Configuration

Configuration options can be found in /data/components/apps/etc/backup-utility/backup.yml.

Important options are:

• machine-id - A unique identifier of the machine, used for creating backups and locating existing backups for restoration. Never use the same value more than once.

• schedule - Enables periodic backups and specifies how often and when they should be performed. An empty value means periodic backups are disabled. For example, "--* 02:00:00" would represent every day at 2 AM. For details, see the output of man systemd.time, section Calendar events.

• max-age - Specifies how long to keep older backups. 0 means forever, any other numerical value specifies the number of days to keep a backup.

• license-restore - On virtual appliances, valid licenses can be restored directly from the backup. On hardware appliances, licenses contain a HWID specific to the given appliance and must be manually uploaded before attempting a restore. On hardware appliances, always set this option to False.

Other notable options are:

• safe-restore - If you are restoring an appliance in a different network environment and do not want to restore basic connectivity settings, set this option to True. Management interface configuration, external storage configuration, and remote access configuration will NOT be restored from the backup.

• profiles - Specifies a list of profiles to include in backups. By default, all profiles are included. If you wish to back up only selected profiles, provide a list of profile names. A list of available profiles can be displayed by running sudo backup -t ''*. The names of individual profiles can also be discovered by hovering your mouse pointer over the human-readable profile name in the GUI.

To apply changes to periodic backups, you must run:

sudo backup -c

For detailed documentation of other options and configuration examples, refer to backup.yml.

Flowmon Backup requires free disk space on the appliance to function properly. The minimum is 1 GB of free disk space. The amount of the required disk space depends on the amount of data being backed up. For a value specific to your appliance, refer to the output of:

sudo backup -i

This value may change over time depending on how much data is stored and processed on the appliance. If your periodic backup fails with an indication that there is not enough disk space available, update your quotas based on the output of the command.

Disk space allocation for the entire appliance can be managed in Flowmon Configuration Center / Resource Manager / Quota Manager. The required disk space must be available as Free, for example, disk space not allocated to Flowmon Monitoring Center (FMC) or any other module.

Usage

To enable Flowmon Backup functionality, a Flowmon appliance administrator must:

• configure External Data Storage in the Flowmon Configuration Center,

• access the appliance using SSH and use the Flowmon Backup utility to specify when the periodic backup should be performed.

To apply changes made in the backup.yml configuration file, run:

sudo backup -c

To query the status of Flowmon Backup, run:

sudo backup -i

To list all available backups present in External Data Storage, run:

sudo backup -l

To perform an on-demand backup, run:

sudo backup -b

To restore a backup, a Flowmon appliance administrator must:

• Ensure the appliance is the same model/version as the appliance from which the backup was created

• Reset the appliance to its factory state

• Properly configure the management interface

• Configure External Data Storage in the Flowmon Configuration Center

• [Optionally, on hardware appliances] upload a valid license to the appliance

• Access the appliance using SSH and specify the machine-id in the Flowmon Backup configuration file to determine which backups can be considered for restoration

• Adjust the necessary configuration options in backup.yml

• Run Flowmon Backup restore

To list all available backups present in External Data Storage, run:

sudo backup -l

To restore the appliance from an existing backup, run:

sudo backup -r <backup_name>

When the restore process is running, you should NOT

• Attempt to access the appliance using its web interface

• Make configuration changes

• Restart the appliance

• Send new flow data to listener ports of the appliance

The process may take a long time, depending on the amount of data and the complexity of the configuration being restored.

Logs can be found in

/data/components/apps/log/backup.log

/data/components/apps/log/flow-backup.log