Backing up the provisioning database

["Robert M. Mather" <ro...@gmail.com>]

We're running the 2.0.1 server-allinone from the binary distribution in
production, and just wondering if there's a way to back up the provisioning
data. Is there a way to trigger an ACE-controlled data export/import, or
does it just come down to copying certain files? Can/should backups be done
while the server is running?

Thanks. So far we're really happy with ACE and just want to keep improving
our use of it as we scale out in production.

Robert

Re: Backing up the provisioning database

[Marcel Offermans <ma...@luminis.nl>]

Hello Robert,
On 23 Jun 2015 at 07:36:01, Robert M. Mather (robert.mather.rmm@gmail.com) wrote:

We're running the 2.0.1 server-allinone from the binary distribution in 
production, and just wondering if there's a way to back up the provisioning 
data. Is there a way to trigger an ACE-controlled data export/import, or 
does it just come down to copying certain files? Can/should backups be done 
while the server is running? 
ACE stores its data in repositories. It contains all the metadata about artifacts, features, distributions and targets. The other thing you need to backup is the contents of the OBR.

The repositories can be replicated, and a lot about setting that up can be found in the documentation about using relay servers: http://ace.apache.org/docs/configuring-relay-servers.html

The thing is, this is also a great way to doing on-line backups. You start a relay server, sync it with the master, and when the relay has all the data, you can shut it down and backup the bundle cache. If you ever need to restore it, use the relay as your “source” and sync a new master with the relay.

That still leaves you with the task of synchronizing the OBR. We really don’t have any special tools for it, but since that is basically a collection of files (the index is auto generated) you can just back those up.

Thanks. So far we're really happy with ACE and just want to keep improving 
our use of it as we scale out in production.
I think the setup with relays is also useful to setup ACE in production, as it also allows you to set it up in a redundant way. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Just for the record, in the past I once wrote a command line tool that “fetches” repositories and stores them in some local folder (allowing you to push them back too) as a custom backup solution. However this is more work and effectively does about the same thing that a properly setup relay would do.

Greetings, Marcel