Cloud Pak for Data online backup prerequisite tasks

Complete various prerequisite tasks before you create an online backup of IBM Cloud Pak® for Data. Some tasks are service-specific, and need to be done only when those services are installed.

Best practice: You can run the commands in these tasks exactly as written if you set up environment variables. For instructions, see Setting up installation environment variables.

Ensure that you source the environment variables before you run the commands in these tasks.

Set up a client workstation

Set up a client workstation from which you will create online backups. Make sure that the following clients are installed.

  • Red Hat® OpenShift® command-line interface (oc)
  • Cloud Pak for Data command-line interface (cpd-cli)

For more information, see Setting up a client workstation.

Install the required software on the source cluster

Install and configure the Cloud Pak for Data OADP backup and restore utility.

Note: When you install the backup and restore components, ensure that the csi default plugin is specified under spec.configuration.velero.defaultPlugins when you create the DataProtectionApplication (Velero) instance.

Check the status of installed services

Ensure that the status of all installed services is Completed. Do the following steps.

  1. Run the cpd-cli manage login-to-ocp command to log in to the cluster as a user with sufficient permissions to complete this task. For example:
    cpd-cli manage login-to-ocp \
--username=${OCP_USERNAME} \
--password=${OCP_PASSWORD} \
--server=${OCP_URL}
    Tip: The login-to-ocp command takes the same input as the oc login command. Run oc login --help for details.
  2. Run the following command to get the status of all services.
    cpd-cli manage get-cr-status \
--cpd_instance_ns=${PROJECT_CPD_INSTANCE}

Separately back up services that do not support online backups

For services that do not support online backups, back up those services separately by using their service-specific backup process before you back up a Cloud Pak for Data instance. For more information about services that do not support online backups, see Services that support backup and restore.

Prepare Watson Assistant

Ensure that volumes have the necessary labels for backup and restore. Do the following steps.

  1. Back up Watson™ Assistant.

    For more information, see Backing up and restoring data in the Watson Assistant IBM Cloud docs.

  2. Run the following command to get the name of the Watson Assistant installation (instance) in the Cloud Pak for Data control plane project:
    oc get wa -n ${PROJECT_CPD_INSTANCE}

    Note the name that is returned by this command. You will need this information to clean up and reinstall Watson Assistant after Cloud Pak for Data is restored.

    Typically, the command returns one instance of Watson Assistant. If the command returns more than one instance, contact IBM® Support for assistance on ensuring that no data is lost during backup and restore.

Prepare Watson Discovery

Before you back up a cluster where the Watson Discovery service is installed, back up the Watson Discovery data separately by running the Watson Discovery backup script. For more information, see Backing up and restoring data.