Backing up and restoring backup

Backing up the IT Advisor server and restoring the backup is used, for example, when upgrading from certain versions of ITA to the latest version.

Backups can only be restored to a IT Advisor server of the same or newer product release.

The backup of the IT Advisor server is a database backup. It does not include server and OS configuration settings, such as configuration of server time, locale, remote backup settings. To backup any customized server configuration files, verify that your enterprise backup system backs up these files. Otherwise, after restoring a backup, you must configure server and OS settings again. Make sure you have a copy of all installed license keys and network settings prior to restore.

Running a backup

By default, the system backs up to a local backup directory on the same disk.

1. Open the web client and login with a user with the System Configuration permission.
2. Go to Administration > Backup and Restore.
3. Click Schedule Backup to start a backup immediately. This will save a backup in the default location /data/backup* or see here for information about scheduling regular backup jobs.

While the backup is being performed a log is shown that shows the status of the backup job. The log can be minimized without interrupting the backup process.

Recommendation: It is highly recommended that you save backups to a remote location.

Configuring a remote backup

You can configure a remote backup location on the Administration > Backup and Restore page.
Prerequisite: To enable saving the backup on your network, mount the folder in which to save the backup.

1. Click Backup Settings.
2. Specify the Backup directory in the text field.
3. Select Fail if not mounted remotely if you want the Backup and Restore page to show an error message if the remotely mounted directory is not mounted. This is especially useful if it is important that the backups are stored away from the server.

Restoring a backup

1. Set up a new server with a clean installation of IT Advisor.
2. Log in to the web client for the new server on which you want to restore the backup. The user should have the System Configuration permission.
3. Go to Administration > Backup and Restore.
4. Select an uploaded backup file and click Restore selected backup.
   If the backup you want to restore is not in the list, upload the file as described below.

Uploading a backup

Open Webmin.

1. Log in to the web client.
2. Go to Administration > Backup and Restore.
3. Click the Upload to backup.
4. In Files to upload, browse to the location of your saved backup.
   Make sure the file format is: <name><yyyy-mm-dd><hh.mm>.tar.gz

Testing backup

You should verify that the backup runs as expected. You can purchase an enterprise backup agent for PostgreSQL, or you can verify the backup in Webmin.
The backup file size provides a good indication, and if you have scheduled daily backups, you can check that this is included in the file name.

1. In the web client, go to Administration > Backup and Restore.
2. In the list of backup files, verify that the size of the backup seems reasonable, and that the file name includes the prefix Daily_ if you scheduled to run the backup every day.

Cleaning up old backups

You can configure cleanup frequency of old backups in the web client Administration > Backup and Restore > Backup Settings.

1. Specify whether to clean up and how often:
   • Disable: Never clean up
   • Days to keep backups: Delete files older than the specified amount of days
   • Click Save Settings.