Backing up and restoring the Information Server microservices tier

Back up and restore the InfoSphere® Information Server microservices tier by running a script.

About this task

Attention: For backup and restore instructions applicable to releases 11.7.1.1 and later, see technote
.
The backup-restore-ugi.sh script backs up and restores the microservices tier, which includes the following components:
  • Enterprise Search
  • IBM® Watson Knowledge Catalog
  • Information Governance Catalog
  • InfoSphere Information Analyzer
The following scenarios are supported:
  • Failure of disk or system
    In this scenario, the microservices system is in a failed state. Problems might include:
    • kubectl command not working
    • Base operating system in a failed state and system must be re-built

    In this scenario, before the Backup/Restore utility can be successfully used, the microservices system must be setup or re-installed on a system that has the same host name as the original microservices tier. Once the microservices stack is re-installed successfully,you can run the Backup/Restore utility to restore data, sts/deployment state, and so forth, onto the system.

    In the cases noted previously, to achieve the desired starting state for a restore, the re-installation or re-addition of the microservices tier should be performed according to the following documentation, starting with step 4: https://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10882766

  • Data corruption or system in an undesired state

    In this scenario, data is corrupted in one or more of the persistent volumes. Changes or issues might be present with the Kubernetes configuration that is stored in the etcd database.

    Provided that the “failed state” items in the first scenario are not met, you can run the Backup/Restore utility to restore the system.

  • Revert versions

    Example: A cold, offline backup of all tiers (microservices, services, engine, repository) is performed on an installed version of InfoSphere Information Server. Service Pack 1 is applied on top of version 11.7.1, but you now want a way to revert back to version 11.7.1. You can use the Backup/Restore procedure to help restore the microservices tier to the “point in time” that backup was taken. All other tiers (services, engine, repository), must be restored to the same “point in time” backup.

This utility supports only single-node installations of the microservices tier.

Procedure

  1. Download the back up and restore package from Fix Central and save it in the installation_directory/UGInstall installation directory on the microservices tier.
  2. Run the following command to extract the tar file:
    tar –xvf UGI-Backup-Restore-11.7.1.tar
  3. Run the Backup/Restore utility by running the script backup-restore-ugi.sh, which is located in the Backup-Restore directory. (Default: /opt/IBM/UGInstall/Backup-Restore)

What to do next

You can run the command ./backup-restore-ugi.sh -help to list all available options for the utility. Additional configurable options such as non-default installation directories can be controlled by using utils/common.env.

By default, the utility provides interactive prompts that instruct you when to perform actions on the InfoSphere Information Server traditional system, such as stopping or starting the services, engine, or repository tiers and backing them up. To view the steps the utility will display, run one of the following commands:
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -backup -listSteps
or
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -restore -listSteps

For more information on backing up the InfoSphere Information Server traditional components such as the services, engine, and repository tiers, see Backing up and restoring IBM InfoSphere Information Server.

See the following list for example commands that use default options. Use -help to view optional arguments.
Backup the microservices tier
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -backup
Restore the microservices tier
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -restore /full/path/to/archive/UGI-Backup-TIMESTAMP.tar.gz
Stop the microservices tier services
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -stop
Start the microservices tier services
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -start
Restart (stop/start) the microservices tier services
./backup-restore-ugi.sh -restart

By default, the archive is saved in the installation_directory/UGInstall/Backup-Restore directory, unless you specify a -location option when you use -backup.

Important: Invoking the -restore and -backup options automatically triggers a shutdown of all of the services that are running on the microservices tier.