Create Remote Archive Volume with Azure Blob Storage

You need a remote archive volume to store your backups. During the installation if you did not create the remote archive volume, you can create it from EXAoperation later. Exasol recommends using Blob Storage to store your backups for Exasol on Azure.

This section explains how you can use a B lob storage container to create a remote archive volume and store your backup.

Prerequisites

You need the following to configure the remote backup in EXAoperation:

  • All nodes must be able to reach the remote target.
  • If DNS names will be used, ensure the cluster has DNS servers configured.
  • You should have a container in your Azure Blob. If you don't have a container and want to create one, see Create a storage account and Create a container.
  • You should have the URL of the container (in the container properties) that you created in the following format:
    • http://storage_container_name.blob.corewindows.net/container_name
    • https://storage_container_name.blob.corewindows.net/container_name
  • You should have read-write access to the Blob storage. In case the nodes are on a private network, you need to assure that a service endpoint for Microsoft Storage is configured in your VNet to store backups in the container. For more information, see Virtual Network service endpoints.
  • You should have access key of the Blob storage account. You can find the key under Settings option of your storage account.

 

Remote Archive Volume Options

You can use the following volume options (depending on the protocol):

  • cleanvolume: Deletes remote backups on expiry.
  • noverifypeer: Doesn’t check server certificate.
  • nocompression: Writes plain data.
  • forcessl: Uses STARTTLS in FTP connection.
  • webdav: Uses WebDAV for http-URL
  • webhdfs: For WebHDFS URLs
  • s3: For remote archive volumes on Amazon S3.
  • timeout=seconds: Allows higher client/ server response time.

Configure Remote Archive Volume in EXAoperation

Do the following to configure the remote archive volume:

  1. Log in into EXAoperation.
  2. Go to Services > EXAStorage, click Add Remote Volume.

  3. Enter the following details:
    • Archive URL: Use the URL from the container properties that you created in Azure portal.
    • User: Enter the name of the user.
    • Password: Use key1 or key2 from the access key of your storage account in Azure portal as password for the remote archive.
    • Allowed Users: Select the EXAoperation users that can use the remote archive volume.
    • Read-only Users: Select the EXAoperation users that can read from the remote archive volume.

      Any user that you add as Read-only User, is limited to read-only access even if it's added to the Allowed Users list. If you have only one user that's added into list of allowed user, make sure you don't add the user in the list of Read-only Users.

    • Labels: Add label to the remote archive volume for an easy identification.
    • Options:You can use one of the options mentioned in section Remote Archive Volume Options. For example, cleanvolume option to clean expired backups.
  4. Click Add.

Other Remote Archive Volume Options

Exasol provides the following options to back up your data:

Protocol Archive URL Example
FTP

ftp://ftpserver:12345/optional-directory/

OR

sftp://ftpserver:12345/optional-directory/

SMB smb:////smbserver:12345/optional-directory/
WebHDFS

http://hadoop-server:12345/optional-directory/

OR

https://hadoop-server:12345/optional-directory/

S3

http://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/optional-directory/

Or

https://bucketname.s3.amazonaws.com/optional-directory/

To know how to use an S3 bucket for backup, see Create Remote Archive Volume with Amazon S3 .
Google Cloud Storage

http://<bucketname>.storage.googleapis.com

Or

https://<bucketname>.storage.googleapis.com

To know how to use Google Cloud Storage for backup, see Create Remote Archive Volume with Google Cloud Storage .