Backup and Restore

Configuration Backup and Restore

You can create backups of your Multi-Site Orchestrator configuration that can facilitate in recovering from Orchestrator failures or cluster restarts. We recommend creating a backup of the configuration before every upgrade or downgrade of your Orchestrator and after every configuration change or deployment. We also recommend exporting the backups to an external storage outside of the Multi-Site Orchestrator nodes.


Note

Restoring a backup action restores the database on the Multi-Site Orchestrator, but it does not make any changes to the controller databases on each site. Therefore, after you restore the Orchestrator database, you must also re-deploy any existing schemas to avoid potentially mismatching policies between the Multi-Site Orchestrator and each site's controller. For information on specific configuration mismatch scenarios and backup restore procedures related to each one, see Backup and Restore Guidelines

Backup and Restore Guidelines

When saving and restoring configuration backups, the following guidelines apply:

  • Importing and restoring backups created from later releases is not supported.

    For example, if you downgrade your Multi-Site Orchestrator to an earlier release, you cannot restore a backup of the configuration created on a later release.

  • Restoring configuration backups created on releases prior to Release 3.2(1) is supported as a one-time step during cluster migration to Nexus Dashboard.

    Subsequent restore of backups from VMware ESX or Application Services Engine deployments are not supported.

  • When saving a backup, the configuration is saved in the same state in which it was deployed. When restoring a backup, any policies that were deployed will show as deployed, while any policies that were not deployed will remain in the undeployed state.

  • Restoring a backup action restores the database on the Multi-Site Orchestrator, but it does not make any changes to the controller databases on each site. As such, certain precautions and steps must be taken when restoring a previous configuration to avoid potentially mismatching policies between the Multi-Site Orchestrator and the sites, as described below.

No Configuration Changes Since Backup

If there have been no policy changes between when the backup was created and when it is being restored, no additional considerations are required and you can simply restore the configuration as described in Restoring Backups.

Sites, Objects, or Policies Created, Modified, or Deleted Since Backup

If any configuration changes took place between the time when the configuration backup was created and the time it is being restored, consider the following:

  • Restoring a backup will not modify any objects, policies, or configurations on the sites. Any new objects or policies created and deployed since the backup will remain deployed. You will need to manually remove these after restoring the backup to avoid any stale configurations.

    Alternatively, you can choose to undeploy all policies first, which will avoid any potential stale objects after the configuration is restored from backup. However, this would cause a disruption in traffic or services defined by those policies.

  • The steps required to restore a configuration backup are described in Restoring Backups.

  • If the configuration backup you restored was saved before it was deployed to the sites, it will be restored in the undeployed state and you can simply deploy it to the sites as necessary.

  • If the configuration backup you restored was saved when the configuration was already deployed, it will be restored in the deployed state, even though none of the configurations will exist in the sites yet. In this case, in order for the configuration to be properly pushed to each site, you will need to re-deploy it to sync the Multi-Site Orchestrator's configuration with the sites.

  • If sites that were managed when the backup was created are no longer present in the Nexus Dashboard, the restore will fail.

  • If sites' status since the backup has changed (managed vs unmanaged) but the sites are still present in the Nexus Dashboard, the status will be restored to what it was at the time of backup.

Remote Backups

Multi-Site Orchestrator is deployed as an application in Nexus Dashboard. When you first deploy the cluster, any backups you create are saved to a default location which is located on each node's local disk.

While the backups are available on any one node and can be viewed using the MSO GUI, we recommend exporting all backups to a remote location outside the Nexus Dashboard nodes.

You can configure a remote SCP or SFTP location using the MSO GUI and then exporting the backup files there as described in the following sections.


Note

When you create a configuration backup and export it to a remote server, the files are first created on the Orchestrators' local drives, then uploaded to the remote location, and finally deleted from the local storage. There is a limit on the local backups disk space usage, which if reached can prevent remote backups from being created.

Configuring a Remote Location for Backups

This section describes how to configure a remote location in Multi-Site Orchestrator to which you can then export your configuration backups.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator.
Step 2

From the left navigation pane, select Operations > Remote Locations.

Step 3

In the top right of the main window, click Add Remote Location.

An Add New Remote Location screen appears.

Step 4

Provide the name for the location and an optional description.

Two protocols are currently supported for remote export of configuration backups:

  • SCP

  • SFTP

Note 

SCP is supported for non-Windows servers only. If your remote location is a Windows server, you must use the SFTP protocol

Step 5

Specify the host name or IP address of the remote server.

Based on your Protocol selection, the server you specify must allow SCP or SFTP connections.

Step 6

Provide the full path to a directory on the remote server where you will save the backups.

The path must start with a slash (/) characters and must not contain periods (.) or backslashes (\). For example, /backups/multisite.

Note 

The directory must already exist on the remote server.
Step 7

Specify the port used to connect to the remote server.

By default, port is set to 22.

Step 8

Specify the authentication type used when connecting to the remote server.

You can configure one of the following two authentication methods:

  • Password—provide the username and password used to log in to the remote server.

  • SSH Private Files—provide the username and the SSH Key/Passphrase pair used to log in to the remote server.

Step 9

Click Save to add the remote server.

Moving Existing Backups to a Remote Location

This section describes how to move an existing configuration backup you have created in the Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI from the nodes' local drives to a remote location.

Before you begin

You must have completed the following:

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator.
Step 2

From the left navigation pane, select Operations > Backups & Restore.

Step 3

Locate the backup you want to export, then click the actions (...) icon next to it, then click Move to remote location.

A Move Backup To Remote Location window opens.

Step 4

From the Remote Location dropdown menu, select the remote location.

Step 5

(Optional) Update the remote location path.

The target directory on the remote server, which you configured when creating the remote backup location, will be displayed in the Remote Path field.

You can choose to append additional subdirectories to the path. However, the directories must be under the default configured path and must have been already created on the remote server.

Creating Backups

This section describes how to create a new backup of your Multi-Site Orchestrator configuration.

Before you begin

If you want to create the backup using a remote location, you must first add the remote location as described in Configuring a Remote Location for Backups.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator.
Step 2

Create a new backup.

  1. From the left navigation pane, select Operations > Backups & Restore.

  2. In the main window, click New Backup.

    A New Backup window opens.

Step 3

Provide backup information.

  1. Provide the Name and optional Notes for the backup.

    The name can contain up to 10 alphanumeric characters, but no spaces or underscores (_).

  2. Choose the Backup Location.

    You can save the backup file locally on the Orchestrator nodes or export it to a remote location.

    If you want to save the backup file locally, choose Local.

    Otherwise, if you want to save the backup file to a remote location, choose Remote and provide the following:

    • From the Remote Location dropdown menu, select the remote location.

      The remote location must be already created as described in Configuring a Remote Location for Backups.

    • In the Remote Path, either leave the default target directory or you can choose to append additional subdirectories to the path. However, the directories must be under the default configured path and must have been already created on the remote server.

  3. Click Save to create the backup.

Restoring Backups

This section describes how to restore a Multi-Site Orchestrator configuration to a previous state.

Before you begin

Restoring a backup action restores the database on the Multi-Site Orchestrator, but it does not make any changes to the controller databases on each site. Therefore, after you restore the Multi-Site Orchestrator database, you must also re-deploy any existing schemas to avoid potentially mismatching policies between the Multi-Site Orchestrator and sites.

For information on specific configuration mismatch scenarios and recommended restore procedures related to each one, see Backup and Restore Guidelines.

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

If necessary, undeploy existing policies.

We recommend you perform this step if new objects or policies were added to the configuration between when the backup was created and current configuration. Additional context is available in Backup and Restore Guidelines.
Step 3

From the left navigation menu, select Operations > Backups & Restore.

Step 4

In the main window, click the actions (...) icon next to the backup you want to restore and select Rollback to this backup.

If the version of the selected backup is different from the running Multi-Site version, the rollback could cause a removal of the features that are not present in the backup version.

Step 5

Click Yes to confirm that you want to restore the backup you selected.

If you click Yes, the system terminates the current session and the user is logged out.

Note 

If your Multi-Site Orchestrator cluster is deployed in Application Services Engine, multiple services are restarted during the configuration restore process. As a result, you may notice an up to 5 minute delay before the restored configuration is properly reflected in the MSO GUI.

Step 6

If necessary, redeploy the configuration.

We recommend you perform this step to sync the restored configuration with the sites. Additional context is available in Backup and Restore Guidelines.

Downloading Backups

This section describes how to download you backup from the Multi-Site Orchestrator.

Before you begin

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

From the left navigation menu, select Operations > Backups & Restore.

Step 3

In the main window, click the actions (...) icon next to the backup you want to download and select Download.

This will download the backup file in msc-backups-<timestamp>.tar.gz format to your system. You can then extract the file to view its contents.

Importing Backups

This section describes how to import an existing backup into your Multi-Site Orchestrator.

Before you begin

Procedure

Step 1

Log in to your Multi-Site Orchestrator GUI.
Step 2

From the left navigation menu, select Operations > Backups & Restore.

Step 3

In the main window, click Import.

Step 4

In the Import from file window that opens, click Select File and choose the backup file you want to import.

Importing a backup will add it to the list of the backups displayed the Backups page.