Sun Cobalt Qube 3 User manual

Disaster Recovery on the
Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3
Appliance
User Manual

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Part Number / Numéro de pièce : 070-00337-02
Date : 06-2001

Contents
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) v
Contents
1 Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™
Qube 3 Appliance 1
How disaster recovery works 1
Locking the UI databases 2
General steps to perform disaster recovery 3
General notes regarding backup services 4
Knox Arkeia 5
Tailoring the backup service 5
Files associated with Knox Arkeia tailoring 6
Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Knox Arkeia 6
Performing disaster recovery of a Sun Cobalt Qube 3
appliance with Knox Arkeia 7
Preparing for disaster recovery 7
Performing a disaster-recovery operation 8
Legato NetWorker® 9
Tailoring the backup service 9
Files associated with Legato NetWorker tailoring 9
Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Legato NetWorker 10
Performing disaster recovery on a Sun Cobalt Qube 3
appliance with Legato NetWorker 10
Preparing for disaster recovery 10
Performing a disaster-recovery operation 11
Technical note 11

Contents
vi P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001)
Veritas NetBackup 12
Tailoring the backup service 12
Files associated with Veritas NetBackup tailoring 12
Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Veritas NetBackup 13
Performing disaster recovery on a Sun Cobalt Qube 3
appliance with Veritas NetBackup 14
Preparing for disaster recovery 14
Performing a disaster-recovery operation 15
Configuring client agents on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance 16
Configuring Knox Arkeia 16
Configuring Legato NetWorker 17
Configuring Veritas NetBackup 17

1
Disaster Recovery on the
Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3
Appliance
The Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 appliance supports the use of third-party backup
solutions for performing disaster recovery. The supported backup solutions are:
• Knox Arkeia
• Legato NetWorker®
• Veritas NetBackup
Each of these solutions requires customization to correctly recover the Cobalt
configuration database in the Cobalt Configuration Engine (CCE). This technical
paper describes how disaster recovery works on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3
appliance, the steps required to perform general disaster recovery, and detailed
instructions on how to customize and use each of the specific backup solutions.
How disaster recovery works
For the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance, the term disaster recovery means restoring
the appliance after performing an operating-system (OS) restore operation which
wipes the hard drive clean and returns it to a factory-fresh state. This is also
known as “bare-metal recovery”. The entire appliance must be restored in order
for the configuration database and the machine configuration to be in
synchronization.
For most files on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance, disaster recovery is
straightforward: the files are recovered from the backup service and written to the
file system. However, the Cobalt Configuration Engine (CCE) requires additional
work and the three supported backup services must be tailored to handle it.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
2 P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001)
The approach used to recover the configuration database using Knox Arkeia and
Veritas NetBackup works as follows:
Before a backup operation begins, the pre-backup script
cobalt_prebackup
creates an archive of the configuration database in the directory
/var/cobalt/backups
.
The backup makes a copy of the archive:
/var/cobalt/backups/cce.tar
When the backup is complete, the post-backup script
cobalt_postbackup
deletes the archive.
During the disaster-recovery process, the entire appliance must be restored. This
restores the archive to the directory
/var/cobalt/backups.
When the backup is
complete, you must reboot the appliance; the appliance does not reboot
automatically. During the reboot process, the
cobalt_restore
startup script
detects the archive and restores the configuration database. At this point,
everything should be in a consistent state and disaster recovery is complete.
Legato NetWorker works in a different manner: it recovers the database during
the file recovery phase since this service permits per-file scripting at both backup
and recover time. The
cceasm
script is used for this purpose.
Locking the UI databases
For all types of backup, the database for the Server Desktop user interface (UI) is
locked for as short a period of time as possible. For Arkeia and NetBackup, the
Server Desktop UI is locked during the pre-backup creation of the database
archives. NetWorker locks the Server Desktop UI only during the backup of
the CCE database.
☞
Important: Changes to the configuration of the appliance should
not be made during the backup of the appliance; otherwise, the
configuration of the appliance and the configuration databases may
not be synchronized after the disaster-recovery process is complete.
This is also true for modifications to system configurations that do
not use the Server Desktop UI. After disaster recovery, the
appliance may be in an inconsistent state if the configuration
databases and the system configuration files do not agree.

General steps to perform disaster recovery
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 3
This begs the question: “So why not lock the UI until the backup ends?”
Unfortunately, that would entail shutting down CCE for an unknown duration
while the machine writes to the backup server. Because this would affect both the
responsiveness of the Server Desktop UI and, potentially, WebMail, Sun
Microsystems decided against locking the UI for the duration of the backup
process.
Sun Microsystems recommends that you schedule backups for times when it is
unlikely that system configuration changes are in progress. Partly for this reason,
most backup systems automatically schedule backups for the early hours in the
morning.
General steps to perform disaster
recovery
The general procedure for performing disaster recovery is as follows:
1. Perform an OS restore to wipe the hard disk drive and return the Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance to a factory-fresh state.
2. Configure the appliance through the Setup Wizard and return it to the
network. The appliance must be able to communicate with the backup server.
3. Through the Server Desktop UI on the appliance, configure the backup
service with which you backed up your appliance. The tasks include
enabling the backup client and entering a backup server name. The specific
configuration information is discussed later in this technical paper.
4. Use the backup solution to perform the recovery.
5. Reboot the appliance.
6. Verify the restoration.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
4 P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001)
General notes regarding backup
services
The following recommendations are stressed for configuring your backup
service:
1. Backup systems are very sensitive to time. If possible, configure the
appliance to use a network time protocol (NTP) server to set the clock on the
appliance.
On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > System > Time to
configure the time settings or to specify an NTP server.
2. Backup systems are very sensitive to correct DNS configuration.
Ensure that your appliance has both forward and reverse DNS lookups
available to the backup server so that the backup solution functions properly.
For more information on DNS records, see Appendix E in the user manual.
3. Always backup and recover the
/etc
and
/usr/sausalito
directories
together.
These directories contain both the appliance configuration and the CCE
database. Backing up and recovering these directories at different times can
lead to inconsistencies between the configuration of your appliance and the
configuration reported in the Server Desktop UI.

Knox Arkeia
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 5
Knox Arkeia
Tailoring the backup service
Server-side tailoring is required for Knox Arkeia. Arkeia performs backups with
groups of clients called savepacks . When adding a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance
to a savepack on the Knox Arkeia backup server, the tree options must be
modified to use a pre-backup and post-backup command.
To set these parameters, select the appliance from the list of clients in the
savepack and edit the tree options for that client.
1. Next to the option “command before tree”, uncheck the option “Backup tree
if command fails”.
2. In the field following this option, enter:
hostname:/usr/local/sbin/cobalt_prebackup
where hostname is the client name of the appliance you are backing up.
3. Next to the option “command after tree”, check the option “Execute if tree
backup fails”.
4. In the field following this option, enter:
hostname:/usr/local/sbin/cobalt_postbackup
where hostname is the client name of the appliance you are backing up.
☞
Important: For the hostname , enter the host name only. Do not
enter the fully qualified domain name.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
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Files associated with Knox Arkeia tailoring
Table 1 lists the files associated with the Knox Arkeia software. These files are
located on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance.
Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Knox Arkeia
To back up your appliance with Knox Arkeia, you must first configure and enable
the Arkeia agent on the appliance. For more information, see “Configuring client
agents on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance” on page 16.
Backups are started by using the Knox Arkeia UI. Once a backup of an appliance
has begun, the
cobalt_prebackup
script creates the
cce.tar
file in the
/var/
cobalt/backups
directory if the tree options for the appliance were configured
correctly.
When the backup has successfully completed, the script
cobalt_postbackup
removes the
cce.tar
file.
Table 1. Files associated with Knox Arkeia tailoring
Path and file name Description
/usr/local/sbin/
cobalt_prebackup Script that runs before a backup to create an archive of the CCE database.
/usr/local/sbin/
cobalt_postbackup Script that runs after a backup to delete the archive created by cobalt_prebackup.
/etc/rc.d/init.d/cobalt_restore Script that runs at startup and detects whether an
archive of the configuration database exists. An
extant archive is recovered and has its name
changed.
/var/cobalt/backups/cce.tar Archive of the CCE database. It is created by
cobalt_prebackup and deleted by
cobalt_postbackup. The archive is renamed to
restored.cce.tar by cobalt_restore after disaster
recovery.
☞
Important: The Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance will not restore
properly if the tree options do not execute the
prebackup
and
postbackup
commands.

Knox Arkeia
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 7
Performing disaster recovery of a Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance with Knox Arkeia
To perform a restore with the Knox Arkeia software, you must have backed up
the appliance to an Arkeia server.
Preparing for disaster recovery
Prepare your Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance for disaster recovery by performing
the following steps:
1. Perform an OS restore to wipe the hard disk drive and return the appliance to
a factory-fresh state.
2. Configure the appliance through the Setup Wizard and return it to the
network. The appliance must be able to communicate with the backup
server; otherwise, the recovery will fail.
3. If possible, configure the appliance to use a network time protocol (NTP)
server to set the clock on the appliance.
On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > System > Time to
configure the time settings or to specify an NTP server.
4. On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > Maintenance > Knox
Arkeia . The “Knox Arkeia Backup Settings” table appears.
5. Configure the Knox Arkeia client on the appliance.
• Enable Client —Click to enable the check box Enable Client.
• Backup Server Name —Enter the fully qualified domain name of the
Knox Arkeia backup server.
This server must be the Arkeia server to which you backed up your
appliance.
• Port Number —Enter the port number to which your Knox Arkeia
backup server is listening. The default port number is 617.
6. Click Save . The table refreshes and displays the new configuration.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
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Performing a disaster-recovery operation
After completing the preparation steps in the previous section, the Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance is now ready to be restored.
The restoration options on the Knox Arkeia backup server should include “Files
modified since backup date” and “by user ID”.
Only certain directories can be recovered during disaster recovery. Select the
following directories using the Arkeia tree navigator:
/home
/root
.nsr
/usr
/nsr
/var
/etc
opt
When the restore process is complete, reboot the appliance for all the changes to
take effect.
After the appliance has rebooted, ensure that the CCE database was recovered.
Inspect the directory
/var/cobalt/backups/
for files. If
cce.tar
exists and
does not have a ‘restored’ prefix, then you need to run the command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/cobalt_restore start
as the root user and reboot the appliance again.
☞
Important: DO NOT select
/lib
,
/boot
, or
/vmlinux.gz
or your
appliance will crash during recovery and most likely will not
reboot.
✍
Note: The
/nsr
directory and the
.nsr
file exist only if you have
loaded the Legato NetWorker client software on the appliance.
☞
Important: Disaster recovery is not complete until you reboot the
Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance.
The appliance does not reboot automatically.

Legato NetWorker®
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 9
The Arkeia log window indicates that the following files are “busy” and that it
cannot overwrite the files. This is both normal and acceptable.
/usr/bin/perl5.00503
/usr/sbin/httpd
/usr/sausalito/cced.socket
/usr/sausalito/sbin/cced
/usr/knox/bin/opbs
/usr/knox/bin/nlservd
Legato NetWorker®
Tailoring the backup service
No server-side tailoring is required for Legato NetWorker other than adding the
client to the backup server.
Files associated with Legato NetWorker tailoring
Table 2 lists the files associated with the Legato NetWorker software. These files
are located on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance.
☞Important: When adding a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance to a
Legato NetWorker backup server, select “UNIX® Standard
Directives” when creating the appliance client resource.
Do not select “Compression directives”. If you select “Compression
directives”, the tailoring for the appliance will not work properly.
Table 2. Files associated with Legato NetWorker
Path and file name Description
/.nsr Directives for handling Sun Cobalt Qube 3
appliance file systems.
/usr/bin/cceasm An external Application Specific Module (ASM)
for the CCE database.
Note: External ASMs are not compatible with
“Compression directives”.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
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Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Legato NetWorker
To back up your appliance with Legato NetWorker, you must first configure and
enable the NetWorker agent on the appliance. For more information, see
“Configuring client agents on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance” on page 16.
Sun Microsystems recommends specifying the “All” saveset when using Legato
NetWorker. If you must specify individual savesets for an appliance, you must
backup up the following directories together to ensure consistency:
/etc
/usr/sausalito
Performing disaster recovery on a Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance with Legato NetWorker
To perform a restore with the Legato NetWorker software, you must have backed
up the appliance to a NetWorker server.
Preparing for disaster recovery
Prepare your Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance for disaster recovery by performing
the following steps:
1. Perform an OS restore to wipe the hard disk drive and return the appliance to
a factory-fresh state.
2. Configure the appliance through the Setup Wizard and return it to the
network. The appliance must be able to communicate with the backup
server; otherwise, the recovery will fail.
3. If possible, configure the appliance to use a network time protocol (NTP)
server to set the clock on the appliance.
On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > System > Time to
configure the time settings or to specify an NTP server.

Legato NetWorker®
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 11
4. On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > Maintenance > Legato
NetWorker. The “Legato NetWorker Backup Settings” table appears.
5. Configure the Legato NetWorker client on the appliance.
•Enable Client—Click to enable the check box to enable the backup
client.
•Legato Server Hostnames—Enter the fully qualified domain names of
Legato NetWorker backup servers. Legato servers must have valid host
names.
This server must be the NetWorker server to which you backed up your
appliance.
•Service port range—Sets the range of the system’s service ports to the
one specified (default range is 9000—9010).
•Connection Port Range—Sets the range of the system’s connection
ports to the one specified (default range is 9011—9999).
6. Click Save. The table refreshes and displays the new configuration.
Performing a disaster-recovery operation
After completing the preparation steps in the previous section, the Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance is now ready to be restored.
Restore the file systems for your appliance in the following order:
/var
/
/home
When the restore process is complete, reboot the appliance for all the changes to
take effect.
Technical note
Legato NetWorker restores the Cobalt configuration database independently. It is
possible to restore the CCE database without restoring the machine configuration
files in /etc. If this is done, the configuration database and the Server
Desktop UI will have different information than the actual system, which is
generally considered to be a bad situation.
☞Important: Disaster recovery is not complete until you reboot the
Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance.
The appliance does not reboot automatically.

Disaster Recovery on the Sun Cobalt™ Qube 3 Appliance
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Veritas NetBackup
Tailoring the backup service
No server-side tailoring is required for Veritas NetBackup. Pre- and post-backup
scripts are already installed and are run automatically by the NetBackup client.
See Table 3 for a list of files associated with the Veritas NetBackup software.
Files associated with Veritas NetBackup tailoring
Table 3 lists the files associated with the Veritas NetBackup software. These files
are located on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance.
Table 3. Files associated with Veritas NetBackup
Path and file name Description
/opt/openv/netbackup/bin/
bpstart_notify Started automatically by NetBackup before a backup runs. It calls the script cobalt_prebackup.
/opt/openv/netbackup/bin/
bpend_notify Started automatically by NetBackup after a backup runs. It calls the script cobalt_postbackup.
/usr/local/sbin/
cobalt_prebackup Runs before a backup to create an archive of the CCE database.
/usr/local/sbin/
cobalt_postbackup Runs after a backup to delete the archive created by cobalt_prebackup.
/etc/rc.d/init.d/cobalt_restore Runs at startup and detects whether an archive of the
configuration database exists. An extant archive is
recovered and has its name changed.
/var/cobalt/backups/cce.tar Archive of the CCE database that is created by
cobalt_prebackup and deleted by
cobalt_postbackup. The archive is renamed to
restored.cce.tar by cobalt_restore after disaster
recovery.

Veritas NetBackup
P/N 070-00337-02 (June 2001) 13
Backing up a Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance with
Veritas NetBackup
To back up your appliance with Veritas NetBackup, you must first configure and
enable the NetBackup agent on the appliance. For more information, see
“Configuring client agents on the Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance” on page 16.
Backups are started by using the Veritas NetBackup UI. Once a backup of an
appliance has begun, the cobalt_prebackup script creates the cce.tar file in
the /var/cobalt/backups directory.
When the backup has successfully completed, the script cobalt_postbackup
removes the cce.tar file.
Sun Microsystems recommends specifying the “ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES” option
when using Veritas NetBackup. If you must specify individual savesets for an
appliance, you must backup up the following directories together to ensure
consistency:
/etc
/usr/sausalito

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Performing disaster recovery on a Sun Cobalt
Qube 3 appliance with Veritas NetBackup
To perform a restore with the Veritas NetBackup software, you must have backed
up the appliance to a NetBackup server.
Preparing for disaster recovery
Prepare your Sun Cobalt Qube 3 appliance for disaster recovery by performing
the following steps:
1. Perform an OS restore to wipe the hard disk drive and return the appliance to
a factory-fresh state.
2. Configure the appliance through the Setup Wizard and return it to the
network. The appliance must be able to communicate with the backup
server; otherwise the recovery will fail.
3. If possible, configure the appliance to use a network time protocol (NTP)
server to set the clock on the appliance.
On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > System > Time to
configure the time settings or to specify an NTP server.
4. On the Server Desktop UI, select Administration > Maintenance > Veritas
NetBackup. The “Veritas NetBackup Backup Settings” table appears.
5. Configure the Veritas NetBackup client on the appliance.
•Enable Client—Click the check box to enable the Veritas NetBackup
backup client.
•Master Veritas Server—Enter the fully qualified domain name of
Veritas NetBackup master backup server. The Veritas master backup
server must have a valid host name.
This server must be the NetBackup server to which you backed up your
appliance.
•Extra Veritas Servers—Enter the fully qualified domain names of any
extra Veritas NetBackup backup servers. All Veritas servers must have
valid host names.
6. Click Save. The Veritas NetBackup License Agreement appears.
7. Click I agree or I do not agree.
If you select I do not agree, the system does not save the configuration
settings for the Veritas NetBackup client.
If you select I agree, the table refreshes and displays the new configuration.