5 1 0:SEP sesam Bare Metal Recovery Linux – Backup Configuration

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Overview


The SEP Bare Metal Recovery module for Linux is fully integrated into the SEP sesam Client installation to ensure a fast and complete system recovery. The Relax-and-Recover (ReaR) is a Linux BSR recovery solution (based on GPL license) that is easy to set up and requires minimal maintenance. In the event of a disaster, the system can be re-created either on the same hardware or on compatible replacement hardware. For more details, see Relax-and-Recover documentation.

To plan for disaster recovery scenarios, recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) should be defined. These objectives determine how quickly you need to recover and how much data loss is acceptable. This information is used to configure the backups accordingly, preparing backup tasks that periodically create backups or snapshots of your Linux systems, including the operating system, applications, configurations, and data.

The disaster recovery backup tasks are scheduled to run automatically, ensuring that backups are consistently created without requiring manual intervention. In the event of a disaster, the recovery process typically involves preparing a new server instance with the same or compatible hardware and software configurations, restoring the ISO image, and recovering the system's partitions and filesystem configuration. Then restore of the complete filesystem on the client can be performed to bring the system back into operation.

This article is about backup configuration for Linux to prepare for disaster recovery. For details on recovery procedure, see SEP sesam Bare Metal Recovery Linux – Recovery.

Requirements

To ensure error-free operation of SEP sesam and improve performance, make sure that the following conditions are met:

  • Check the support matrix for the list of supported Linux BSR distributions versions.
  • SEP sesam Server and Client v. ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo. Check the Hardware requirements for SEP sesam Server and Client.
  • Make sure you have enough space in the directories /tmp/, /boot/ and /var/opt/sesam to store the temporary ISO image file (ca. 100 MB, depending on the system).

Limitations

The following features are currently not supported:

  • backup of the SEP sesam Server and RDS
  • backup of systems running on Citrix XEN virtual machines

Dissimilar hardware

If you intend to provide backup and restore scenarios with heterogeneous hardware configurations in your environment, perform thorough testing of this functionality beforehand. While SEP sesam for ReaR generally supports restoring to dissimilar hardware, specific limitations may apply. SEP cannot guarantee that all features will function correctly. In case you want to restore to dissimilar hardware, test the restore scenario carefully to identify and address any potential limitations.

(Multipath-)SAN volumes/SAP HANA

By default, the layout of (Multipath-)SAN volumes is not saved, and partitions of this kind cannot be recovered. If you require backup and recovery of a multipath SAN setup or SAP HANA installations, contact SEP support at support@sep.de for assistance.

Configuring backup tasks

SEP sesam Linux disaster recovery procedure is based on backing up all of the data, so you have to create two backup tasks in the SEP sesam GUI to back up your Linux system:

  • a Linux BSR backup task creates a bootable CD-ROM or DVD image from the running system, including the SEP Sesam client, and creates a boot option in the system's bootloader, which can be used in case the original boot configuration fails. This ISO image is transferred to the backup server and backed up by a regular file backup.
  • a Path backup task performs a full filesystem backup of the Linux client.

For general information on backup configuration and prerequisites, see Standard Backup Procedure. This section deals only with Linux BSR-specific information.

Backup workflow

BSR Linux backup new-graphic.png

During a backup the following steps are performed:

  1. Configure the Linux BSR backup task for a disaster recovery that backs up the systems partitions and filesystem configuration of your SEP sesam Client.
  2. Create a bootable ISO image that can be used to create a bootable media (CD-ROM or DVD). A boot option is added to the system's bootloader, providing a failover mechanism in case the original boot configuration fails. The ISO image is transferred to the SEP sesam Server and backed up in the regular filesystem backup.
  3. Create a regular Path backup task to perform a filesystem backup of your SEP sesam Client.

Step 1: Creating a task for the Linux BSR console

Configuring a disaster recovery task on a SEP sesam Server involves creating a Linux BSR backup task for your Linux client, setting up a backup schedule (specifying when you want to back up your data) and linking the schedule to a backup event (specifying how to back up the data and where to back it up to).

This task must always be performed before the regular filesystem (Path) backup.

  1. From the Main Selection -> Tasks -> By Clients, select your Linux client and then click New Backup Task. The New Backup Task window appears.
  2. To specify the Source, click the browse button and select Linux BSR.
  3. By selecting Linux BSR as a source, the BSR task type and the task name are set automatically. Rear backup task 1.jpg
  4. Switch to the Options tab to specify additional backup options. In the Backup options field, you can specify the following:
  5. -a nodelete: Do not delete the generated ISO image after the backup.
    -a raw: Create a backup file in plain ISO image format. This allows burning the image to the bootable media directly from the backup file in the data store.
    -v 3: Create a ReaR log file with debugging output (stored in /var/opt/sesam/var/lib/rear/var/log/rear/).
    -a SSH_ROOT_PASSWORD=<password>: If you want to initiate the recovery process remotely (the booted system image is reachable via SSH), configure a password for the remote login via SSH.
  6. Click OK to create the task.
  7. If you want to start the newly created task immediately, right-click the task and then click Immediate Start. If you want to create a periodic backup, you have to set up a schedule for your backup task (to create a new schedule, click New Schedule under Main Selection -> Scheduling -> Schedules). For more details, see Creating a schedule.
  8. Once you have configured a schedule, you create a new backup event for it. For general information on creating a backup event, see Creating a Backup Event.

Step 2: Creating a bootable restore disk image

Once your Linux BSR backup is finished, perform a restore in the SEP sesam GUI (using the standard options) to gain the bootable .iso file containing the recovery environment. See Standard Restore Procedure.

You can restore the task also from the web UI and use Restore Assistant. In web UI, navigate to Monitoring -> Backups or Last Backup State. Locate the completed disaster recovery task and in the available actions menu select Restore.

After the restore has been successfully completed, the iso file is stored in /var/opt/sesam/var/lib/rear/var/lib/rear/output/rear-[hostname].iso on the client and can be used to create a bootable media for a recovery.

It is recommended to create a new bootable disk with the latest configuration whenever you modify or upgrade your Linux system. Ensure that the most recent version is securely stored on a bootable disk (CD/DVD/USB drive/local disk space) or a network share.

Step 3: Creating a backup task for a file system backup

To be able to recover your Linux system completely, create a backup task to perform a full backup of your Linux file system.

When creating such backup task, you have to select Path as a task type and all as a backup source. Then you have to set up a backup schedule (specifying when you want to back up your data) and linking the schedule to a backup event (specifying how to back up the data and where to back it up to). For details, see Standard Backup Procedure.

Rear backup task 2.jpg


Known issues

If you have problems, check the Troubleshooting disaster recovery on Linux.

See also

SEP sesam Bare Metal Recovery Linux – RecoveryStandard Backup Procedure

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