Configure Gateway backup in Gateway 1.8+

Instructions for Gateway versions 1.7 and older are here.

Instructions for the Gateway appliance are here.

Operating system support for CentOS 8 ends in December 2021

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) recently announced that no further operating system updates will be available for CentOS 8 after December 31, 2021. As of now, updates and security patches for CentOS 7 will be available through June of 2024.

If you installed the Gateway on CentOS 8, you should replace it with CentOS 7.

Back up your Gateway installation on CentOS 8 first, then restore it on the CentOS 7 system.

CentOS 8 backup and CentOS 7 restore has been tested and is recommended.

Future operating system support for EcoStruxure IT Gateway is currently under investigation.

Starting with Gateway 1.8, Gateway is automatically backed up on a weekly schedule. See Backup schedule

Gateway backup configuration and one time backup is now performed via the command line. Local or remote terminal access is required to create and maintain Gateway backups.

Backup files are stored to the local file system. Backup files can be stored on a remote system of your choice, independent of the Gateway application, through the OS as a one time or recurring task.

IMPORTANT: You can restore a backup from the same version of Gateway only.

Create a onetime backup

Note: This example is on a Windows based system. The Linux commands are identical; the install directory is slightly different. Sudo can be used to run with administrator level privileges.

Open a command prompt as administrator on the computer where the Gateway is installed.
Navigate to the bin subdirectory in Gateway install directory on the files system, for example, C:\Program Files\EcoStruxure IT Gateway\<version number>\bin.
Type the command ./backup
If prompted, enter a password used to encrypt and decrypt the configuration data. Be sure to save this password for later to use during restoration. This is new to Gateway 1.8 to improve Gateway backup security. After confirming the password, the backup archive will be created. When not prompted, the gateway administrator password will be used.
Upon creation, output is displayed with the Gateway backup id, name, date, and other version information.

Backup files are stored locally on the Gateway server file system, under the backups subdirectory in the Gateway install directory, for example, C:\Program Files\EcoStruxure IT Gateway\backups. From here, the file can be copied or configured for export to a remote file share through the operating system.

Backup config options

The instructions above use the default Gateway backup settings. Some aspects of the backup are configurable by adding the config parameter to the backup command.

View the backup configuration

./backup config

View the backup configuration settings.

Configure the backup password

You will be prompted for a new password to use for encrypting backups.

./backup config --archive-password

Configure the backup destination

Set the directory used to store backup file contents.

./backup config --destination <file path>

Configure the maximum number of backups to keep

Set the maximum number of backup entries to store before rotating older entries.

./backup config --rotation <maximum number of backups to store>

Backup schedule

Set the schedule of backups. The default settings are to backup on Sunday at midnight each week.

--repeat accepts one of the following values: monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly.

--on accepts one of the following values when repeat is weekly: monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, or sunday. When repeat is monthly it accepts the day of the month instead (see examples below).

--at accepts time in twelve or twenty four hour format with hours separated by a colon. Valid examples: 8:00am, 14:00, 2:00pm, or 03:00pm.

Weekly backup example

Backup will run every Tuesday at 14:00 (2pm).

./backup schedule --repeat weekly --on tuesday --at 14:00

Monthly backup example

Backup will run on the 15th of each month at 08:00 (8am).

./backup schedule --repeat monthly --on 15 --at 8:00am

Daily backup example

Backup will run every day at 14:00 (2pm)

./backup schedule --repeat daily --at 2:00pm

Hourly backup example

Backup will run every hour

./backup schedule --repeat hourly

Disabling scheduled backup

Scheduled backup will be disabled

./backup schedule false

Re-enabling scheduled backup

Scheduled backup will be enabled with the default backup schedule.

./backup schedule true --repeat weekly

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