CloudBoot Backup Servers

CloudBoot backup servers are CloudBooted KVM compute resources that can be used as backup servers. Follow the step-by-step instructions provided in this chapter to configure CloudBoot backup servers in your cloud.

PLEASE NOTE

• You should configure some local or remote attached storage for persistent backups on the provisioning/backup server.
• We strongly recommend you deploy one or more backup servers for backups and VS provisioning when using CloudBoot functionality.
• Before backup server creation, create a new KVM CloudBoot compute resource with an IP address from the dynamic range. Refer to the Create CloudBoot Compute Resource section of the guide for details. Ensure to choose the 'Backup' option and don't format disks.

Create CloudBoot Backup Server

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To create a CloudBoot backup server:

Edit CloudBoot Backup Server

To edit a CloudBoot backup server:

1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu and click the Backup Servers icon. 
2. On the screen that appears, you'll see the list of all backup servers currently set up in the cloud. Click the Actions button next to the backup server you want to edit, then click Edit to change the backup server's properties:
• Label - the name of the backup server
• IP address - the backup server IP address (IPv4)
• Backup IP address - provisioning network IP address

• Capacity (in GB) - the backup server capacity

• Backup server zone - the backup server zone to which this backup server is assigned

  

  It is possible to move backup servers only between backup server zones of the same type. For more information refer to Zone Types.

• Enabled – move this slider to the right to enable the backup server or to the left to disable the backup server 

  
  

  

  Note that disabling a backup server affects backups and virtual server provisioning as follows:

  Backups

  • You cannot create new backups on this backup server anymore.
  • Backups that were created before disabling the backup server remain on this BS.
  • You can restore virtual servers from backups available on this backup server.
  • You can convert virtual server backups to templates.

  Provisioning
  

  • The virtual server provisioning is not available on this backup server except for the following case.
  • If a template is located only on this backup server, provisioning of virtual servers based on this template is still performed on this backup server.
• Enable Integrated Storage on Static Backup Server - move the slider to the right to enable Integrated Storage on a static backup server.
3. Click the Save Backup server button to save changes.

Delete CloudBoot Server

To delete a CloudBoot backup server:

1. Go to your Control Panel > Admin > Settings menu and click the Backup Servers icon.
2. Click the backup server's label.
3. On the screen that appears, you'll see the list of all backup servers currently set up in the cloud.

4. Click the Actions button next to the backup server you want to remove from the cloud, then click Delete. You'll be asked to confirm the deletion.

   

   All the backups stored on that backup server will be deleted.

Troubleshooting

When using Integrated Storage and Windows VSs with large vDisks, sometimes the Cloudboot backup server might crash during backups. 

 Click here to see more about the problem.

This issue is related to the fact that ntfsclone does not handle read IO errors properly during data being copied off a vDisk snapshot. The read error is generated when the vDisk snapshot reservation space is exhausted during backup, due to a large amount of IO writes during the backup process or due to a long backup process on slow storage devices.

If you have Windows VS and you frequently experience backup server crashes or backup operation failures, you might consider implementing these solutions:

1. Scheduling the Windows VS backups during the idle times, when there are not many IO writes to the live vDisk. Disk IOPS can be viewed at Cloud > Virtual Servers > label of required VS > Storage tab > Disks > Actions button near needed disk > IOPS.

2. Increasing the snapshot reservation space for the vDisk(s) on the backup server CLI:

   onappstore snapreserve uuid=<UUID> reserve=<SNAP_RESERVE_IN_PERCENTAGE>

   CODE

   The default percentage is 10%, and it can be increased to the desired value for the specific vDisks.

There are no definite values, as each proper value depends on:

• Size of the vDisk
• IOPS on the vDisk or storage device
• Performance of the storage devices and network (backups last longer on slow devices)

In case of Backup server issues, we recommend increasing the snap_reserve of that vDisk to 20% and, if the issues persist, to 30%.

Snapshot reserve space must be reserved at the time of snapshot creation in order to prevent any data corruption for backups. Having corrupted backups is worse than having none.

Increasing the snap_reserve space to high values may reserve more storage space than necessary for snapshots, resulting in wasted storage capacity, so it should be slowly increased only on vDisks with backup problems to find the proper value that resolves the backup issues

If you would prefer to have the support team perform the task for you, please submit a request.