Ctrl+K

User Guide for Object Storage

User Guide for Object Storage#

Overview#

This guide introduces how to install and configure the ADPS agent, and how to properly use ADPS to back up and restore object storage service (OBS).

The backup and restore features supported by ADPS include:

  • Backup sources

    Files and buckets

  • Backup types

    Full backup, incremental backup, and synthetic backup

  • Backup targets

    Standard storage pool, deduplication storage pool, file synthetic pool, tape library pool, and object storage service pool

  • Backup schedules

    Immediate, one-time, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.

  • Data processing

    Data compression, data encryption, multiple channels, reconnection, speed limit, and replication

  • Restore types

    Point-in-time restore, instant recovery, and recovery testing

  • Restore targets

    Original host, different host, different system (restore files between object storage and Linux), and different architecture (restore files from object storage to an operating system or Hadoop)

  • Restore options

    Restore location (original path or customized path), handle files with the same name

Planning and preparation#

Before you install the agent, check the following prerequisites:

  1. You have already installed and configured other backup components, including the backup server and the storage server.

  2. You have created a user with roles of operator and administrator on the ADPS console. Log in to the console with this user to back up and restore the resource.

Note

The administrator role can install and configure agents, activate licenses, and authorize users. The operator role can create backup/restore jobs and conduct copy data management (CDM).

Install and configure the agent#

To back up and restore object storage, first install the ADPS agent on a host that can communicate with object storage.

Verify the compatibility#

ADPS supports the backup and restore of the following object storage:

  • Amazon Web Services S3 (AWS S3)

  • Microsoft Azure (Blob storage)

  • IBM Cloud Object Storage

  • Google Cloud (GCS)

  • Backblaze B2

  • Other S3 object storage

Install the agent#

The ADPS agent can be installed on Linux and supports online and offline installation. We recommend online installation.

  1. Online installation: ADPS provides curl and wget commands for installation.

  2. Offline installation: See Offline installation in Aurreum Data Protection Suite Agent Installation Guide.

To install the agent online, do the following:

  1. Log in to the ADPS console.

  2. From the menu, click Resource > Resource. The Resource page appears.

  3. From the toolbar, click the Install agent icon. The Install agent window appears.

  4. In the Install agent window, do the following:

    (1) From the Select system list, select Linux.

    (2) From the Component list, select Object Storage Service. The curl and wget commands appear in the window.

    (3) If you want to delete the downloaded package automatically after the installation, select the Delete installation package check box.

    (4) If you enable Ignore SSL errors, the installation will ignore certificate errors and so on. If you disable the option, the installation will prompt you to enter Y/N to continue or discontinue the process when an error occurs.

  5. Click the Copy icon to copy the curl or wget command.

  6. Log in to the Linux host as user root. Paste the command in the terminal and press Enter to start the installation. Example:

    curl "http://IP:50305/d2/update/script?modules=obs&location=http%3A%2F%2FIP%3A50305&access_key=2042288d749dba47e963d1ab09a6472b&rm=&tool=curl" | sh

  7. Wait for the installation to complete.

Activate licenses and authorize users#

After the agent installation, go back to the Resource page. The backup host with the agent installed appears on the page.

To activate licenses and authorize users, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Resource > Resource. The Resource page appears.

  2. On the Resource page, select the backup host. Click the Register icon. After the registration, the Activate window appears. Click Submit.

  3. After you activate the license, the Authorize window appears. From the User group list, select user groups to authorize access to the resource. Click Submit.

    Note

    1. If you are prompted with “No enough licenses”, contact the administrator to add licenses.

    2. With many agents, install them first, then batch register, batch activate, and batch authorize the agents and resources for convenience. For details, see Batch register/Batch activate/Batch authorize in Aurreum Data Protection Suite Administrator’s Guide.

Add and configure the object storage#

Add the object storage#

To add object storage, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Resource > Resource. The Resource page appears.

  2. From the toolbar, click the “+” icon and select Object storage service. The Add object storage service window appears.

  3. In the window, do the following:

    • In the Name field, enter a name for the object storage service.

    • From the Vendor list, select a vendor. At present, ADPS supports Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Baidu Cloud, Kingsoft Cloud, ECloud, Meituan Cloud, UCloud, Qiniu Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Sina Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and other S3-compatible storage.

    • In the Endpoint field, select or enter an endpoint address.

    • In the Region field, select or enter the region where the data center resides. This field is filled based on the endpoint by default.

    • If you want to enable SSL connection and the cloud vendor supports SSL, select the SSL checkbox.

    • In the Access key field, enter the access key.

    • In the Secret key field, enter the secret key.

    • From the Backup host list, select a host to list backup content and as the default host for backups and restores.

    • If you want to specify a bucket, select the Specify bucket checkbox and enter the bucket in the Buckets field.

    See also

    To get the AK/SK, see:

Activate the OBS license and authorize users#

To activate the license and authorize users, do the following:

  1. After you add the object storage service, a window to activate the OBS license appears. Click Activate.

  2. After activation, the Authorize window appears.

  3. In the Authorize window, do the following:

    (1) From the User group list, select user groups to authorize access to the resource.

    (2) Set the resource as Protected or not. The Protected resource cannot be the restore target or the data replication target unless the administrator removes the Protected label.

    Note

    If you are prompted with “No enough licenses”, contact the administrator to add licenses.

Backup#

Backup types#

ADPS provides two common backup types (full backup and incremental backup) and one advanced (synthetic backup) for object storage.

  • Full backup

    Backs up one or multiple files and buckets.

  • Incremental backup

    Backs up only the files and buckets that have changed since the last backup (including the full backup and the incremental backup) with a full backup as the baseline.

  • Synthetic backup

    The first synthetic backup is a full backup and the subsequent ones are incremental. When the synthesis condition is reached, the latest full backup and subsequent incremental backup will be synthesized to create a new full backup copy. Synthetic backups can improve the restore performance. You can directly mount the full backup copy to the target host through an instant recovery job without physical copies and additional storage space.

Backup policies#

ADPS provides six types of backup schedules: immediate, one-time, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.

  • Immediate: ADPS will immediately start the job after it is created.

  • One-time: ADPS will perform the job at the specified time once only.

  • Hourly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified hour/minute intervals within the time range according to the setting.

  • Daily: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified time and day intervals.

  • Weekly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified time and week intervals.

  • Monthly: ADPS will perform the job periodically at the specified dates and times.

You can set an appropriate backup policy based on your situation and requirements. Usually, we recommend the following common backup policy:

  1. Perform a full backup once a week when the application traffic is relatively small (Example: on the weekend) to ensure that you have a recoverable point in time every week.

  2. Perform an incremental backup every day when the application traffic is relatively small (Example: at 2 a.m.) to ensure that you have a recoverable point in time every day, which can save storage space and backup time.

To use the advanced synthetic backup, we recommend the following backup policy:

  • Perform a synthetic backup every day to ensure that you have a recoverable point in time every day.

Before you begin#

Before you back up and restore object storage, check whether any storage pools have been created and authorized.

  1. From the menu, click Storage > Storage pool. The Storage pool page appears.

  2. Check whether the display area has any storage pools. If no, create a storage pool and authorize it for the current user. For details, see Add a storage pool in Aurreum Data Protection Suite Administrator’s Guide.

    Note

    To use synthetic backups, ensure that your environment fulfills the following requirements:

    • You have advanced licenses: Object Storage Service Synthetic Backup and Object Storage Service Copy Data Management.

    • You have created a file synthetic pool for the current user.

Create a backup job#

To create a backup job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Backup. The backup job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the OBS host and instance. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  3. At the Backup source step, do the following:

    Note

    For incremental backups, the Backup source step only requires a full backup selected as their baseline and there is no need to select the files and buckets again.

    (1) From the Backup type list, select a backup type.

    (2) In the Backup source section, click + to expand folders and select the files or folders that you want to back up.

    (3) If you want to filter the selected files and folders in the Backup source, click Filter below the Backup source field. The Filter window appears.

    • The Exclusion option is disabled by default. If you want to exclude some directories or files from the backup job, enter the directories and files in this field.

    • You can select the Inclusion checkbox and enter directories and files in case their parent directories are listed in the Exclusion field.

    Note

    For example, there are directories /data and /test. /test has hundreds of files. Some are .txt, some are .dat, and so on. The whole directory /data and all the .txt files under the directory /test need to be backed up.

    1. First select /test and /data in the Backup source. Then open the Filter window.

    2. Enter /test in the Exclusion.

    3. Select the Inclusion checkbox and enter *.txt in the field.

    4. The backup result will be /data with all the data and /test with only .txt files.

    Here is an example of using the wildcard * in Filter. Assume that the backup source includes the following directories and files:

    root@ubuntu:/# tree /backup/
/backup/
└── test
	├── group_1
	│   └── sub_group
	│       ├── file1.dat
	│       └── file1.txt
	├── group_2
	│   └── sub_group
	│       ├── file2.dat
	│       └── file2.txt
	└── no_group
    Filter example#

    Exclusion

    Inclusion

    Result

    /backup/*

    /backup/test/group_*/*

    Directories group_1 and group_2 and all their subdirectories are backed up

    /backup/*

    *.txt

    .txt files, their directories, and the directory no_group are backed up

    *.txt

    All the directories and files except .txt files are backed up

  4. At the Backup host step, select a backup host and resource. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  5. At the Backup target step, select a storage pool. Click Next.

    Note

    Incremental backups do not have the Backup target step because their backup target is the same as the selected full backup at the Backup source step.

  6. At the Backup schedule step, set the job schedule. For details, see Backup policies. Click Next.

    • Select Immediate. ADPS performs the job immediately after it is created.

    • Select One time and set the start time for the job.

    • Select Hourly. Set the start time, end time, and time interval for job execution. The unit can be hour(s) or minute(s).

    • Select Daily. Set the start time and enter the time interval for job execution. The unit is day(s).

    • Select Weekly. Set the start time, enter the time interval, and select the specific dates in a week for job execution. The unit is week.

    • Select Monthly. Set the start time and months for job execution. You can select the natural dates in one month or select the specific dates in one week.

  7. At the Backup options step, set the common and advanced options according to your needs. For details, see Backup options. Click Next.

  8. At the Finish step, set the job name and confirm the job information. Click Submit.

  9. After the submission, you will be redirected to the Job page automatically. On this page, you can start, modify, and delete the job.

Backup options#

ADPS provides the following backup options for object storage:

  • Common options

Backup common options#

Option

Description

Limitations

Compression

Fast is enabled by default.
- None: No compression during the backup job.
- Tunable: Customizes the compression level. The Advanced Compression license is required.
- Fast: Uses the fast compression algorithms to compress data during the backup job.

Channels

It can improve backup efficiency. The default value is 1 and the value ranges from 1 to 255.
We recommend a value the same as the number of CPU cores. If the value exceeds the core number, the efficiency improvement will not be obvious.

Only available for full backup and synthetic backup jobs.

  • Advanced options

Backup advanced options#

Option

Description

Limitations

Reconnection time

The value ranges from 1 to 60 minutes. The job continues after the abnormal reset occurs in the network within the set time.

Resumption buffer size

Specifies the resumption buffer size. The default value is 10 MiB. The bigger the resumption buffer size is, the more physical storage will be consumed. However, a bigger resumption buffer size can prevent data loss when the throughput of the business system is high.

Speed limit

Limits data transfer speed or disk read/write speed for different time periods. The unit can be KiB/s, MiB/s, and GiB/s.

Precondition

Checked before the job starts. The job execution will be aborted and the job state will be idle when the precondition is invalid.

Pre-/Post-script

The pre-script is executed after the job starts and before the resource is backed up. The post-script is executed after the resource is backed up.

Restore#

Restore types#

For different needs, ADPS provides several restore types for object storage, including:

  • Point-in-time restore

    Restores the OBS folders or files to a specified point in time.

  • Instant recovery

    Achieves fast recovery by mounting the OBS backup sets from the storage server with the following advantages: fast recovery speed, little resource consumption, reduced disk space, and improved availability of backup sets.

  • Recovery testing

    Restores the latest backup sets to another path on the original host or a different host hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.

Before you begin#

To restore to a different host, install the agent on that host or register the resource, activate the licenses, and authorize user access to the resource.

Create a point-in-time restore job#

To create a point-in-time restore job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Restore. The restore job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the OBS host and resource. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  3. At the Backup sets step, do the following:

    (1) From the Storage pool list, select a storage pool with backup sets, including the source and target pools with pool replication relation. Default refers to the one where the selected backup sets reside.

    (2) From the Restore type list, select Point-in-time restore.

    (3) In the Restore source section, select a point in time for the restore job.

    (4) In the File section, select files for the restore job. All the files in the backup set will be selected by default. You can select or deselect the files, and search files in the search bar. Note that files in backup sets from local storage pools cannot be listed in the File field.

    Note

    The search bar supports:

    • File name but not directory name

    • Multiple rules at one time

    • ? and *. ? matches one character, and * matches multiple characters

    Example:

    There are five files: test_1.txt, test_2.txt, 1_test.txt, 2_test.txt, and file.txt. You can enter test*txt ?_test.txt file.txt in the search bar to match all the five files.

    (5) Click Next.

  4. At the Restore target step, select a host and resource as the target. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

    Note

    If you select a Hadoop or object storage resource as the restore target, the wizard will go to the Backup host step. After you select a backup host, the wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  5. At the Restore schedule step, set the job schedule. Click Next.

    • Select Immediate. ADPS will perform the job immediately after its creation.

    • Select One time and set the start time for the job.

  6. At the Restore options step, set the options according to your needs. See Restore options. Click Next.

  7. At the Finish step, set the job name and confirm the job information. Click Submit.

  8. After the submission, you will be redirected to the Job page. You can start, modify, and delete the job.

Create an instant recovery job#

Note

  1. The adps-nfsd package should be installed on the storage server for OBS instant recovery.

  2. OBS instant recovery only supports backup sets from standard storage pools (with neither Multi-storage nor Data storage encryption enabled) and file synthetic pools.

To create an instant recovery job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Restore. The restore job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the OBS host and resource. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  3. At the Backup sets step, do the following:

    (1) From the Storage pool list, select a storage pool with backup sets, including the source and target pools with pool replication relation. Default refers to the one where the selected backup sets reside.

    (2) From the Restore type list, select Instant recovery.

    (3) In the Restore source section, select a point in time for the restore job.

    (4) Click Next.

  4. At the Export step, do the following:

    (1) In the Export field, set the mount point for the export. The path must begin with / and can be 2-30 characters with letters or numbers.

    (2) In the Access control list field, add the agents that can mount and access the backup set. It supports IP addresses and network segments. * means all agents can access the backup set.

    (3) From the Conversion path coding list, select None, GBK, GB18030, or BIG5. None is selected by default, in which UTF8 is used for instant recovery.

    (4) Expand the Advanced options. From the Bridge list, select whether to use a network bridge or not. None is selected by default. You can use the network bridge to export backup sets to avoid conflicts with the NFS service of the operating system.

    Note

    1. To use a network bridge, enter the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway. The IP address must be a valid address that is not used in this network segment.

    2. Install bridge-utils on the storage server for bridge settings, with which ADPS can recognize the network bridge after it is started. Add the following content to the configuration file /etc/network/interfaces:

      auto br0
iface br0 inet static
address 192.168.88.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.88.1
bridge_ports bond0
bridge_stp off
bridge_fd 9
bridge_hello 2
bridge_maxage 12

  5. At the Finish step, confirm the job information and click Submit.

  6. After the submission, you will be redirected to the help page. Mount the files manually according to the procedure. On the CDM page, a copy with a mounted state is added below the selected point in time. For more details, see View a copy.

Create a recovery testing job#

To create a recovery testing job, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click Restore. The restore job wizard appears.

  2. At the Hosts and resources step, select the OBS host and instance. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  3. At the Backup sets step, do the following:

    (1) From the Storage pool list, select a storage pool with backup sets, including the source and target pools with pool replication relation. Default refers to the one where the selected backup sets reside.

    (2) From the Restore type list, select Recovery testing.

    (3) In the Restore source section, select a point in time for the restore job.

    (4) In the File section, select files for the restore job. All the files in the backup set will be selected by default. You can select or deselect the files, and search files in the search bar. Note that files in backup sets from local storage pools cannot be listed in the File field.

    Note

    The search bar supports:

    • File name but not directory name

    • Multiple rules at one time

    • ? and *. ? matches one character, and * matches multiple characters

    Example:

    There are five files: test_1.txt, test_2.txt, 1_test.txt, 2_test.txt, and file.txt. You can enter test*txt ?_test.txt file.txt in the search bar to match all the five files.

    (5) Click Next.

  4. At the Restore target step, select a host and resource as the target. The wizard goes to the next step automatically.

    Note

    If you select a Hadoop or object storage resource as the restore target, the wizard will go to the Backup host step. After you select a backup host, the wizard goes to the next step automatically.

  5. At the Restore schedule step, set the job schedule. Click Next.

    • Select Hourly. Set the start time, end time, and time interval to specify the time range for job execution. The unit can be hour(s) or minute(s).

    • Select Daily. Set the start time and enter the time interval for job execution. The unit is day(s).

    • Select Weekly. Set the start time, enter the time interval, and select the specific dates in a week for job execution. The unit is week.

    • Select Monthly. Set the start time and months for job execution. You can select the natural dates in one month or select the specific dates in one week.

  6. At the Restore options step, set the options according to your needs. See Restore options. Click Next.

  7. At the Finish step, set the job name and confirm the job information. Click Submit.

  8. After the submission, you will be redirected to the Job page. You can start, modify, and delete the job.

Restore options#

ADPS provides the following restore options for object storage:

  • Common options:

Restore common options#

Option

Description

Limitations

Channels

It can improve restore efficiency. The default value is 1. The value cannot exceed that of the backup set.

Restore location

You can set the restore location to the original location or a specified location. To specify a location, enter the path manually or click Browse to select the target folder.

Incremental restore

Only when you select an incremental backup set for the restore will this option become available. It is disabled by default. If you enable this feature, the job will only restore the incremental data at the selected point in time.

Only available for point-in-time restore jobs.

Handle files with the same name

Overwrite, skip, retain most recent, rename and save

  • Advanced options:

Restore advanced options#

Option

Description

Limitations

Reconnection time

The value ranges from 1 to 60 minutes. The job continues after the abnormal reset occurs in the network within the set time.

Resumption buffer size

Specifies the resumption buffer size. The default value is 10 MiB. The bigger the resumption buffer size is, the more physical storage will be consumed. However, a bigger resumption buffer size can prevent data loss when the throughput of the business system is high.

Speed limit

Limits data transfer speed or disk read/write speed for different time periods. The unit can be KiB/s, MiB/s, and GiB/s.

Precondition

Checked before the job starts. The job execution will be aborted and the job state will be idle when the precondition is invalid.

Pre-/Post-script

The pre-script is executed after the job starts and before the resource is restored. The post-script is executed after the resource is restored.

Copy data management#

On the CDM page, you can manage the copies generated by instant recovery and synthetic backup jobs, including viewing, cloning, unmounting, and deleting copies.

View a copy#

To view copies, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click CDM. The CDM page appears.

  2. From the toolbar, select the resource and the period when copies are created. The display area shows copies of this resource in this period. Copies are named by the creation time.

  3. Click the copy name. The details of this copy appear on the right side of the page. Different icons represent different copy types.

    • Full copy: A data copy created by a synthetic backup.

    • Mounted copy: A data copy created by an instant recovery.

Clone a copy#

You can click the Clone copy icon to create an instant recovery job for the synthetic copy to create a new mounted copy.

To clone a copy, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click CDM. The CDM page appears.

  2. From the toolbar, select the resource and the period when copies are created. The display area shows the copies in this period.

  3. On the display area, click a full copy under the resource. The Clone copy icon appears on the right of the copy.

  4. Click the Clone copy button. You will be redirected to the Backup sets step. See Create an instant recovery job to configure the job.

  5. After the instant recovery, a copy with a mounted state is added below the selected point in time on the CDM page.

Unmount a copy#

You can click the Unmount icon to unmount the mounted copies. This operation will make the mounted directory on the restore target inaccessible.

To unmount a copy, do the following:

  1. From the menu, click CDM. The CDM page appears.

  2. From the toolbar, select the resource and the period when copies are created. The display area shows the copies in this period.

  3. Expand the full backup copy and select a mounted copy. The Unmount icon appears on the right of the copy.

  4. Click the Unmount icon. A confirmation window appears.

  5. Confirm the warning and enter the verification code. Click OK.

  6. After the unmounting, you can see no such mounted copy record under the full copy.

Glossary#

Glossary#

Term

Description

fast compression

A compression method that uses fast compression algorithms to compress data during the backup job.

cross-system restore

A restore method that restores files from object storage to Linux and vice versa.

different-architecture restore

A restore method that restores files from object storage to an operating system or Hadoop.
Contents