To have BackupEDGE backup to a CIFS Resource you must:
1 Configure an AF Resource to mount and unmount the CIFS Server on demand.
2 Configure an FSP Resource to read and write to a particular directory on the CIFS Server and associate it with the proper AF Resource for mounting / unmounting.
3 Initialize the FSP Resource.
4 Select the FSP Resource from EDGEMENU or within a Schedule.
Initializing the FSP Backup Resource does NOT erase any data. If there are no current files in the backup directory, BackupEDGE will create a control file (named CTL) indicating that it is ready
to accept BackupEDGE archives. If BackupEDGE detects a control file, it will scan the directory for any current archives and re-build its index of available archives and their sizes. FSP backups cannot commence until the FSP Resource has been initialized one time.
Preparing the CIFS Server
CIFS Servers generally have permissions setting that must be configured to allow other servers to attach to them. This varies per CIFS Server type and is the responsibility of the user.
Setting Up an Attached Filesystem Resources for CIFS
The AF (Attached Filesystem) Resource is a special Resource handling the remote CIFS server. It is responsible for management and concurrence. It knows how to mount and unmount it, etc. and understands when more than one local schedule is accessing the remote server. A backup cannot be written directly to the AF resource.
Setting up the AF Resource requires using edgemenu:Admin->Define Resources. Select
‘[NEW]’, then select ‘Attached Filesystem (AF)’. Change the resource name to something
suitable if desired. (the default is ‘af0’ and is fine).
Unedited AF Resource.
Usually, the only fields you must modify for CIFS mounting are the Mount Device Node, the Mount Command, and the Exclude Node. The other fields, Mount Dir and Unmount Command,
NOTE: Never place any other (non-BackupEDGE-created) files in the BackupEDGE directory on the FSP Resource. Never manually remove any BackupEDGE files. The only way to
manipulate these files other than from within EDGEMENU without corrupting the control file database is by using the edge.segadm command. See “EDGE.SEGADM” on page 317 for more
information on using this program.
+ BackupEDGE Resource Information ---+ ¦- General Resource Information ---¦ ¦Resource Type Attached Filesystem ¦ ¦Resource Name [af0 ] Change as appropriate ¦ ¦Description [Attached Filesystem Resource] ¦ ¦Changer Assoc [Standalone Device] ¦ ¦Interface [Other ] ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦- Attached Filesystem Information ---¦ ¦Mount Dir [/usr/lib/edge/system/mnt/af0 ] ¦ ¦Mount Device Node [/dev/null ] ¦ ¦Mount Command [/etc/mount %m %M ] ¦ ¦Unmount Command [/etc/umount %M ] ¦ ¦Exclude Node [ ] ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦[Next] [Prev] [Cancel]¦ +---+
will work without modification. The default mount directory is in a BackupEDGE directory that gets automatically excluded from backups, and should not be changed.
You’ll need three pieces of information to create this Resource...
Mount Device Node
This is a combination of the host name or IP address, and the directory to be used for backups on the CIFS Server. The form for this is: //hostname/drectory_tree or
//IP_address/directory_tree. This directory should already be created on the server. In our
example the hostname will be cifs.microlite.com and the directory will be /backupedge/cifsdir. This yields a Mount Device Node of:
//cifs.microlite.com/backupedge/cifsdir. If you do not expect DNS (name service) to be
running, especially in the case of a bare metal recovery, use the IP address instead of the hostname for the CIFS Server.
USERNAME
The user name for authentication to the CIFS Server.
PASSWORD
The password required for authentication to the CIFS Server.
The Mount Device Node is the directory you’ve created on the remote server as the root
directory of all backups, such as ‘remote_server:/backupedge’. You may use the format IP_address:/mountpoint or hostname:/mountpoint as desired. It may be desirable to use an
IP address to ensure valid connections even if name services aren’t working.
The Exclude Node is the device node that will be excluded by RecoverEDGE during disk
preparation for disaster recovery. Please use “/dev/null” in this field.
The Mount Command must be modified for the particular CIFS mount command for the operating
system you are using. Here is an example for Linux...
CIFS Mount Command for Linux
Linux
mount -t cifs -o username=USER,password=PASSWORD %m $M
The %m variable is replaced by the Mount Device Node and the %M variable is replaced by the
local mount directory node.
The Exclude Node is the device node that will be excluded by RecoverEDGE during disk
Completed AF Resource Example (Linux).
Press [Next] to save the AF resource.
Setting Up a FileSystem Partition Resource for CIFS
After you have saved the AF resource, you must create one or more Filesystem Partition (FSP) resources to write to it. Essentially these are simply directories created under the master mount point defined by the AF Resource.
Setting up an FSP resource is very simple. Use edgemenu:Admin->Define Resources to create a
Resource. Select ‘[NEW]’ and then select Directoy (fsp). Change the resource name to
something suitable if desired. (the default is ‘fsp0’ and is fine).
All of the fields in the “General Resource Information” section of this form have excellent
defaults except “AF Association”. Press [Enter] on this field and select the AF Resource that
will be handling the mounting and un-mounting of the filesystem. This tells BackupEDGE to make sure that the remote filesystem is mounted before trying to access the FSP.
+ BackupEDGE Resource Information ---+ ¦- General Resource Information ---¦ ¦Resource Type Attached Filesystem ¦ ¦Resource Name [af0 ] Change as appropriate ¦ ¦Description [Attached Filesystem Resource] ¦ ¦Changer Assoc [Standalone Device] ¦ ¦Interface [Other ] ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦- Attached Filesystem Information ---¦ ¦Mount Dir [/usr/lib/edge/system/mnt/af0 ] ¦ ¦Mount Device Node [//cifs.microlite.com/backupedge/cifsdir ] ¦ ¦Mount Command [mount -t cifs -o username=USER,password=PASSWORD %m %M ] ¦ ¦Unmount Command [/etc/umount %M ] ¦ ¦Exclude Node [%M ] ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦[Next] [Prev] [Cancel]¦ +---+
NOTE: OpenServer 5, OpenServer 6 and UnixWare 7 CIFS Resources are not compatible with RecoverEDGE. You must use another Resource type, such as FTP/FTPS
Backups, to be able to perform remote backups with bare metal recovery on these operating
systems.
+ BackupEDGE Resource Information ---+ ¦- General Resource Information ---¦ ¦Resource Type FS Partition ¦ ¦Resource Name [fsp0 ] Change as appropriate ¦ ¦Description [Directory Resource ] ¦ ¦AF Association [myserver:af0] ¦ ¦Interface [Other ] ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦- FS Partition Information ---¦ ¦Dir Suffix [/myserver ] ¦ ¦Segment Size (K) [1048544 ] [X] Lazy Reclamation ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦- Default Backup Properties ---¦ ¦Quota [120G ] [S] Compression Level [5] ¦ ¦Edge Block Size [64 ] [Y] Double Buffering ¦ ¦[Next] [Prev] [Cancel]¦ +---+
NOTE: BackupEDGE handles concurrent access multiple FSPs that share one AF correctly.
‘Dir Suffix’ is the subdirectory under the remote mount point defined in the AF Resource
where the backups will be saved. This value can be altered to reflect the host name or schedule name of the server that is being backed up if desired.
‘Segment Size’, controls the maximum file size that BackupEDGE will create. The default is
slightly less than 1GB. Note that this does not limit the maximum archive size; BackupEDGE will automatically split the archive up into multiple files (segments) if needed. Generally, the user will not know (or care) about this, as it will be handled for you automatically. The
‘Segment Size’ field does not need to be altered in most cases.
‘Lazy Reclmation’ controls the behavior of space reclamation (deleting archives) on the FSP
media. See “Space Reclamation” on page 153 for additional information. The default behaviour is
Enabled.
Do not confuse ‘Segment Size’ with ‘Quota’. ‘Quota’ limits the total space consumed by all BackupEDGE archives on this resource. If the ‘Quota’ is 100GB, then no more than 100GB will be
written by BackupEDGE to this FSP until something is erased, or a new medium is loaded. The [S]oftware compression level from 1 to 9, or choose [N]one for no compression. Do not attempt to set compression to [H]ardware.
Initialize the FSP Resource
When you press [Next] to save the Resource, you will be asked if you want to ‘Initialize’ the Resource. You must let BackupEDGE initialize the Resource before use. This mounts the remote
filesystem, creates the subdirectory and adds a control file named CTL in the destination
directory. To initialize at a later time, use edgemenu:Admin->Initialize Medium. while the Primary Resource is set to the correct FSP.Note that initializing the resource will not erase any
existing backups. If existing backups exits, the CTL file, which contains information about the
individual archive segments, will be re-calculated.
10.7 - Backup Granularity
Be creative. Remote backups to CIFS Servers with a lot of space provide the opportunity to increase backup frequency. One possible use is doing Master Backups each night, and
Differential Backups at midday.
As an example, the “Sample CIFS Backup Schedule” on page 104 will perform a nightly backup of the default Domain (system) through the default Sequence (onsite). Enable the advanced
scheduler, then create a new Schedule called midday_backups. When prompted, have the new Schedule use the same Domain and Sequence as the default Schedule. The user may also have to
choose whether or not to include a MySQL backup. Set the time to noon or so.
When completed, there will be a very fast midday backup and the reliability of the data will be increased.
Midday Backup Example
This will create 5 separate Differential Backups. If there is only a need to save the latest one, simply set the Retention Time to [1 Days] in the Notify / Advanced screen. This would
allow at least one Differential Backup to remain current at all times. Expired ones would be erased only if the Scheduler needs to reclaim the space.
The scheduler provides great flexibility. Extending the above example, it is possible to create hourly Differential Backups or Incremental Backups every day, providing an even greater safety margin by increasing backup frequency.
Deleting archives manually is discussed in “Deleting Backups” on page 246.
10.8 - RecoverEDGE Reminders
After adding a new Resource to BackupEDGE and creating at least one successful backup, always remember to re-create your RecoverEDGE media and / or images so that they will understand how to use the Resource. Test them to make sure you can read from the Resource if necessary.
RecoverEDGE media / images when booted will not automatically enable networking to deal
with CIFS mounts. Please remember to enable Networking from the RecoverEDGE main menu before selecting Test Media or Restore.
If you need to edit a Resource while in RecoverEDGE, go to Utilities, then Shell, then type /tmp/resource at the shell prompt to start the Resource Manager.
+ Edit Backup Schedule ---+ | Schedule Name: [midday_backup] | | Time: [12:01 ] (14:28:24) Enabled: [X] | | Sequence: [Change] myserver.microlite.com:esequence/onsite | | Backup Domain: [Change] system | | Primary Resource: [Change] myserver.microlite.com:fsp!fsp0 | | | | +---+ January 2015 | | | Every Sunday of the week (None) | Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa | | | Every Monday of the week Differ | D D 3 | | | Every Tuesday of the week Differ | 4 D D D D D 10 | | | Every Wednesday of the week Differ | 11 D D D D D 17 | | | Every Thursday of the week Differ | 18 D D D D D 24 | | | Every Friday of the week Differ | 25 D D D D D 31 | | | Every Saturday of the week (None) | | | +---+ | | | | Notify / Advanced: [Change] [Reset Dates] | | Mail Summary To: root Print Summary To: NONE | | Mail Failures To: NONE Print Failures To: NONE | |[Next] [Back To Select] [Cancel]| +---+ |+Local Machine: myserver.microlite.com Administering: myserver.microlite.com+|
NOTE: OpenServer 5, OpenServer 6 and UnixWare 7 CIFS Resources are not compatible with RecoverEDGE. You must use another Resource type, such as FTP/FTPS
Backups, to be able to perform remote backups with bare metal recovery on these operating
I Cloud Backup
s
11 - Configuring S3 API Cloud Backups (S3CLOUD)
11.1 - General Concepts
Cloud (Internet-based) off-site storage is one of the most popular methods of data protection. A growing number of cloud (Internet) based storage services have standardized on the
application programming interface (API) originally developed and used worldwide by storage retailer amazon.com’s the Amazon Web Services™ S3 Simple Storage Service.
BackupEDGE is compatible with that connectivity API through a Resource type called
“S3CLOUD”.
We’ve tested the S3CLOUD Resources with multiple on-line cloud storage providers, including Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage.
BackupEDGE 03.01.01 and later has S3CLOUD support, opening up a world of inexpensive
on-line backup services.
Once configured, backups to S3CLOUD Resources work just as if they were being done to a locally attached storage device. Your internet connection speed will generally be the biggest limitation when using S3CLOUD Resources.
11.2 - Multiple Archives Per Medium
BackupEDGE supports performing multiple backups onto S3CLOUD Resources. The quota for
an S3CLOUD Resource is defined by the user during setup, and defaults to 100GB. This is the general behaviour: