Viewing Backups
You can view backups in any of three ways:
- Use
vbrto list the backups that reside on the local or remote backup host (requires a configuration file). - View historical information about backups using the DATABASE_BACKUPS systems table. Because the
database_backupssystem table contains historical information, it is not updated when you delete the backups - Open the vbr log file to check the status of a backup. The log file resides on the node where you have run vbr, in the directory specified by the vbr configuration parameter tempDir, by default set to
/tmp/vbr.
List Backups with vbr
To list backups on the backup hosts, use vbr --task listbackup with a specific configuration file. The following example shows how you can list backups, using a full backup configuration file, bak.ini:
$ vbr --task listbackup --config-file /home/dbadmin/bak.ini
The following table contains information about each output column returned from a vbr listbackup task:
| Output Column | Description |
|---|---|
backup
|
The name of the generated backup. Vertica names the backup by combining the name of the vbr configuration file with a timestamp. Use the timestamp to identify an archive when you perform a restore. |
backup_type
|
The type of the backup, either full or object. |
epoch
|
The epoch when the backup was created. |
objects
|
The objects being backed up. For a full backup, this field is blank. |
include_patterns
|
Any wildcard patterns included in your object backup tasks using the includeObjects parameter in your configuration file. For a full backup, this field is not displayed. |
exclude_patterns
|
Any wildcard patterns included in your object backup tasks using the excludeObjects parameter in your configuration file. For a full backup, this field is not displayed. |
nodes (hosts)
|
Enterprise Mode only. The hosts that received the backup and the database node names that provided the backups. |
version
|
The version of Vertica used to create the backup. |
file_system_type
|
The storage location file system of the Vertica hosts that comprise this backup. Returns Linux, HDFS, GCS, or S3. |
communal_storage
|
Eon Mode only. The communal storage location for the backup. |
The following example shows a list of full backups of a three node cluster to a single backup host, bkhost.
backup backup_type epoch objects include_patterns exclude_patterns nodes (hosts) version file_system_type bak_20160414_134452 full 749 v_vmart_node0001(bkhost), v_vmart_node0002(bkhost), v_vmart_node0003(bkhost) v10.0.0 [Linux] bak_20160413_174544 full 659 v_vmart_node0001(bkhost), v_vmart_node0002(bkhost), v_vmart_node0003(bkhost) v10.0.0 [Linux]
The listbackup task fails if you attempt to view backups on a cluster without a database when the backups were made to local hosts using the [] shortcut. Vbr requires a database to provide the location of the mapped local host.
Viewing All Backups in a Location
Use the --list-all parameter with the listbackup task to view a list of all the snapshots stored on the hosts and paths listed in the specified configuration file.
$ vbr --task listbackup --list-all --config-file /home/dbadmin/Nightly.ini
The following example shows a --list-all task using the configuration file Nightly.ini. That configuration file references the hosts doca01, doca02, and doca03 and the path /vertica/backup. The output shows that these locations contain not just the backups created using Nightly, but also backups created using a configuration file called Weekly.ini.
backup backup_type epoch objects include_patterns exclude_patterns nodes(hosts) version file_system_type Weekly_20170508_183249 full 3449 vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca01), vmart_3(doca01) v10.0.0 [Linux] Weekly_20170508_182816 full 2901 vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0 [Linux] Weekly_20170508_182754 full 2649 vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0 [Linux] Nightly_20170508_183034 object 1794 sales_schema vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0 [Linux] Nightly_20170508_181808 object 1469 sales_schema vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0 [Linux] Nightly_20171117_193906 object 173 sales_schema vmart_1(doca01), vmart_2(doca02), vmart_3(doca03) v10.0.0 [Linux]
You can also use the the --json and --list-output-file parameters with the listbackup task to output the same content in JSON delimited format to a display or to an output file. For more information, refer to vbr Reference.
Query database_backups
Use the following query to list historical information about backups. The objects column lists which objects were included in object-level backups. Do not use the backup_timestamp value when restoring an archive. Instead, use the values provided by vbr --task listbackup, when restoring an archive.
=> SELECT * FROM v_monitor.database_backups; -[ RECORD 1 ]----+------------------------------ backup_timestamp | 2013-05-10 14:41:12.673381-04 node_name | v_vmart_node0003 snapshot_name | schemabak backup_epoch | 174 node_count | 3 file_system_type | [Linux] objects | public, store, online_sales -[ RECORD 2 ]----+------------------------------ backup_timestamp | 2013-05-13 11:17:30.913176-04 node_name | v_vmart_node0003 snapshot_name | kantibak backup_epoch | 175 node_count | 3 file_system_type | [Linux] objects | -[ RECORD 13 ]---+------------------------------ backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:02:23.721657-04 node_name | v_vmart_node0003 snapshot_name | objectbak backup_epoch | 180 node_count | 3 file_system_type | [Linux] objects | test, test2 -[ RECORD 14 ]---+------------------------------ backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:19:44.952884-04 node_name | v_vmart_node0003 snapshot_name | table1bak backup_epoch | 180 node_count | 3 file_system_type | [Linux] objects | test -[ RECORD 15 ]---+------------------------------ backup_timestamp | 2013-05-16 07:20:18.585076-04 node_name | v_vmart_node0003 snapshot_name | table2bak backup_epoch | 180 node_count | 3 file_system_type | [Linux] objects | test2