Fun in mds_backup land

mds_backups usually work… but have you tried the restores???? surprise surprise if your ducks aren’t lined up.

1. R75.40-476 (don’t know about the others) they put the customer data  in the wrong directory for open servers (some version of the appliances were hosed too,not sure which)(see my blog on it).
2. If you DO move your customer directory to /var/log/customers (has to be exact name), then make sure you have the patch HOTFIX_FOXX_HF_HA46_184  with the backup/restore magic in it
3. Local GAIA CLI/GUI backups (not mds_backup) will fail if you run out of space because they store the archive in the / partition which has limited space
4. NOTE: That GAIA GUI/CLI backup includes GRUB files in the backup which means you can only restore with a GAIA CLI “set backup restore local XXXXX”
5. NOTE: GAIA will grab its ‘local’ backups from the /var/CPbackup/backups directory… So I hope your partition is big enough if you are planning on copying archives into that directory to restore it.
6. You could store your backups offline…..but dont’ bother reading the  CP instructions for RESTORE. The command line is funky and wrong. And GAIA command completion is screwed up so don’t trust it.set backup restore ftp ip VALUE file VALUE username VALUE password plain ——- OOOOPS check it out there is my password in the file name
7. Oh yeah, just to make it more interesting the backup log is nicely hidden but here it i s:
8. If you want to restore your MDS to a different server for doing upgrades or something like that, then use Unix command line ‘mds_backup -l -d /var/log/CPbackup/backups’ and ‘mds_restore’.
9. SOOOOOO basically if your /var/CPbackup partition is too small you are hosed. Well, there are symbolic links…….but   seems to me  that backups and restores should work out of the box. Try this for symbolic links. I tested this with backups and restores and it seems to work…weirdly. For a locally retained ‘backup’ command, it will actually break the last ‘mv’ command which use to move it into /var/CPbackup/backups and keep it here. Works for ftp backups. I am trying to figure out a better way…please hold. Make sure you test this because may work differently without the magic patch or the version you are on or if its an appliance or open server or the the moon was full and tides where low! mds_backup works regardless, you can specific the directory or us the current working directory.
10. Oh yeah, just noticed that restore did NOT restore my /home/admin directory. Darn, could of really used those scripts I”ve been working on for years. Oh well “se la vie” as the Frenchies say.
11. If for some reason clish cannot see the backups when you do a ‘set backup restore local <backupfile>, try using /bin/restore.
12. Oh you will LOVE this. In /bin/bash mode, make sure you are using the right restore command because there are two of them and your $PATH variable will only pull one of them. There is a snapshot restore and a GAIA backup restore. Look at the full file name paths:
13. Oh yes, did I say that the mds_backup -l switch on MDS will be ignored when it comes to SmartLog index files? See next to exclude.
14. Oh yes, did I say that the $MDSDIR/conf/mds_exclude.dat file has the wrong pathnames in it? They populated it with symbolic link names and you have to use absolute names. Use ‘pwd -P’ to see the real
    
    directory names. NOTE: The exclude names start with the base of the tar command in the script.