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Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 6.3 Backup Location Section 7 Section 8 Section 9 Section 10 Section 11 Section 12 Section 13 Section 14 Section 15 Section 16 Section 17 Section 18 Appendix A |
6.3 Configuring the Backup Location Each component has a backup location. This is necessary because the components may reside on different servers. The backup default location is the folder “backup”, which is in the home folder of the component in question (for example “\Program Files\L-Soft\Application Server\lui”). It is possible to use a different folder if desired. The folder configured may be either an absolute path, such as “C:\MyFolder\backup”, or a relative path, such as “myFolder\backup”, which is then interpreted as being relative to the home folder of the component. Enter the path name in the “Backup folder:” text box at each of the following locations:
Click OK to save all entries. 6.4 Configuring the Backup History To lessen the risk of restoring a backup containing corrupted data, LISTSERV Maestro provides the opportunity for administrators to create a backup history. Each component can be configured to keep a number of previous backups. Each time a new backup is made, it is saved into the backup folder configured for the component (see Section 6.2 Configuring the Backup Location). If the component is also configured to keep a number of previous backups, then the folders containing the older backups will be kept under names like “NAME1”, “NAME2” … “NAMEn”, where “NAME” is the name of the standard backup folder and “n” is the number of previous backups that the component is set to keep. For example, if a component is configured to keep three previous backups, than the backup history of each day will look like this:
Keeping a backup history can help ensure against corrupted backup data. However, as the amount of application data grows, it may not be possible to keep many old backups, which take up space on the disk. Also, keeping older backups on the same disk does not ensure against failure of the disk itself (head crash for example). Always save the backup to an external backup medium as described in Section 6.5 Saving a Backup to an External Medium. Note: if daily backups are saved to an external medium routinely, it is acceptable to set the number of old backups to “0”. 6.5 Saving a Backup to an External Medium Once LISTSERV Maestro has completed its backup, the configured backup folder of each component contains the data that is required to restore this component to the state of the moment when the backup was triggered. To prevent catastrophic loss of data, save these folders to an external backup medium such as a backup tape or other storage device. One approach is to use the automatically triggered external post-backup process that is outline in Section 6.2 Or, utilize whatever standard backup tool is used by the organization to configure a daily backup of the designated folders. Schedule this daily backup to occur at a time after the time when the Administration Hub itself triggers and completes the backup of each component. There should be a long enough period between the backup triggered inside of LISTSERV Maestro and the backup to the external medium triggered by the backup tool to ensure that all components have enough time to complete their backups. Otherwise, partial data would be backed up to the external medium. For small installations, the backup inside LISTSERV Maestro will not take more than a few minutes. However, as the data in the LISTSERV Maestro installation accumulates over time, backup will naturally take longer. Periodically check the backup logs to see how long the backup actually takes and schedule the external backup accordingly, at a safe time after the LISTSERV Maestro backup is completed. Remember that the backup tool must be configured such that it backs up all backup folders of all components. A LISTSERV Maestro installation will have three backup folders to save to an external medium. These folders may also reside on different servers, depending on the installation: one for the Administration Hub, one for the Maestro User Interface, and one for Maestro Tracker. 6.6 Identifying the Backup: The Backup ID Because the LISTSERV Maestro components store their backup data into separate folders, it is necessary to know which of the folders belong together, in case a backup history is kept or it is necessary to retrieve a backup from an external medium. This is done using the backup ID. Each backup gets a unique ID that is shared by all components participating in the backup. Each component also writes a “readme.txt” file into the backup folder. Stored in this text file is the ID of the backup that saved the data in the particular backup folder, together with output about backup start time, end time, and its success or error state. | ||||||||||