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Backup and restore

Backup

Use IP Fabric backup to protect your important data.

There are two types of backup:

  • Local backup

  • Remote backup (FTP, sFTP)

Tip

Backups are encrypted with osadmin user password configured during the first boot wizard. When you lose osadmin user password, backups are also lost!

Local Backup

Local backup saves database, user and system files locally on a dedicated backup volume. It's highly recommended placing backup volume on different datastore ideally on different physical storage.

Backup Disk
The backup disk is not present by default! Please add a new virtual disk to enable local backups. (See steps below)

Adding a New Virtual Disk To Your IP Fabric VM As a Local Backup Disk

  1. Open your VM platform.

  2. Go to IP Fabric VM settings and add New Hard Disk

  3. Select size of a new disk

  4. Specify the type of a new disk (for the backup volume it is recommended to select a virtual disk on a different datastore ideally on different physical storage)

    Add disk

  5. Finish configuration wizard.

  6. Launch Remote (Web) Console.

  7. Reboot (Send Ctrl+Alt+Delete function can be also used) or power on IP Fabric VM.

  8. During system boot, a Disk space expansion wizard appears.

    Disk expansion

  9. Select Yes to start disk space expansion.

  10. Expand the new volume as a backup (Backup is used only for local backups).

    New backup volume

  11. Selected volume is extended.

    Disk space

  12. Enter OK

Automatic Local Backups

To schedule automatic local backups do the following steps:

  1. Add dedicated backup volume if not available - see steps above.

  2. Login to the user interface.

  3. Go to Settings → Advanced → System → Schedule system backup.

  4. Change Destination to Local hard drive.

  5. Set a backup schedule. See example for "Every day at 3:00".

  6. Enable backup

    Schedule system backup

Remote Backup

Remote backup saves database, user and system files remotely using FTP or sFTP protocol.

Note

This is a recommended type of backup.

Warning

A directory has to be specified for FTP and SFTP backups

To set up remote backup do the following steps:

  1. Login to the user interface.

  2. Go to Settings → Advanced → System → Schedule system backup.

  3. Enable backup

  4. Change Destination to FTP or SFTP.

  5. Set a backup schedule. See example for "Every day at 5:15 and 17:15 (for setting more options, please, hold SHIFT during selection)".

    Backup schedule

  6. Change Destination to FTP or SFTP.

  7. Enter remote FTP/SFTP Server FQDN or IP address. Make sure that your DNS client is configured and working properly in case of FQDN.

  8. Enter Username to access FTP/SFTP server.

  9. Enter Password to access FTP/SFTP server.

  10. Specify a Directory where FTP/SFTP backup should be uploaded.

  11. Click Save (The IP Fabric platform will immediately test the connection)

  12. IP Fabric tries to reach FTP/SFTP server with configured parameters.

Warning

FTP/SFTP user needs read, write, list and delete permissions.

Info

From version 4.1.1 onward we do not check validity of SSL certificates during FTP backups.

Trigger a Backup Manually (On-Demand)

Both types of backup can be also triggered manually on demand. This is useful for example before a system upgrade.

Manual backup can be triggered from IP Fabric Administrative interface:

  1. Login to admin interface (for example https://ipfabric.example.com:8443)

  2. Go to Restore or Backup

  3. Select Backup from Do you wish to proceed with a backup or restore? drop-down menu.

  4. For local backup select Local hard drive from the Backup files destination.

  5. For remote backup select FTP or SFTP from the Backup files destination.

    1. Enter remote FTP/SFTP Server FQDN or IP address. Make sure that your DNS client is configured and working properly in the case of FQDN.

    2. Enter Username to access FTP/SFTP server.

    3. Enter Password to access FTP/SFTP server.

    4. Specify a Directory where FTP/SFTP backup should be uploaded.

  6. Click Next

Restore

In case of database or system corruption, IP Fabric can be restored from a backup.

Info

Restore is supported only to the same version of IP Fabric as source of a backup. This is checked automatically during restore.

The only exception are snapshots which can be restored to any version of IP Fabric appliance.

Restore From Local Hard Drive

  1. Login to admin interface (for example https://ipfabric.example.com:8443)

  2. Go to Restore or Backup

  3. Select Restore from Do you wish proceed a backup or restore? drop down menu.

  4. Select What restore?. There are four options:

    1. Restore data & all system services - This option restores database and system files. It's usable for restore from general system failures or upgrade failures.

    2. Restore database - it means that only database data are restored. It can be sufficient in case of database failure or accidental database drop.

    3. Restore syslog data - it means that only syslog data are restored. It can be sufficient in case of database failure or accidental database drop.

    4. Restore snapshot file - particular snapshot can be restored.

  5. For restore from local backup choose Local hard drive from Backup files source.

  6. Click Next.

  7. Select backup file - there is year, month, day and time when a backup file was created in a backup filename.

  8. Click Restore.

Warning

Backups are encrypted with osadmin user password configured during the First Boot Wizard. When you loose osadmin user password, all backups encrypted by this password are lost.

Restore From Remote Server

  1. Login to admin interface (for example https://ipfabric.example.com:8443)

  2. Go to Restore or Backup

  3. Select Restore from Do you wish proceed a backup or restore? drop down menu.

  4. Select What restore?. There are four options:

    1. Restore data & all system services* - This option restores database and system files. It's usable for restore from general system failures or upgrade failures.

    2. Restore database - it means that only database data are restored. It can be sufficient in case of database failure or accidental database drop.

    3. Restore syslog data - it means that only syslog data are restored. It can be sufficient in case of database failure or accidental database drop.

    4. Restore snapshot file - particular snapshot can be restored.

  5. For restore from local backup choose FTP or SFTP from Backup files source.

  6. Specify Server FQDN or IP address. Make sure that your DNS client is configured and working properly in case of FQDN.

  7. Enter Username to access FTP/SFTP server.

  8. Enter Password to access FTP/SFTP server.

  9. If you would like to use different Directory *than FTP/SFTP root please specify.

  10. Click Next.

  11. Select backup file - there is year, month, day and time when a backup file was created in a backup filename.

  12. Click Restore.

Warning

Backups are encrypted with osadmin user password configured during the First Boot Wizard. When you loose osadmin user password, all backups encrypted by this password are lost.