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Warning

Backup and restore operations will cause temporary downtime of the target DRP endpoint. During restore operations, the endpoint will be unreachable and all services will be restarted. Plan maintenance windows accordingly.

CRITICAL: Deleted backups are gone forever. There is no recovery mechanism for accidentally deleted backup archives.

Backup and Recovery Tutorial

This tutorial will walk you through setting up backup and recovery for your DRP endpoints step-by-step. By the end, you'll have a working backup system that can automatically backup your DRP endpoints and restore them when needed.

For architectural details, see Backup and Recovery Architecture.

What You'll Accomplish

In this tutorial, you will:

  1. Set up a backup server to protect a DRP endpoint
  2. Create your first backup
  3. Restore from that backup
  4. Configure automatic backups

Prerequisites

  1. All DRP endpoints (backup server and endpoints being backed up) must be running the latest version of DRP (v4.15 or later)
  2. All endpoints must have the latest version of content installed
  3. Systemd must be installed and running on all systems where DRP agents will be deployed (endpoints being backed up and restored)
  4. The drpcli-runner must be downloaded and updated to the latest version
  5. The backup destination folder on the backup server must be created before configuring the backup server

Tutorial Overview

We'll use two DRP endpoints for this tutorial:

  • Backup Server: https://backup-server.example.com:8092 (where backups are stored)
  • Target Endpoint: https://target-endpoint.example.com:8092 (the endpoint we want to backup)

Note

You can use the same endpoint as both backup server and target if needed, but using separate endpoints is recommended for production.

Step 1: Set Up Your Backup Server

1.1 Install the Backup Recovery Content Pack

First, ensure the backup-recovery content pack is installed on your backup server:

# Check if already installed
drpcli contents list | grep backup-recovery

# If not installed, install it. You can do it one of two ways
> Install from catalog. Browse to the [Catalog] and download backup-recovery
> drpcli catalog item install backup-recovery

1.2 Verify Storage Location

The backup server needs sufficient storage space. The default location is /var/lib/drp-backups, but this can be configured using the backup/destination-dir-base parameter.

Directory Must Exist

The storage directory must exist before configuring the backup server because it will be mounted into the backup server container. If the directory doesn't exist, the backup server setup will fail.

Storage Planning

Plan for at least 500MB - 2GB per backup, depending on your DRP endpoint size. With default retention of 3 backups, allocate at least 2-6GB of storage space.

Step 2: Create Your First Backup Server

2.1 Navigate to the Backup Interface

  1. Open your backup server DRP portal in a web browser
  2. Navigate to the Backups view
  3. Click the blue Add button

You should see a wizard titled "Choose Endpoint for Backup".

2.2 Configure the Target Endpoint

In Step 1 - Choose Endpoint for Backup:

  1. Endpoint URL: Enter https://target-endpoint.example.com:8092
  2. Endpoint Username: Enter your username
  3. Endpoint Password: Enter your password
  4. Click Test

If Test Fails

The endpoint connectivity place is run from your browser. This means that if your browser cannot reach the endpoint, then the test will fail. Ensure you choose a hostname that works from both the perspective of your browser and of your backup server.

If the test fails, try these steps:

  1. Verify the credentials are correct
  2. Open the target endpoint URL in your browser and accept any SSL certificate warnings
  3. Ensure the target endpoint is running: systemctl status dr-provision
  4. Check network connectivity: ping target-endpoint.example.com

When the test shows a green checkmark, click Next.

2.3 Set Backup Configuration

In Step 2 - Set Backup Options:

  • Destination Dir Base: Use default /var/lib/drp-backups or specify your custom path (directory must exist on your backup server)

  • Automatic Backups: By default, the blue circle will inherit default automatic backup behavior (daily at 3AM), but you can manually enable or disable this behavior using the X and check mark.

  • Attach Extra Profiles (Optional): You can attach profiles to pre-configure additional settings:

    • Click the + button to add profiles
    • Profiles can set custom retention policies, cleanup settings, and other parameters

Using Configuration Profiles

You can create profiles to standardize backup configurations. Here's an example profile that sets weekly archive creation:

Name: weekly-backup-profile
Params:
  backup/retention-count: 10
  backup/archive-schedule:
    interval: weekly
    time: 5
  backup/minimum-space-mb: 2048

Apply this profile during setup to automatically configure these settings.

Click Next.

2.4 Review and Create

In Step 3 - Review:

  1. Review the steps the UX will take to prepare your backup server
  2. Click Finish

The system will now create your backup server. This takes 1-2 minutes.

Step 3: Verify Backup Server Setup

3.1 Check Backup Server Status

After creation, you should see your backup server listed with:

  • Name: HA ID of target endpoint
  • Status: Should show "Ready" (green). This is listed on the editor tab of the newly created backup server.
  • Last Backup: Will show "Never" initially

If Status Shows Manual Intervention

If the status shows "manual-intervention", you need to manually install restore agents:

  1. Navigate to the Backup Runners view
  2. Click on each backup runner machine
  3. Look for the backup/restore-agent-script-generator parameter
  4. Run the command on the backup server or on the target machine but with the backup server credentials to generate the manual setup script.
  5. Transfer and execute the generated script on the target endpoint

3.2 Verify Backup Runners

  • Navigate to Backup Runners view

  • You should see backup runner machines:

    • Single endpoint: 1 backup runner
    • HA cluster: 1 backup runner per node

  • Click on a backup runner and check:

    • Runner Connections: Should show connections to the IP address of the node it is connected to
    • Address: Should match your target endpoint IP

Success Indicators

  • ✅ Backup server status: "Ready"
  • ✅ All backup runners have active connections
  • ✅ No error messages in Activity tab

Step 4: Create Your First Backup

4.1 Trigger Manual Backup

To create your first backup:

  1. Navigate back to the Backups view
  2. Select your backup server (check the checkbox)
  3. Click Backup in the top toolbar
  4. In the confirmation dialog, click Backup

4.2 Monitor Backup Progress

The backup will start automatically. Monitor progress by:

  1. Staying on the backup server detail page
  2. Watching the Activity tab for job progress
  3. The backup typically takes 2-5 minutes depending on whether artifacts are being backed up

4.3 Verify Backup Creation

When complete, you should see:

  • Last Backup: Updated to current timestamp
  • Backups View: New backup file appears with:
    • Name like backup-target-endpoint-2025-07-17-134816.tgz
    • Size
    • Creation timestamp

First Backup Complete!

🎉 Congratulations! You've successfully created your first backup.

Step 5: Test Backup Restoration

Restore Test Warning

This will temporarily take down your target endpoint.

5.1 Validate the Backup

Before restoring, you must validate the backup:

  1. Click on your backup file in the backup list
  2. Click the Validate button

  3. Wait for validation to complete (shows progress):

    • ✅ Validating archives
    • ✅ Testing extraction
    • ✅ Validating backup

When validation succeeds, the Restore button becomes active.

5.2 Perform the Restore

  1. Click the Restore button

  2. Read the warning dialog carefully:

    • Target endpoint will be unreachable
    • Process may take several minutes

  3. Click Restore to confirm

5.3 Monitor Restore Progress

Watch the restore progress in real-time:

  • ✅ Restore initialized
  • ✅ Downloading archive
  • 🔄 Restoring nodes
  • ✅ Restoring nodes complete
  • 🔄 Restarting services
  • ✅ (For HA: rebuilding cluster)
  • ✅ Restoring completed successfully

The entire process typically takes 3-8 minutes.

You can also watch the progress by finding the running Work Order from the backup server's Activity tab.

5.4 Verify Restore Success

  1. Try accessing your target endpoint: https://target-endpoint.example.com:8092
  2. Log in and verify everything looks correct
  3. For HA clusters, check that all nodes have rejoined the cluster

Restore Test Complete!

🎉 You've successfully tested backup and restore functionality!

Understanding What Gets Restored

The restore process replaces DRP data but keeps the existing DRP version. Here's what happens:

  • ✅ Restored: All content, machines, profiles, parameters, jobs, and configuration data
  • ❌ Not Changed: The DRP version remains whatever was running before restore

Example: If you backup DRP v4.14.13 but restore on DRP v4.14.14, you'll end up with:

  • DRP version: v4.14.14 (unchanged)
  • DRP content: Exactly what was in the v4.14.13 backup

This is by design—restore operations only replace the data directory and restart the existing DRP services.

Step 6: Configure Automatic Backups

Your backup server is already configured for automatic backups (we set this up in Step 2.3). Here's how it works:

6.1 Understanding the Schedule

With the default configuration:

  • Daily Frequency: 1 backup per day
  • Initial Hour: 3 (3:00 AM)
  • Result: Automatic backup every day at 3:00 AM

6.2 Modify Backup Schedule (Optional)

To change the schedule, you can manually edit the relevant Params, or use the UX schedule editor.

To manually edit the Params:

  1. Navigate to your backup server
  2. Go to Params tab

  3. Find and modify:

    • backup/daily-backup-frequency: Change to 2, 4, 6, etc. for more frequent backups
    • backup/initial-backup-hour: Change the start time (0-23)
    • backup/enable-automatic-backups: Set to false to disable automatic backups

To use the UX schedule editor:

  1. Navigate to your backup server, and ensure you're on the Editor tab
  2. Find the Automatic Backups field
  3. Change the setting to the check mark to enable/override defaults
  4. Use the dropdowns to change the frequency and initial backup hour

6.3 Monitor Automatic Backups

Check that automatic backups are working:

  • Monitor the backup list for new backups
  • Check Activity tab for scheduled backup jobs

Step 7: Manage Your Backups

7.1 Protect Important Backups

To prevent critical backups from being deleted:

  1. Click on a backup file
  2. Click the Not Protected button
  3. The backup is now marked as Protected

Protected Backups

Backups that are protected:

  • Won't be deleted by retention policies
  • Survive "purge all backups" operations
  • Must be manually unprotected before deletion

7.2 Enable Nightly Cleanups

By default, the system will not clean up old backups on a nightly basis. This functionality can be enabled by enabling the backup-nightly-check trigger:

  1. Navigate to the backup-nightly-check trigger in the Triggers view
  2. Click the check mark in the Enabled (via global) field

The system will now run nightly cleanups based on your retention policy (see below).

7.3 Configure Retention Policy

Once the nightly cleanup trigger has been enabled, you can control how many backups to keep:

  1. Go to your backup server Params tab
  2. Set backup/retention-count to a number dictating how many of the most recent backups to keep, or zero to keep all backups. Some examples:
    • 3 (default): Keep 3 most recent backups
    • 0: Keep all backups
    • 10: Keep 10 most recent backups

7.4 Clean Up Old Backups

If you enabled nightly backups, the system will automatically clean up old backups nightly based on your retention policy, but you can also manage backups manually:

Individual Backup Deletion:

  1. Navigate to the Backups view
  2. Click on your backup server
  3. Click on the Backups tab
  4. Find the backup you want to delete
  5. Click the delete button next to that backup

Bulk Cleanup Options:

  • Purge All Backups: Permanently deletes ALL unprotected backup archives

Permanent Deletion Warning

Deleted backups are gone forever. Protected backups must be unprotected before they can be deleted.

7.5 Remove Backup Server

When you no longer need a backup server, you can remove it completely:

  1. Navigate to the Backups view
  2. Select your backup server
  3. Click Delete (Cleanup)

What Gets Cleaned Up:

  • ✅ Restore agents removed from target endpoints
  • ✅ Backup runner machines deleted
  • ✅ Backup server configuration removed
  • ❓ Backup files: Only deleted if configured to do so (see below)

To Also Delete All Backup Files:

  1. Before removal, set the parameter backup/cleanup-files-during-remove to true
  2. This will permanently delete all backup archives for this endpoint

Irreversible Data Loss

Setting backup/cleanup-files-during-remove to true will permanently delete all backup archives when the backup server is removed. This cannot be undone.

Next Steps

Getting Help

If you encounter issues:

  1. Check the backup server Activity tab for detailed error messages
  2. Verify backup runner connections in the Backup Runners view
  3. Review Backup and Recovery Architecture for troubleshooting details
  4. Contact RackN support with specific error messages and logs

Congratulations!

🎉 You've successfully completed the backup and recovery tutorial! You now have:

  • ✅ A functioning backup server
  • ✅ Automatic daily backups configured
  • ✅ Tested restore procedures
  • ✅ Knowledge of backup management

Your DRP endpoints are now protected against data loss and you can confidently recover from disasters.