Novell Doc: Sentinel 6.1 Rapid Deployment User Guide

14.7 Backup and Restore Utility

The backup and restore utility performs a back up of the system data and also restores the data at any given point in time without a considerable amount of effort.This utility backs up and restores data only for the Sentinel Rapid Deployment server and can not be used for Collector Manager systems.

You can back up the following data:

Configuration data: Data stored in the config directory and other directories, and in the Sentinel database. This data includes configuration files, property files, and keystore files. The Sentinel database contains various configuration information related to users, plug-ins, Collectors, Connectors, and filters.
Event data: Event data stored in the database. The event data includes the aggregated events files and any temporary event files that were created when the events failed to be inserted into the database.
Runtime data: Dynamic data stored on the file system. This data includes the Lucene search indexes used in queries by the Sentinel Rapid Deployment Web UI.
Advisor data: Advisor data stored in the Sentinel database.

NOTE:You need not back up the Advisor data, because the default Advisor data is loaded into the Sentinel database when you install Sentinel Rapid Deployment. Also, if you purchase the Advisor license, a backup is not required because you can download the updated Advisor data from the Novell download Web site (https://secure-www.novell.com/sentinel/download/advisor/).

The backup and restore script is controlled by various command line parameters that are described in Table 14-3.

14.7.1 Parameters for the Backup and Restore Utility Script

The following table lists the various command line parameters that you can use with the backup_util.sh script:

Table 14-3 Backup and Restore Script Parameters

Parameters	Description
-m backup	Takes a backup of the specified data.
-m restore	Restores the data from the specified backup file. The restore mode of the script is interactive and allows you to specify the data to be restored from the backup file. The restore parameter can be used in the following scenarios: System Failure: In the event of a system failure, you must first reinstall Sentinel Rapid Deployment and then use the backup_util.sh script with the restore parameter to restore the most recent data that you had backed up. Data Loss: In the event of data loss, use the backup_util.sh script with the restore parameter to restore the most recent data that you had backed up. You must restart the server after you restore any data because the script might make several modifications to the database.
-m info	Displays the information for the specified backup file.
-a	Takes a backup of the Advisor data. By default, this parameter is disabled in the script, because the data is available from other sources. To enable this parameter, edit the script manually and change FLAG_A_DISABLED = "disabled" to FLAG_A_DISABLED = "enabled".
-e	Takes a backup of all the online event data. If the backup is performed on the Sentinel server, the current online partition is not backed up unless you shut down the server.
-c	Takes a backup of the configuration data.
-dN	Takes a backup of the event data for the specified number of days. By default, just specifying the -e option backs up all the online event data. Based on the current Partition Configuration settings specified in the SDM, event data partitions can be kept online for up to last 90 days. Backing up all 90 days of event data with every backup might not be essential. NOTE:If you specify only -d, no event data will be backed up.You must specify this parameter along with the -e parameter. For example: backup_util.sh -m backup -e -d5 -f <install_directory>/data/<events_5days_backup.tar.gz>
-s	Shuts down the Sentinel server. You must use this command if you want to backup the current online partitions in the database and/or to backup the dynamic runtime data because the server must be shutdown before taking a backup of these data. After the backup is complete, the server restarts automatically.
-f	Enables you to specify the location and name of the backup file. If this option is not used, then the backup file gets a random name based on the current date.
-l	Includes the log files in the backup.

14.7.2 Using the Backup and Restore Utility Script

Open a console, and navigate to the <install_directory>/bin directory as the novell user.

Enter backup_util.sh, along with the necessary parameters for the data that you want to back up or restore.

For more information on the different parameters, see Table 14-3. The following table gives examples of how to specify the parameters:

Syntax	Action
backup_util.sh -m backup -a -c -e -l -s -f <install_directory>/data/<full_backup.tar.gz>	Shuts down the server and takes a backup of the complete system data. You should shut down the Sentinel server only when you back up the event data of the current online partition or when you back up the dynamic runtime data.
backup_util.sh -m backup -c -f <install_directory>/data/<config_backup.tar.gz>	Takes a backup of the current configuration data.
backup_util.sh -m backup -e -f <install_directory>/data/<events_backup.tar.gz>	Takes a backup of the event data.
backup_util.sh -m backup -e -d5 -f <install_directory>/data/<events_5days_backup.tar.gz>	Takes a backup of the event data for the last five days.
backup_util.sh -m info -f <install_directory>/data/<config_backup.tar.gz>	Displays the backup information for the specified backup file.
backup_util.sh -m restore -f <config_backup.tar.gz>	Restores the data from the specified filename.

(Conditional) If you have restored any data, restart the server because the script might make several modifications to the database.