Backing up the Orchestrator Database

Note: Aspera strongly recommends performing a backup of the Orchestrator database on regular basis. If the database is corrupted for any reason, restoring it from a healthy backup is the most (if not only) reliable solution.

Aspera also recommends that backup files be stored on dedicated media, (for example, tape or removable disk) stored at a secure location.

To initiate a backup, add the –b option to the acmctl command:
# /opt/aspera/acm/bin/acmctl –b
Starting backup
Orchestrator: Backup databases... Database backed up in /opt/aspera/orchestrator/backup/orchestrator-backup-20151028-163200
done
Compressing SQL files
done
Looking for old backups to remove
Found 0 files(s) modified for the last time more than 15 day(s) ago
Backup procedure complete
Aspera recommends that you schedule regular backups of the database. To schedule these, create an entry in crontab on both Orchestrator servers. For example:
# crontab -l
* * * * * /opt/aspera/acm/bin/acm4orchestrator 10.0.71.21 20 > /dev/null 2>&1

30 2 * * 1-5 /opt/aspera/acm/bin/acmctl –b > /dev/null 2>&1
The example shown above will run a backup of the orchestrator database at 2:30 AM every weekday of every month. See the crontab man pages for details about the crontab file format.
Note: A backup is performed only if executed on the active node; running the command on a passive node will not create a backup.

When a backup is complete, the utility removes all backup files that are older than the default of 7 days. To modify this default value, edit the /opt/aspera/acm/bin/acmctl file and set the BACKUP_MAX_AGE_IN_DAYS= variable to the desired number of days.

The default directory where backup files are placed is /opt/aspera/orchestrator/backup, but this may be changed by modifying the BACKUP_DIR variable in the /opt/aspera/acm/bin/acmctl file or by replacing the default backup directory with a symbolic link pointing to shared storage.