Using Command Line Tools for Customized Backup and Recovery

Customized backup of the accelerator can be performed using command line tools provided with the Accelerator database and replication software.

Data recovery likewise utilizes command line tools provided with the accelerator database and replication software.

Hubble Accelerator Database Table Backup

Log on to the Accelerator server and check you have enough space to take backups of data.

Note: The backup process creates uncompressed copies of the tables, and hence will consume disk space. Best practice recommendation is to create an NFS mount to a remote server to store the backup of your Accelerator data.
Create a directory to hold the backups:

mkdir /mnt/ybdata/<Backup Directory Name>
Navigate to the new directory:

cd /mnt/ybdata/<Backup Directory Name>
Optionally, if required you can create sub directories for each schema you are backing up.

The command that is used to take a backup of the table and data is called copydb, the function when run will create two files copy.in and copy.out. These files are then used to create the export data files (copy.out) and then to restore the tables and data (copy.in).

The copydb command takes the following parameters:

To copy all the tables in the schema owned by the database user:

copydb <database name> -u<DB UserName>
To copy one or multiple tables from the schema owned by the database user:

copydb <database name> -u<DB UserName> -r<TableNamel> <TableName2>

Running the copydb command will as previous explained create two files copy.in and copy.out. For example, if I wanted to backup TableA from the replication schema I would run:

copydb db -ureplication -rTableA

This will create copy.in and copy.out in the directory where I ran the command.

Then run the export command to generate the data file backup, based on the copy.out file. The syntax for the export command is:

sql <database name> -u<DB UserName> < copy.out

For example:

sql db -ureplication < copy.out

This will create individual data files named <tablename>.<schema> in the directory that you ran the command from. For example, TableA.replication.

Exporting Replication Tasks

Log on to the Accelerator server and change directory to /opt/attunity/replicate/data/imports:

cd /opt/attunity/replicate/data/imports
Change the Accelerator user account, to use the Qlik user:

su qlik
To export an individual task enter the following:

repctl exportrepository task=<name of task>

For example, if the task is called PRODDTA, then you would enter (note the task name is case sensitive):

repctl exportrepository task=PRODDTA
To export all tasks, enter the following:

repctl exportrepository
A json file will be created in the /opt/qlik/replicate/data/imports directory. This can now be copied from the Accelerator (SCP) and to your backup location.

Compressing and Decompressing Backup Files

The Accelerator has both tar and pigz installed by default. Tar to create a tar file containing the file(s) and pigz to compress the tar file

Create a tar file

To run a tar command over the complete directory you have been using to create your backups, navigate down:

cd..

Then run the following:

tar -cvf <name for tar file>.tar <directory_to include in_tar_file>

For example if your tar file was to be called replication.tar and your directory is called replication then you would enter:

tar -cvf replication.tar replication/

Compress tar file

You can then compress the tar file using pigz:

pigz <name of file to compress> --best -k

the -k flag indicates that you want to keep the source file, in our case we do not want to keep the source file so this will be omitted for our example:

pigz replication.tar --best

will create the compressed file replication.tar.gz and remove the original replication.tar file. You can now copy the compressed file off the accelerator server, to your backup location, using SCP or equivalent.

Decompress file

To decompress a pigz compressed file:

pigz -d <name_of_compressed_file>

For example if the compressed file was called replication.tar.gz, then run the following:

pigz -d replication.tar.gz

This will create the decompressed file replication.tar

Extract tar file

To extract the contents from a tar file:

tar -xvf <name of tar file>

for example, if you tar file is called replication.tar then:

tar -xvf replication.tar

Restoring Data

Log on to Accelerator.
Copy the backup file onto the server (SCP) and into the directory that the backup was created from (see Hubble Accelerator Database Table Backup).
Decompress the file if required (see Compressing and Decompressing Backup Files).

Note: If the location of the files is different to the location the backup was made from you will need to edit the copy.in file and change the location specified in the file to the new location of the backup files. The copy.in file contains sections for Creating Tables, Grant Select and Copying Data, if you want to restore the data, but the table already exists in the database, then you would need to edit the copy.in file accordingly.
Then to use the copy.in file to import the data run:

sql <database_name> -u<DB_UserName> < copy.in

For example:

sql db -uhubble < copy.i

Importing Replication Tasks

Note: If you are importing a backup file, the backup file will also contain the connection details (encrypted), after the import process has been completed, the password used for each of the database connections is removed. The password will need to be re entered in the manage database connection dialog for each connection.

Copy the backup file (json) onto the accelerator server in the Linux directory:

/opt/qlik/replicate/data/imports
Log onto the accelerator server and change the owner of the backup file to the user Qlik:

chown qlik:qlik <FileName.json>
Log in or change the accelerator user account, that you are logged in as, to the user Qlik:

su qlik
To import the backup file (json) enter the following:

repctl importrepository json_file=<Name of Json File>

For example, for a json file named Ora_Rep_F0911.json the following command would be run:

repctl importrepository json_file=Ora_REP_F0911

Note: The name of the file is case sensitive and you do not need to enter the .json extension.