Creating a secure backup by using the REST interface

You can create a secure backup of the IBM® MQ Appliance by using the REST interface on the appliance.

About this task

A secure backup creates files that contains the configuration of the appliance. The backup files are secured by a user certificate. The backup includes details of MQ users, but does not include queue manager configurations or data, or high availability or disaster recovery configuration details. For more details, see Secure backup.

When you use the REST interface for this purpose, you send HTTP requests to the REST interface port and receive JSON-formatted responses with a payload and indication of success or failure. You can incorporate requests into programs and so automate interaction with the appliance.

Procedure

Use the HTTP POST method with the resource /mgmt/actionqueue/default, specifying a request payload with the following format:

{
  "SecureBackup": {
    "cert": {
      "value": "certificate"
    },
    "destination": "destination"
  }
}

Where:

certificate: String; The name of a certificate object in the system configuration, which identifies a crypto certificate that is used to encrypt the content of the backup. A certificate that contains ECDSA keys is not supported. See Creating a certificate for a secure backup.
destination: String; The URL of a directory in which the backup files are written. If the directory is on a local file system, it is created automatically if it does not exist. The URL can be a local directory in either the local: or the temporary: directories on the appliance, or it can be a location on a remote FTP server.

Results

The backup folders are written to the specified location.

What to do next

You can restore the backup to another appliance by using the SecureRestore action.