Backup and Restore

Periodic backups of Chef server data are an essential part of managing and maintaining a healthy configuration and to help ensure that important data can be restored, if required.

High Availability

To configure backups on the backend servers in a high availability configuration, set a cron job in /etc/cron.d/opc_snapshot similar to the following:

# Add to /etc/cron.d/opc_snapshot, and then remove comment below MAILTO to activate the cron job
SHELL=/bin/bash
HOME=/opt/opscode/bin
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/opt/opscode/embedded/bin:/opt/opscode/bin
MAILTO=SOMEONE@payingattention
#17 23 * * * root drbd-backups -g opscode -l drbd > /dev/null 2>&1

A cron job similar to the previous example will mount a new snapshot logical volume named:

/dev/opscode/backup-{+%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S}

where {+%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S} is a format string for year, month, day, so on.

After the cron job has run successfully, the mount command will show the new logical volume mounted on the /var/opt/opscode/drbd-backups mount point. The backup script will create a snapshot logical volume in unused space in the /opscode volume group. After the snapshot is created, the backup script will attempt to mount the snapshot logical volume, after which the snapshot will stay mounted for 24 hours. Upon the next cron job run, the backup script will attempt to unmount, destroy the snapshot, and then repeat the sequence.

Required Directories

Data stored in the following directories should be backed up periodically:

• /etc/opscode
• /var/opt/opscode

This data is also essential when any type of backup and restore operation is done for the Chef server.

Backup

When backing up Chef server data, be sure that the system is shut down (or otherwise quiet) at the time of the backup. Perform all activities as root unless otherwise directed.

1. Make a postgres export using the following commands:

   export THEDATE=`date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S'`
   sudo -E -u opscode-pgsql bash
   /opt/opscode/embedded/bin/pg_dumpall -c | gzip --fast > /tmp/postgresql-dump-$THEDATE.gz
   Ctrl-d

2. Synchronize to make sure that all of the data is present on-disk:

   sync

3. Backup the /etc/opscode and /var/opt/opscode directories and include the postgres export file as root

   tar cvfzp var-opt-opscode-$THEDATE.tar.gz /etc/opscode /var/opt/opscode /tmp/postgresql-dump-$THEDATE.gz

Restore

When restoring Chef server data, the previously backed-up files will be required, along with the Chef server running only the postgresql service. Perform all activities as root unless otherwise directed.

1. Stop the Chef server:

   $ chef-server-ctl stop

2. Restore the previously backed-up files to the following locations:

   • /etc/opscode
   • /var/opt/opscode

   by using the following command, which will exclude PostgreSQL files:

   tar xvfzp var-opt-opscode-$THEDATE.tar.gz --exclude='var/opt/opscode/drbd/data/postgresql_9.2' -C /

3. Start the postgresql service:

   $ chef-server-ctl start postgresql

4. Restore the PostgreSQL database:

   su - opscode-pgsql
   gunzip -c postgresql-dump-$THEDATE.gz | /opt/opscode/embedded/bin/psql -U "opscode-pgsql" -d postgres

   Ignore the following error messages:

   • ERROR: current user cannot be dropped
   • ERROR: role "opscode-pgsql" already exists

5. Reconfigure the Chef server:

   $ chef-server-ctl reconfigure

6. Start the Chef server:

   $ chef-server-ctl start

7. Reconfigure the Chef management console:

   $ opscode-manage-ctl reconfigure

chef-server-ctl

Use the following commands to manage backups of Chef server data, and then to restore those backups.

backup

The backup subcommand is used to back up all Chef server data. This subcommand:

• Requires rsync to be installed on the Chef server prior to running the command
• Requires a chef-server-ctl reconfigure prior to running the command
• Should not be run in a Chef server configuration with an external PostgreSQL database; use knife ec backup instead
• Puts the initial backup in the /var/opt/chef-backup directory as a tar.gz file; move this backup to a new location for safe keeping

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-y, --yes

Use to specify if the Chef server can go offline during tar.gz-based backups.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl backup

restore

The restore subcommand is used to restore Chef server data from a backup that was created by the backup subcommand. This subcommand may also be used to add Chef server data to a newly-installed server. This subcommand:

• Requires rsync to be installed on the Chef server prior to running the command
• Requires a chef-server-ctl reconfigure prior to running the command
• Should not be run in a Chef server configuration with an external PostgreSQL database; use knife ec backup instead
• May restore backed up data to any version of the Chef server that supports this command, starting with Chef server 12.2 (which is the first version of the Chef server in which the chef-server-ctl restore command is available)

Options

This subcommand has the following options:

-c, --cleanse

Use to remove all existing data on the Chef server; it will be replaced by the data in the backup archive.

-d DIRECTORY, --staging-dir DIRECTORY

Use to specify that the path to an empty directory to be used during the restore process. This directory must have enough disk space to expand all data in the backup archive.

Syntax

This subcommand has the following syntax:

$ chef-server-ctl restore PATH_TO_BACKUP (options)

Examples

$ chef-server-ctl restore /path/to/tar/archive.tar.gz