Backup and Restore

Overview on Backup and Restore

The INUBIT software offers the following functions for data backup and restore:

Backup and Restore

When using Backup, system and user data of the INUBIT software are saved online in a specified time interval, using the Backup Connector.

Using the saved data, the system status at the backup time can be restored offline.

Refer to
- Creating a Backup
- Restoring System or User/User Groups

This feature must be activated in your license in order for you to use it. To extend your license, please contact the support of the Virtimo AG.

Usage Example

In order to be able to restore your system safely and efficiently, it is reasonable to combine both backup functions of the INUBIT software and an operating system backup with each other, for example like this:

Weekly full backup of the complete operating system, including the used databases, with added daily differential backup.
Daily system and user group backup of the INUBIT software, preferably at night, when only few workflows are executed.

Managing Backup and Restore

Overview

The INUBIT software offers two backup types:

System backup

Saves the current status of the INUBIT software. The following directories are always saved:
- INUBIT configuration (<inubit-installdir>/inubit/server/ibis_root/conf)
- INUBIT Process Engine log directory <inubit-installdir>/inubit/server/ibis_root/log
- User group admin (comprises all users)
User/User group backup

Saves selected users or user groups, including their subordinate user groups and users. Apart from user data (incl. linked users’ data), all workflows, modules, Repository and Monitoring files of the selected users or user groups are saved.

For information about linked users refer to Assigning Users to Additional User Groups and Editing the Assignment.

You can save other data as well. Refer to Extended backup options.

Running Processes and Data Consistency

In order to ensure the consistency of the backup, the backup is started only after all workflows with the status Processing have finished their current task, or when the workflows of the selected user/user group, resp., are completed. New workflows are not started. The workflows are released after completion of the backup.

Creating a Backup

Start the backup at a point in time, when as few as possible workflows are active!

Proceed as follows

Create a Technical Workflow.
Add a Backup Connector.
When configuring the Backup Connector, select the option System in order to create a system backup, or the option User/user group to save user data.
Enter the name of the backup file.

The backup file will be written to a default directory and overwritten with each execution of the Backup Connector. Thereby, already contained data are lost.

Refer to Backup Connector
Optionally: Save all backup files
1. In the Backup Connector, select the option Write to output stream.
2. In the Technical Workflow, add a File or FTP Connector and connect it with the Backup Connector.

→ Now the current backup file is saved under the given name into the selected directory.

Creating a Backup Offline

When you are offline, you can only create system backups.

Proceed as follows

Stop the INUBIT Process Engine.
Execute the <inubit-installdir>/inubit/bin/restore/backup.sh respectively backup.bat script.
Start the INUBIT Process Engine.

Option to retain versions in offline backup

You can execute the backup script using one of the following commands:

./backup.bat -f <path to backup zip file> [-rv <versions_to_retain>]

./backup.sh -f <path to backup zip file> [-retainVersion <versions_to_retain>]

-rv or retainVersion is an optional parameter.

If you use the optional parameter -rv <versions_to_retain> or -retainVersion <versions_to_retain> you define with the numeric value <versions_to_retain> how many of the latest versions of workflows or modules shall be backed up and retained. Then, former versions of workflows and modules are skipped during the backup.

By default, or if <versions_to_retain> is 0, all versions are backed up.

If a workflow or module has less than <versions_to_retain> versions, then they all are backed up. The head version is always backed up.

The numbering of versions remains the same after the backup; version increment will be continued at the highest version number.

If the <versions_to_retain> is a negative number an error is thrown and then backup will be aborted with an error message.

Managing Errors in Offline Backup

When performing an offline backup, you have the option to manage errors using one of the following commands:

./backup.bat <path to backup zip file> -fe

./backup.sh <path to backup zip file> -failOnError

The optional parameters are applicable only for offline backup scenarios. If you use the -fe or -failOnError option, the backup process will be aborted at the first error as before.

Restoring System or User/User Groups

In order to restore offline a selected system status or user/user group status, use the Restore application.

A system backup overwrites the INUBIT installation which is to be restored. If you have, e.g., created more user groups after a backup, then these user groups will not be there anymore after restoring. The ibis.xml file will not be restored. To use these settings, extract the ibis.xml file from the backup archive and transfer these values into the ibis.xml file of your INUBIT installation.

For user/user group backups only that group is completely reset which is replaced by the backup. If you, for example, restore a backup of the admin group, then all user groups below admin are reset. If you restore the backup of a subgroup of Admin, then only the selected group is reset, all other subgroups of admin are preserved.

The portal folder <inubit‑installdir>/server/ibis_root/conf/portal is not backed up during the backup because restoring these versions will restore old versions that are incompatible with the installed Liferay version. This requires additional time and archiving effort. Hence, the portal folder of the target system is retained during recovery.

If the EDI Signature Utility is not available in the target system after restoring, perform the manual patch steps as described in the INUBIT Patch Installation Guide.

Prerequisites

When restoring a system backup:

The operating system, on which the system backup was created, is identical with the operating system, on which the target system is installed.
The INUBIT Process Engine is stopped.

Proceed as follows

Open a command line prompt.
In the directory <inubit‑installdir>/bin/restore/ open the script restore.bat or .sh.

Pass on the absolute path of the file, which contains the backup, as --file parameter’s argument.

To get explanations about the parameters, call restore.bat or .sh with the parameter -h.

To restore data by script use the several options of the restore scripts.

Refer to Options of the Restore Script
Only for restoring libraries

For each directory to be restored (<inubit‑installdir>/server/lib/ext and <inubit‑installdir>/server/lib/system) a confirmation request is displayed. Confirm each directory you want to restore with y.

Only for restoring user/user groups

For each user and user group to be restored, a confirmation request is displayed.

Confirm all user/user groups, you wish to restore, with y.

If you want to restore a user backup from Backup connector dated before INUBIT 8.0.3 version, you may get the error message:

NoClassDefFound error related to logger class.

If this is the case open backup conf/deploy/ directory, delete ibis.jar file, and perform the restore.

To prevent conflicts between the process IDs of the restored processes and the already exiting processes, new process IDs will be assigned to the restored processes when restoring a user/user group.

Differences between Using the Backup Connector Module and Offline Backup

The differences between using the Backup Connector module and the offline backup are listed in the following table:

Functionality Backup Connector Offline backup script Remarks

Functionality	Backup Connector	Offline backup script	Remarks
Prerequisites	Process Engine is up and running	Process Engine is stopped	Backup Connector works in maintenance mode as well.
Supported backup type	System backup User/user group backup		The name of the user resp. user group can be added to the backup script to `userGroup` or `u`.
Negligible options	Repository Tasks and Waitings Monitoring I/O data	None
Performance	Slow	Faster compared to a Backup Connector	The Backup Connector is started when all running processes with the state `Processing` are completed. The Scheduler is stopped so that no processes with the states `Retry`, `Queued`, or `Waiting` are started again. This ensures that new processes are not executed.
Database interaction	Yes		Interaction of cache and logs

Prerequisites

Process Engine is up and running

Process Engine is stopped

Backup Connector works in maintenance mode as well.

Supported backup type

System backup
User/user group backup

The name of the user resp. user group can be added to the backup script to userGroup or u.

Negligible options

Repository
Tasks and Waitings
Monitoring
I/O data

None

Performance

Slow

Faster compared to a Backup Connector

The Backup Connector is started when all running processes with the state Processing are completed. The Scheduler is stopped so that no processes with the states Retry, Queued, or Waiting are started again. This ensures that new processes are not executed.

Database interaction

Yes

Interaction of cache and logs