IBM Support

MongoDB database backup and restore requirements: IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.12

Preventive Service Planning


Abstract

This document details the MongoDB database backup and restore requirements for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.12.

Content

This document is divided into linked sections. Use the following links to go to the section of the document that you require.



 

General

Beginning with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.3, support was added for backing up and restoring of MongoDB database data.
To read about new and changed features in different versions of IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1, see What's new for IBM Spectrum Protect Plus.

Before you register a MongoDB database with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, ensure that the system environment meets the following requirements.

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus support for third-party operating systems, applications, services, and hardware depend on the respective vendor. If a third-party product or version moves into extended support, self-service support, or end-of-life, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus supports the product or version at the same level as the vendor. See also IBM Support General Guidelines and Limitations - IBM support for software on unsupported operating systems



 

Configuration

Application versions

Table 1. Coverage matrix for application levels supported by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus MongoDB 3.6*(1) MongoDB 4.0*(1) MongoDB 4.2*(1) MongoDB 4.4*(1) MongoDB 5.0*(1)
10.1.3 -- -- --
10.1.4 -- -- --
10.1.5 -- -- --
10.1.6 -- --
10.1.7 --
10.1.8 --
10.1.9
10.1.10
10.1.11
10.1.12

 * The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.
(1) MongoDB database supported editions: Community Server and Enterprise Server editions

Note: To determine which operating systems are supported by the different MongoDB levels, refer the MongoDB platform support matrix: MongoDB manual production notes.



 

Operating systems

Table 2. Coverage matrix for supported Linux® x86_64 operating systems
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus RHEL 6.8* RHEL 7.0* RHEL 8.0* CentOS 6.8* CentOS 7.0* CentOS 8.0* SLES 12 SP1* SLES 15*
10.1.3 -- -- --
10.1.4 -- -- --
10.1.5 -- -- --
10.1.6 -- -- --
10.1.7
10.1.8
10.1.9
10.1.10
10.1.11
10.1.12

* The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

Note: CentOS Linux 8 reached end of life (EOL) on 31 December 2021, see  CentOS Linux EOL. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is not supported on the next CentOS version (CentOS Stream 8).



 

Table 3. Coverage matrix for supported operating systems on Linux on Power Systems (little endian)
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus RHEL 7.1* RHEL 8.0* CentOS 7.0* CentOS 8.0*
10.1.4 -- --
 10.1.5 -- --
 10.1.6 -- --
 10.1.7
 10.1.8
 10.1.9
10.1.10
10.1.11
10.1.12

* The base release and later maintenance and modification levels are supported.

Note: CentOS Linux 8 reached end of life (EOL) on 31 December 2021, see  CentOS Linux EOL. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus is not supported on the next CentOS version (CentOS Stream 8).

IBM Spectrum Protect Plus can also protect the MongoDB application server installed on a VMware or Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) when MongoDB is running on a supported operating system.


 

Restrictions

  • On Linux on Power Systems (little endian), only the MongoDB Enterprise Server Edition is supported.
  • MongoDB shared cluster configurations are detected when you run an inventory, but these resources are not eligible for backup or restore operations.
  • On MongoDB, TLS-based encryption and certificate-based authentication are not supported.
  • Ensure that your MongoDB setup does not include nested mount points.



 

Software

  • The bash and sudo packages must be installed. Sudo must be at version 1.7.6p2 or later. Run sudo -V to check the version.
    Tip: The required bash and sudo packages are included in the supported Linux x86_64 and Linux on Power Systems (little endian) operating system installation packages.
  • Install the most recent MongoDB patches and updates in your environment.
  • Ensure that a supported version of Linux x86_64 or Linux on Power Systems (little endian) is installed with the most recent patches and updates.
  • The International Components for Unicode (libicu) rpm package corresponding to the operating system must be installed.
  • Ensure that the user limit value ulimit -f is set to unlimited, for the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user and the MongoDB instance user. Alternatively, set a sufficiently high value to support copying of the largest database files in your backup and restore jobs. If you change the ulimit setting, restart the MongoDB instance to finalize the configuration.
  • In a Linux environment, depending on your version or distribution, ensure that the Linux utility package util-linux-ng or util-linux is current.
  • RHEL and CentOS 6 users: To ensure that the util-linux-ng or util-linux package is current, run the following command: 
        yum update package_name
    Where package_name is the name of the Linux utility package.
  • RHEL and CentOS 6 users: If the MongoDB application server is running on RHEL 6 or CentOS 6, ensure that the OpenSSL package is at version 1.0.1e-57 or later. To update the version, run the following command: 
        yum update openssl



 

Connectivity

Ensure that your system environment meets the following connectivity requirements:

  • The secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) subsystem for Secure Shell (SSH) is enabled.
  • The SSH service is running on port 22 on the MongoDB server.
  • The SSH host key must be one of the following algorithms: ssh-dsa, ssh-rsa, ecdsa-sha2-nistp256, ecdsa-sha2-nistp384, or ecdsa-sha2-nistp521.
  • Firewalls are configured to allow IBM Spectrum Protect Plus to connect to the proxy host server by using SSH.
  • Firewalls must be configured to enable the MongoDB server to communicate with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server by using HTTPS through port 443.
  • IBM Spectrum Protect Plus uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol to mount storage volumes for backup and restore operations. Ensure that the native Linux NFS client is installed on the proxy host server.
  • All servers, proxies, applications, and hypervisors that are added to the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus environment must be registered by using a Domain Name System (DNS) name or Internet Protocol (IP) address.
  • If DNS names are used, they must be resolvable over the network by the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server and the vSnap server. All IBM Spectrum Protect Plus components must also be resolvable by their DNS names.
  • If DNS is not available, you must add the server to the /etc/hosts file on the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server by using the command line.



 

Authentication and privileges

Authentication

  • The MongoDB server must be registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus by using an operating system user that exists on the MongoDB server. The user is then referred to as the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user.
  • Ensure that the root user password is correctly configured and that the user can log in without facing any other prompts, such as prompts to reset the password.
  • With the MongoDB Enterprise Server Edition, only the encrypted storage engine is supported.


 

Privileges

To use a MongoDB database, an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user must have the following permissions:

  • Privileges to run commands as the root user and as a MongoDB software owner user by using sudo. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires these privileges for various tasks such as discovering storage layouts, mounting and unmounting disks, and managing databases.
    • The sudoers configuration must allow the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent user to run commands without a password.
    • The !requiretty setting must be specified, as described in Setting sudo privileges.
  • Privileges to read the standard MongoDB server module /usr/local/bin/mongod. IBM Spectrum Protect Plus requires these privileges to use the PyMongo application programming interface (API) to connect to the MongoDB servers by using the DNS name that is assigned to the instance or the IP address and port number. This mechanism is used to gather information about MongoDB instances and databases.
  • If the MongoDB server is protected by role-based authentication, you must set up the appropriate privileges, as described in Roles for MongoDB.



 

Prerequisites and operations

Prerequisites

Ensure that the Software, Connectivity, and Authentication and privileges requirements are met.

The following prerequisites must be met before you start protecting your resources.

  • The MongoDB is configured as a stand-alone instance or replica set. Backup operations for MongoDB sharded cluster instances are not supported. A backup job always includes all databases in the instance.
  • The MongoDB instance is configured to use the WiredTiger Storage Engine.
  • Each MongoDB instance to be protected must be registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus. After the instances are registered, IBM Spectrum Protect Plus runs an inventory to detect MongoDB resources. Ensure that all instances that you want to protect are detected and listed correctly.
  • The user who is registered with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for the MongoDB application server must be able to retrieve server information and status from the MongoDB admin database.
  • Ensure that you have enough free space on the target and source hosts, and in the vSnap repository. Extra space is required to store temporary Logical Volume Manager (LVM) backups of logical volumes where the MongoDB data is located. These temporary backups, known as LVM snapshots, are created automatically by the MongoDB agent. For each LVM snapshot logical volume, at least 10% of free space must be allocated in the volume group. If the volume group has enough free space, the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus MongoDB agent reserves up to 25% of the source logical volume size for the snapshot logical volume. For more information, see Space prerequisites for MongoDB protection.
  • Ensure that enough disk space is allocated at the target server for restore operations.
  • Logical volumes of MongoDB data and log paths are managed by Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM2). LVM2 is used to create temporary volume snapshots. The database files and the journal must be on a single volume. The logical volume grows in size with data as the data changes on the source volume while the snapshot exists. For more information, see Linux LVM2.


 

Operations

Before you start a backup or restore operation, take the following actions:

  • Add the application servers that you want to back up.
  • Configure a service level agreement (SLA) policy.
  • Assign appropriate roles and resource groups to users who are running backup and restore operations. Grant users access to resources and roles by using the Accounts pane.

Review the following information about creating backup and restore jobs:

  • To regularly back up your data, define a backup job that includes an SLA policy. For instructions, see Backing up MongoDB data.
  • To restore data, define a job that restores data to the most current backup or select an earlier backup copy. You can restore data to the original instance or to an alternative instance on a different machine, creating a cloned copy. Define and save the restore job to run as an ad hoc operation, or to run regularly as a scheduled job. For instructions, see Restoring MongoDB data.

For an overview about protecting MongoDB databases with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus, see Protecting Databases-MongoDB.



 

Ports

The following ports are used by IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent users.

Table 4. Communication ports when the target is an IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent
Port Protocol Initiator Target Description
22 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server MongoDB Provides access to troubleshoot and maintain remote proxy host servers running guest application components by using the SSH protocol


 

Table 5. Communication ports when the initiator is the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus agent
Port Protocol Initiator Target Description
111 TCP and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) MongoDB vSnap server Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations
443 TCP MongoDB IBM Spectrum Protect Plus server Port that allows the agent to communicate with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus for making representational state transfer application programming interface (REST API) calls
2049 TCP and UDP MongoDB vSnap server Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations
20048 TCP and UDP MongoDB vSnap server Used for NFS data transfer to and from file systems mounted from vSnap servers during backup and restore operations



 

Hardware

Table 6. Minimum hardware requirements
System Disk space
Compatible hardware that is supported by the operating system and MongoDB A minimum of 600 MB under /tmp and 2 GB under /opt is required for product installation.



 

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Document Information

Modified date:
16 September 2022

UID

ibm16612995

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