Backing up and restoring the system configuration

You can back up and restore the configuration data for the system after preliminary tasks are completed.

You can maintain your configuration data for the system by completing the following tasks:
  • Backing up the configuration data
  • Restoring the configuration data
  • Deleting unwanted backup configuration data files

Before you back up your configuration data, the following prerequisites must be met:

Note:
  • The default object names for controllers, I/O groups, and managed disks (MDisks) do not restore correctly if the ID of the object is different from what is recorded in the current configuration data file.
  • All other objects with default names are renamed during the restore process. The new names appear in the format name_r where name is the name of the object in your system.
  • Connections to iSCSI MDisks for migration purposes are not restored.

Configuration backup and restore process

Configuration backup is the process of extracting configuration settings from a system and writing it to disk. The configuration restore process uses backup configuration data files for the system to restore a specific system configuration. Restoring the system configuration is an important part of a complete backup and disaster recovery solution.

Only the data that describes the system configuration is backed up. You must back up your application data by using the appropriate backup methods.

To enable routine maintenance, the configuration settings for each system are stored on each node. If power fails on a system or if a node in a system is replaced, the system configuration settings are automatically restored when the repaired node is added to the system. To restore the system configuration in a disaster (if all nodes in a system are lost simultaneously), plan to back up the system configuration settings to tertiary storage. You can use the configuration backup functions to back up the system configuration.

The virtualization map is stored on the quorum disks of external MDisks, and is accessible to every node. If the system has only one control enclosure, the virtualization map can be stored on internal drive quorum disks.

For complete disaster recovery, regularly back up the business data that is stored on volumes at the application server level or the host level.