Today, data is the key to everything; if we aren’t protecting our data, we aren’t doing enough. Even when we protect our data, we must ensure that it’s backed up correctly and that we can restore it when required. At Hitachi, we’re attempting to achieve something similar for our Ops Center applications. Until now, we could back up and restore individual Ops Center applications using the command line. However, with Protector 7.7, we can now schedule backups of the Ops Center products and restore them using the UI.
This blog shows how to back up and restore Ops Center applications using Ops Center Protector. These applications include Administrator, Automator, Analyzer, Analyzer detail view, API Configuration Manager, Common Services, and Protector Master.
This blog consists of the following sections:
· Test Methodology
· Environment Configuration
· Backing up the Ops Center server
· Restoring the Ops Center server
· Recovering the Ops Center Protector
· Restoring the Ops Center applications
Test Methodology
· Deployed all Ops Center applications on a single Virtual Machine (VM) using an OVA.
· Used a Gen2 Repository mounted on a Proxy node to back up our Ops Center data.
· Discovered the Proxy (client) node hosting the repository in the Ops Center Protector UI.
· Created the repository in the Protector UI.
· Created new policies and data flows for Ops Center applications to back up.
· Performed a backup for all Ops Center applications.
· Restored and recovered Ops Center Protector.
· Restored Ops Center applications one at a time.
Environment Configuration
The following figure shows the test environment layout:
Figure 1: Test Environment Layout
The system configuration for each component is as follows:
Backing up the Ops Center server
To back up the Ops Center server, complete the following steps:
1. Set up the Prot77_90236 Repo Proxy node and point it to the opsvm1093-91213 master server.
2. When the Repo Proxy node is visible in the Protector UI, authorize it.
3. Depending on the size of the environment, assign a volume to the Proxy node and mount it to a directory.
4. In the Nodes window, configure the Generation 2 Repo to use for the Ops Center backup.
For example: RepoQ1
You can verify this by clicking RepoQ1.
Creating a Policy for applications to back up on the Master server
To create a policy for applications to back up on the Master server, complete the following steps:
1. In the Policies window, click the plus icon at the top of the screen, enter a name, and then click Next.
For example: Master Bkp Policy
2. Skip Allocate Policy to Access Control Resource Group by clicking Next.
3. In the Add one or more Classifications window, click the plus icon, select Application > Ops Center, and then click Next.
4. In the Specify Ops Center Applications window, select the master node opsvm1093-91213 as the source, and then select whether you want to Include all Ops Center Applications or select individual products by clicking Add. Click Apply.
Note: You can exclude products as well.
5. In the Add one or more Operations window, click the plus icon, select Backup, and then click Next.
6. In the Specify Backup operation attributes window, set the schedule and retention for your backups.
7. To return to the Add one or more Operations window, click Apply and then click Finish.
Creating a data flow for backing up the Master node
To create a data flow for backing up the Master node, complete the following steps:
1. Select Data Flows, click the plus icon, enter a name, and then click Next.
For example: Master Bkp Flow
2. Skip Allocate Policy to Access Control Resource Group by clicking Next.
3. In the Create Data Flows window, drag the master node opsvm1093-91213 from the Nodes tab into the workspace, and then drag the repository RepoQ1 you want to use to store the backup.
4. Click the master node and select Master Bkp Policy from the Policies list.
5. Click the repository, from the Policies list under Master Bkp Policy select Backup, and then click Finish.
Activating the data flow
To activate the data flow, in the ‘Master Bkp Flow’ section of the Data Flows window, click the play button.
Triggering the data flow
To trigger the flow, in the Monitor tab, start the backup immediately by selecting Master Bkp Flow and clicking the trigger (lightning) icon.
You can monitor this operation from the Jobs tab.
You can ignore the warning messages because the environment was configured using the OVA. Because the OVA was not built for filesystem backup purposes, warning messages displayed in the output can be ignored.
Verifying the Backup under the Repository
To verify the backup under the repository, in the Store Details section of the Storage tab, click Stores.
The backup under the repository is verified.
Restoring the Ops Center server
We’ll restore the Ops Center configuration to a new Master (Recovery) node. When the backup is complete, turn off the power of the old Master server.
Configuring the new Master (Recovery) node
To configure the new master node, install the same OS and Protector version and enter a temporary name (this will be overwritten when the restoration is complete) or IP.
SSH to the Repo Proxy node
When you SSH to the Repo Proxy node, complete the following steps:
1. Navigate to /opt/hitachi/protector/bin and stop the Protector services.
2. Prepare the proxy node for use by the new Master (Recovery) node by running the following command:
setconfig --recoverymaster <New Master ip_address> --repository <repository_path>
3. Start the Protector services.
4. Navigate to the new Master (Recovery) node UI and authorize the Repo Proxy node visible in the Nodes section.
5. SSH to the Repo Proxy node and stop the Protector service.
6. Manually copy the repo directory to a new location using the following command:
cp –R /RepoQ1 /RepoQ2
7. Start the Protector service.
Creating a repository in the new Master (Recovery) node UI by importing a Gen2 repo
To create a repository in the new Master node UI by importing a Gen2 repo, complete the following steps:
1. In the Nodes tab, in the Create section, click on the ‘+’ icon and select Storage > Repository, and then click Next.
2. In the Create Node – Repository window, enter the same node name and then click Next.
3. Select the proxy node named Prot77_90236 and click Next.
4. Select Import an existing Repository and click Finish.
Restoring the Protector Master server by selecting the new Master (Recovery) node as the destination node
To restore the Protector Master server by selecting the new Master node as the destination, complete the following steps:
1. In the Restore window, select the backup that you want to restore and click the restore icon at the top of the screen.
2. Select the application that you want to restore and click Next.
3. Select the Destination Node named opsvm1093-91215 and click Finish.
Recovering Ops Center Protector
SSH to the new Master (recovery) node
SSH to the new Master (recovery) node and complete the following steps:
1. Stop the Protector service and import the Master server settings by copying the string from the attachment under the Restore job.
2. Start the Protector service.
SSH to the Repo Proxy node
SSH to the Repo Proxy node and complete the following steps:
1. Stop the protector services.
2. To return to the repository used for the 'recovered master' recovery, run the following command:
setconfig --recoveredmaster <New Master ip_address> --repository <repository_path>
3. Start the protector services.
*** Protector and Ops Center respond to different names. Ops Center responds to the new Master name and Protector responds to the old name after recovery ***
Log in to the new Master (Recovery) UI to verify Nodes, Policies, and Data Flows
Restoring the Ops Center applications
To restore Ops Center Applications one at a time using the Protector UI, complete the following steps:
Note: You cannot restore all applications in a single job (designed that way).
1. In the Restore window, select the backup that you want to restore, and click the restore icon at the top of the screen.
2. Select the application that you want to restore and click Next.
3. Select the Destination Node named opsvm1093-91215 and click Finish.
4. In the Jobs window, select the latest restore job with the “In Progress” status.
The Job Details page opens.
5. Scroll down to view Tasks and select the attachment icon to view the commands.
After restoring the backup archive (copied to the new Master VM), you can manually recover your Ops Center application. You must follow the recovery procedure for each product and any related agents by extracting each archive and supplying the path to the backup file required by the command line for each product and agent.
For more information on how to recover your application and sync the entire Ops Center suite, see the Reference Links section.
Limitations
The limitations for each Ops Center application when using Protector for backup and restore are as follows:
· Analyzer probe - Instances for the Windows probe are not backed up.
· Analyzer On-demand real-time monitoring module – When installed on a Windows host, this module is not backed up.
· Analyzer RAID Agent - RAID Agent backups only include settings information. If you want to back up the performance data used by the API requests that access RAID Agent, see the Backing up the RAID Agent (Linux) section in the user guide and run the htmhsbackup command.
· Analyzer - During a backup, the Analyzer server stops common component, so the other products that use common component also stop.
· Automator - During a backup, the Automator server stops common component, so the other products that use common component also stop. Additionally, when using Protector, the Automator running on Windows is not backed up. Only Linux is supported for the current version.
· API Configuration Manager - When a non-root Linux user installs the API Configuration Manager, you cannot back up using Protector.
Summary
We successfully backed up and restored our Ops Center environment to a new server using the Ops Center Protector. All this was done using a backup to a repository on a client node. We can schedule these backups to happen automatically using Protector, and then restore the backups to recover each application. This is helpful in case of a server failure or if there is a need to migrate to a new server.
Reference Links
For more information on Ops Center, visit:
https://docs.hitachivantara.com/p/ops-center
For more information on Ops Center Protector, visit:
https://docs.hitachivantara.com/r/en-us/ops-center-protector/7.7.x/mk-99prt001
For more information on Ops Center backup and restore using Protector, visit:
https://docs.hitachivantara.com/r/en-us/ops-center-protector/7.7.x/mk-99prt002/user-interface-reference/policies-ui-reference/policies-inventory/policy-wizard/ops-center-classification-wizard