Back Up System Data¶

A system data backup of a StarlingX system captures core system information needed to restore a fully operational StarlingX cluster.

System Data Backups include:

platform configuration details
system databases
patching and package repositories
home directory for the sysadmin user and all LDAP user accounts.

Detailed contents of a system backup ¶

The backup contains details as listed below:

Postgresql backup databases
LDAP database
Ceph crushmap
DNS server list
System Inventory network configuration is required during a system restore to set up the OS configuration.
Docker registries on controller
Docker no-proxy
(Optional) Any end user container images in registry.local; that is, any images other than StarlingX system and application images. StarlingX system and application images are repulled from their original source, external registries during the restore procedure.
Backup up data:
- OS configuration:
  - (item=/etc)
  Note
  
  Although everything is backed up, not all the content is restored.
- Home directory ‘sysadmin’ user, and all LDAP user accounts (item=/etc)
- Generated platform configuration:
  - item=/opt/platform/config/<stx_version>
  - item=/opt/platform/puppet/<stx_version>/hieradata:
    
    All the hieradata under is backed-up. However, only the static hieradata (static.yaml and secure_static.yaml) will be restored to the bootstrap controller-0.
- Keyring:
  - item=/opt/platform/.keyring/<stx_version>
- Patching and package repositories:
  - item=/opt/patching
  - item=/www/pages/updates
- Extension filesystem:
  - item=/opt/extension
- dc-vault filesystem for Distributed Cloud system-controller:
  - item=/opt/dc-vault
- Armada manifests:
  - item=/opt/platform/armada/<stx_version>
- Helm charts:
  - item=/opt/platform/helm_charts

Data not included in system backups ¶

Application PVCs on Ceph clusters.
StarlingX application data. Use the command system application-list to display a list of installed applications.
Modifications manually made to the file systems, such as configuration changes on the /etc directory. After a restore operation has been completed, these modifications have to be reapplied.
Home directories and passwords of local user accounts. They must be backed up manually by the system administrator.
The /root directory. Use the sysadmin account instead when root access is needed.

Note

The system data backup can only be used to restore the cluster from which the backup was made. You cannot use the system data backup to restore the system to different hardware. Perform a system data backup for each cluster and label the backup accordingly.

To ensure recovery from the backup file during a restore procedure, containers must be in the active state when performing the backup. Containers that are in a shutdown or paused state at the time of the backup will not be recovered after a subsequent restore procedure.

When the system data backup is complete, the backup file must be kept in a secured location, probably holding multiple copies of them for redundancy purposes.