Network Backups

Overview

GridGain provided a way to create network backups, allowing you to back up your cluster data to a network location such as NAS or NFS for recovery purposes. Since the data is stored on a different physical device, network backups provide security against disk failures. The network location is used as a centralized storage where all cluster nodes can save data and then use it for recovery. Using centralized storage also lets you restore the cluster to a different physical location or even in the cloud.

Prerequisites

Snapshot functionality has to be enabled. Please refer to Snapshots & Recovery for instructions.
The centralized storage has to be mounted to all machines hosting the cluster nodes and have the same path.

Creating Network Backup

There are two ways to create a network backup:

Create a local (regular) snapshot and move it to a shared folder.
Create a snapshot directly into a shared folder.

These two approaches are discussed below.

Saving Snapshots Directly to Centralized Storage

You can tell GridGain to create a snapshot directly into the centralized storage by specifying a path:

snapshot-utility.sh snapshot -type=full -dest=/shared/folder

// Get a reference to GridGain plugin.
GridGain gg = ignite.plugin(GridGain.PLUGIN_NAME);

// Get a reference to the Snapshots.
GridSnapshot storage = gg.snapshot();

// Create the snapshot. Data of all the caches will be added to the snapshot.
GridSnapshotFuture snapshotFuture = storage.createFullSnapshot(null, new File("/shared/folder/path/"), "Snapshot has been created!");

// Wait while the snapshot is being done.
snapshotFuture.get()

Moving Snapshots to Centralized Storage

If you do not specify a snapshot location when creating a snapshot, each node will save its data to a local folder. In this case, the snapshot is stored on local drives of the cluster nodes. To move the data to a centralized storage, use either the move command of the Snapshots Management Tool or the Java API.

snapshot-utility.sh move -id=123456 -dest=/shared/folder

// Get a reference to GridGain plugin.
GridGain gg = ignite.plugin(GridGain.PLUGIN_NAME);

// Get a reference to the Snapshots.
GridSnapshot snapshot = gg.snapshot();

// Get the first snapshot from the list.
SnapshotInfo info = snapshot.listSnapshots(null).get(0);

// Get the snapshot ID.
long snapshotId = info.snapshotId();

// Move the snapshot with given ID to a shared folder.
SnapshotFuture<Void> future = snapshot.moveSnapshot(snapshotId, new File("/shared/folder/path"), "Snapshot Moved");

// Wait for the operation to finish.
future.get();

var ignite = Ignition.Start(cfg);

// Get a reference to grid snapshot API.
var snapshot = ignite.GetSnapshot();

// Get the first snapshot from the list.
var en = snapshot.GetSnapshots(null).GetEnumerator();
en.MoveNext();
var info = en.Current;

// Get the snapshot ID.
long snapshotId = info.SnapshotId;

// Move the snapshot with given ID to a shared folder.
var task = snapshot.MoveSnapshotAsync(snapshotId, "/shared/folder/path", "Snapshot Moved");

// Wait for the operation to finish.
task.Task.Wait();

Restoring from Network Backup

To restore a cluster from a network backup, use the centralized storage as a snapshot location:

snapshot-utility.sh restore -id=123456 -src=/shared/folder/path

// Get a reference to GridGain plugin.
GridGain gg = ignite.plugin(GridGain.PLUGIN_NAME);

// Get a reference to GridSnapshot.
GridSnapshot storage = gg.snapshot();

// Get the first snapshot from the list.
GridSnapshotOperation info = storage.listSnapshots(null).get(0);

// Get the snapshot ID.
long snapshotId = info.snapshotId();

// Replace content of all the caches with the content from the snapshot.
IgniteFuture<Void> future = storage.restoreSnapshot(snapshotId, null, Collections.singleton("/shared/folder/path"), "Cluster Restored!");

// Wait until the operation finishes.
future.get();

var ignite = Ignition.Start(cfg);

// Get a reference to grid snapshot API.
var snapshot = ignite.GetSnapshot();

// Get the first snapshot from the list.
var en = snapshot.GetSnapshots(null).GetEnumerator();
en.MoveNext();
var info = en.Current;

// Get the snapshot ID.
long snapshotId = info.SnapshotId;

// Replace content of all the caches with the content from the snapshot.
var task = snapshot.RestoreSnapshotAsync(snapshotId, new[] { "/shared/folder/path" }, null, "Cluster Restored!");

// Wait for the operation to finish.
task.Task.Wait();

Each node will compute which partitions belong to the local node and restore corresponding partitions from the centralized storage to the local storage.