Create backup schedule

Learn how to create a schedule to automatically start backups.

Prerequisites

You must have an archive volume for the backups. For more information, see Create remote archive volume with Amazon S3.

Do not stop the database while a backup is in progress.

Do not modify the archive volume or the data volume while a backup is in progress.

Procedure (command line)

This procedure uses the command-line tool confd_client, which is available on all database nodes. You can also access ConfD through XML-RPC in your own Python programs. For more information, see ConfD.

Placeholder values are indicated with UPPERCASE characters. Replace the placeholders with your own values.

  1. Connect to the cluster operating system (COS) using c4 connect -i PLAY_ID -s cos.

    Example:
    Copy 
    ./c4 connect -i c3275f84 -s cos

    To find the play ID, you can use c4 ps.

    For more information about how to use c4 commands, see How to use c4.

  2. To find the database name when you are connected to COS, use the ConfD job db_list.

    Example:
    Copy 
    confd_client db_list
    - MY_DATABASE

  3. To find information about available archive volumes:

    Remote archive volumes

    To find the names of available remote archive volumes, use the ConfD job remote_volume_list:

    Copy 
    confd_client remote_volume_list

    To find the volume ID of a remote archive volume, use the ConfD job remote_volume_info. The ID is stored under “vid”.

    Copy 
    confd_client remote_volume_info remote_volume_name: VOLUME_NAME

    By default, an S3 bucket is created during deployment and configured as a remote archive volume with the name cloud_data_remote_volume.

    Remote archive volume IDs typically start at 10001.

    See also Create remote archive volume with Amazon S3.

    You can also use the Administration API to get information about the database, archive volumes, and existing backups. For more information, see List backups.

  4. To create the backup schedule, use the ConfD job db_backup_add_schedule.

    A common backup schedule is a weekly backup with an expiration of 10 days and incremental backups Monday - Saturday with an expiration time of 3 days. To set up this configuration, create two backup schedules. For example:

    Copy 
    confd_client db_backup_add_schedule db_name: MY_DATABASE backup_name: weekly_full_backup backup_volume_name: VOLUME_NAME enabled: true level: 0 expire: '1w 3d'  minute: 0 hour: 0 day: "'*'" month: "'*'" weekday: 0
    Copy 
    confd_client db_backup_add_schedule db_name: MY_DATABASE backup_name: daily_incremental backup_volume_name: VOLUME_NAME enabled: true level: 1 expire: '3d' minute: 0 hour: 0 day: "'*'" month: "'*'" weekday: "'1,2,3,4,5,6'"

Verification

To verify that the schedule was created, use the ConfD job db_info. Information about backups is found in the config: section.

Copy 
confd_client db_info db_name: MY_DATABASE

Example output:

Copy 
config:
  _sec_name: 'DB : Exasol'
  auto_start: true
  backups:
    daily_incremental:
      day: '*'
      enabled: true
      expire: 259200
      hour: '0'
      level: 1
      minute: '0'
      month: '*'
      volume: r0002
      weekday: 1,2,3,4,5,6
    weekly_full_backup:
      day: '*'
      enabled: true
      expire: 864000
      hour: '0'
      level: 0
      minute: '0'
      month: '*'
      volume: r0002
      weekday: '0'

Learn how to create a schedule to automatically start backups.

Backup schedules use the same format as cron jobs. For more information, see cron on Wikipedia.

Procedure

Do not stop the database while a backup is in progress.

Do not add or remove nodes on the archive volume or on the data volume being backed up while a backup is in progress.

Follow these steps to create a backup schedule: 

  1. In EXAoperation, go to Services > EXASolution and click the database instance for which you want to create the backup schedule. The Database Instance screen is displayed.

  2. Click Schedule to create a backup schedule. This displays the EXASolution Backup Scheduling screen.

  3. Set up a backup schedule using a combination of the parameters from Backup Schedule Settings. Separate multiple entries with commas.
  4. Select the Active checkbox and Add check boxes for the record you are adding, and click Apply.

Backup Schedule Settings

Setting Description Value Range Example
Active Check box to indicate active backup schedule.    
Minute and Hour The time the backup must start. 0-59 for Minute,
0-23 for Hour		 To start a backup at 11:15 PM, set Minute to "15" and Hour to "23".
Day The day of the month the backup must run. 1-31 If a backup should run on the 15th, set Day to "15".
Month The month the backup must run. 1-12 To run the backup every second month, set Month to "2,4,6,8,10,12". This backup will run in February, April, June, August, October, and December.
Weekday The day of the week the backup must run.

0-7:

  • 0 (Sun)
  • 1 (Mon)
  • 2 (Tues)
  • 3 (Wed)
  • 4 (Thurs)
  • 5 (Fri)
  • 6 (Sat)
  • 7 (Sun)

To run the backup on Monday and Wednesday, set Weekday to "1,3".

For Sunday, you can choose any of the two (0 or 7) options from the value range.

Archive Select the archive volume the backup will be stored on. N/A  
Level The backup level, such as full backup, or incremental.

0-9:

  • 0 - full backup
    1 - incremental backup to level 0 backup
  • 2 - incremental backup to level 1 backup
  • etc.
  
Expire

The duration of time until the backup will expire.

 N/A To make a backup available for one week and three days, set Expire to "1w 3d".
Comment A description for the backup. N/A "Weekly full backup."

If a local archive volume runs out of free space, expired backups will be automatically deleted. Expired remote archive volumes will not be deleted by this function.

Example: Weekly Backup with Daily Incremental Backups

The following is an example of creating a weekly backup with daily incremental backups. The following is a suggestion for a backup schedule:

  • Full Backup on Sunday at 00:00 (level 0), with a retention time of 1w 3.
  • Incremental Backups every day of the week at 00:00 (level 1), with a retention time of 3d.

In this backup setup, a full backup (level 0) is done on Sunday at midnight. The backups on each week night (level 1) back up all changes that occur since the full backup. The backups are stored in an archive volume within the cluster.

Level 0 backup settings

  • Active: Yes
  • Minute: 0
  • Hour: 0
  • Day: Every Day (set to *)
  • Month: Every Month (set to *)
  • Weekday: 0 or 7 (Sunday)
  • Archive: Select an archive volume.
  • Level: 0 (Full Backup)
  • Expire: 1w3d or 10d
  • Comment: optional
  • Add: Yes

Level 1 Backup Settings

  • Active: Yes
  • Minute: 0
  • Hour: 0
  • Day: Every Day (set to *)
  • Month: Every Month (set to *)
  • Weekday: 1,2,3,4,5,6 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
  • Archive: Select an archive volume.
  • Level: 1 (Incremental Backup)
  • Expire: 3d
  • Comment: optional
  • Add: Yes

Completed Schedule