Backing Up the Database

Use vbr to save your data to a variety of locations:

Note: Creating a database backup on a different cluster does not provide disaster recovery. The cloned database you create with vbr is entirely separate from the original, and is not kept synchronized with the database from which it is cloned.

When to Back up the Database

In addition to any guidelines established by your organization, OpenText recommends that you back up your database:

Note: When you restore a database backup, you must restore to a cluster that is identical to the one where you created the backup. For this reason, always create a new backup after adding, removing, or replacing nodes.

Ideally, create regular backups of your full database. You can run the Vertica vbr utility from a cron job or other task scheduler.

Creating the Backup Configuration File

The vbr utility uses a configuration file for the information required to back up and restore a full- or object-level backup. The configuration file defines where the database backup is saved, the temporary directories it uses, and which nodes, schema, and/or tables in the database are to be backed up. You cannot run vbr without a configuration file, and no default file exists.

To invoke the script to set up a configuration file, enter this command:

$ vbr --setupconfig

The script prompts you to answer the following questions regarding the configuration file. Type Enter to accept the default value in parentheses. See VBR Configuration File Reference in the Administrator’s Guide for information about specific questions.

[dbadmin@localhost ~]$ /opt/vertica/bin/vbr --setupconfig
Snapshot name (backup_snapshot): fullbak1
Number of restore points (1): 3
Specify objects (no default):
Object restore mode (coexist, createOrReplace or create) (createOrReplace):
Vertica user name (dbadmin):
Save password to avoid runtime prompt? (n) [y/n]: y
Password to save in vbr config file (no default):
Node v_vmart_node0001
Backup host name (no default): 194.66.82.11
Backup directory (no default): /home/dbadmin/backups
Config file name (fullbak1.ini):
Password file name (no default value) (no default):pwdfile
Change advanced settings? (n) [y/n]: n
Saved vbr configuration to fullbak1.ini.
Saved vbr database password to pwdfile.ini.

After you answer the required questions, vbr generates a configuration file with the information you supplied. Use the Config file name you specified when you run the --task backup or other commands. The vbr utility uses the configuration file contents for both backup and restore tasks.

Creating Full and Incremental Backups

Before you create a database backup, ensure the following:

Run the vbr script from a terminal using the database administrator account from an initiator node in your database cluster. You cannot run the utility as root.

Use the --task backup and --config-file filename directives as shown in this example.

[release@qco55srv01:/scratch_b/qa/vertica/QA/VT_Scenario 0]$ vbr -t backup --config $FULLBAK_CONFIG
Starting backup of database VTDB.
Participating nodes: v_vmart_node0001, v_vmart_node0002, v_vmart_node0003, v_vmart_node0004.
Snapshotting database.
Snapshot complete.
Approximate bytes to copy: 2315056043 of 2356089422 total.
[==================================================] 100%
Copying backup metadata.
Finalizing backup.
Backup complete! 

By default, there is no screen output other than the progress bar.

If you do not specify a configuration file, the vbr utility searches for one at this location:

/opt/vertica/config/vbr.ini

If the utility does not locate the configuration you specify, it searches for one at opt/vertica/config/vbr.ini. If no file exists there, it fails with an error.

The first time you run the vbr utility, it performs a full backup; subsequent runs with the same configuration file create an incremental backup. When creating incremental backups, the utility copies new storage containers, which can include data that existed the last time you backed up the database, along with new and changed data since then. By default, vbr saves one archive backup, unless you set the restorePointLimit parameter value in the configuration file to a value greater than 1.