dsbk restore -f /mnt/dsbkBkp/fb1.bak -l /mnt/dsbkBkp/restore2.log -d /mnt/dsbkBkp/nds.rfl/ -r -a -e novell -o -i /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib1.bak, /mnt/dsbkBkp/ib2.bak

For more information on backup and restore commands, refer to the Using DSBK on Linux.

15.9.2 Disaster Recovery Plan on Windows

To take a backup of the server’s disk:

  1. Map the server's disk to a remote machine in the read/write mode. For example, O:\dsbkBkp

  2. To run DSBK command:

    1. Open eDirectory server console by running NDScons.exe.

    2. Click dsbk.dlm from the Services tab.

    3. Enter DSBK commands in the Startup Parameter field.

  3. Set the custom backup location using the following command:

    setconfig -L -T -r O:\dsbkBkp

  4. Take a full backup along with NICI, to the remote location file system:

    backup -f <backup file location> -l <log file location> -e <password for NICI backup> -t -b

    NOTE:The -e option is used to backup NICI. In the example, novell is password for NICI Backup. You may choose your own password, and the same password must be used during NICI restore.

  5. Take incremental backups using the following command:

    backup -f <incremental backup file location> -l <incremental log file location> -t -i

    For example:

    Day 1: backup -f O:\dsbkBkp\ib1.bak -l O:\dsbkBkp\ib1.log -t -i

    Day 2: backup -f O:\dsbkBkp\ib2.bak -l O:\dsbkBkp\ib2.log -t -i

    NOTE:While taking an incremental backup, you do not have to back up NICI.

If the eDirectory server gets corrupted, then perform the following steps to recover the eDirectory server using the remote location backup:

  1. If the operating system is corrupted, install the operating system as before.

  2. If only eDirectory is corrupted, then do a clean up of the system for eDirectory.

  3. Install the same eDirectory as before and configure a single server dummy tree.

  4. Restore NICI from the full backup file (without the -d, -r, -a, -o options):

    For example:

    restore -f <backup file location> -l <log file location> -e <password used for NICI backup>

    For example, restore -f O:\dsbkBkp\fb1.bak -l O:\dsbkBkp restore1.log -e novell

  5. After restoring NICI, restart the eDirectory server.

  6. Restore both the full and incremental backup files.

    For example:

    restore -f O:\dsbkBkp\fb1.bak -l O:\dsbkBkp\restore2.log -d O:\dsbkBkp\nds.rfl\ -r -a -e novell -o -i O:\dsbkBkp\ib1.bak, O:\dsbkBkp\ib2.bak

    For more information on backup and restore commands, refer to the Using DSBK on Windows.