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Back Up and Restore Paragon Automation

This topic describes the backup and restore functionality available in Paragon Automation.

Back Up Paragon Automation

You can back up your current Paragon Automation network configuration using Paragon Shell CLI. When you run the backup command, all the application configuration information stored in PostgreSQL and ArangoDB configuration database systems are backed up. The backup procedure can be performed while the microservices and applications are running and does not affect the operation of the network.

To back up your Paragon Automation configuration state.

  1. Log in as root user to any of the Paragon Automation nodes.
  2. Execute the following command to back up the configuration.
    root@Primary1> request paragon backup start

The backup takes a few minutes to complete. Upon completion, a backup file with a filename in the yyyymmdd-hhmmss format is created. The backup file is stored in the local persistent /export/paragon-shell/backup folder on the node. You'll have to exit out of Paragon Shell to the Linux root shell navigate to the backup folder.

Caveat of the backup process

  • Metrics data such as the data stored in InfluxDB is not backed up.

  • Application configurations (such as devices, sites, service orders, and so on) are backed up, but certificates and infrastructure services configurations are not backed up. This information must be kept unchanged before you perform a restore.

Restore Paragon Automation

You can restore your Paragon Automation network configuration from a backup configuration file. To restore from a backup configuration file, all microservices and applications must be stopped, and the cluster is not functional until the databases are restored. Once the databases are flushed and restored to the backed-up configuration, the applications must be restarted, and configuration restored from the databases must be reparsed.

To restore your Paragon Automation configuration from a specific backup configuration file.

  1. Log in as root user to the node where the backup file is located.
  2. Execute the following command to uninstall all the running applications.
    root@Primary1> request paragon destroy cluster input “-v -t apps”

    This command takes some time to complete, and you must wait until all the applications are shut down before proceeding to the next step. To check the status of the applications, perform the following steps.

    1. Type exit to exit Paragon Shell to the Linux root shell.

    2. Check each application namespace for running deployments using the kubectl get deployments -n namespace command, where namespace is the name of the application namespace. Use this command for each namespace and the output of every command should be empty, which indicates that no deployments are running. Table 1 lists all the namespaces that you must check.

      Table 1: Namespace List

      airflow

      epic

      foghorn

      gnmi-term

      mems

      netbox

      northstar

      oc-term

      paa

      papi

      streams

      trust

      healthbot

      The command output should display only the following deployments:

      vm-operator-victoria-metrics-operator, vmauth-victoria-metrics-auth, vminsert-victoria-metrics-cluster

      When all applications are shut down, you are ready to proceed with the restore process.

    3. Type cli to log in again to Paragon Shell.
  3. Restore the applications configuration from the backup file.
    root@Primary1> request paragon restore start backup-id backup-id
  4. Reinstall all the applications.
    root@Primary1> request paragon deploy cluster input “-v -t apps”
  5. Reparse and synchronize the restored configuration.
    root@Primary1> request paragon restore sync

You must perform the restore operation only on the node on which the required backup file is located.

Caveats of the restore process

  • When you perform the restore operation, the network configuration is returned to the configuration present in the backup file. From the time the backup was taken, if the network configuration has changed due to new devices being onboarded or new service orders being executed, the network configuration in Paragon Automation might be different from the actual network state. To ensure that the network configuration in Paragon Automation and the actual network state have minimal mismatch post a restore operation, we recommend that you take regular periodic backups or specific backups after every network intent change.

  • You cannot restore data from a release different from the current installed release of Paragon Automation.

  • You can restore data on the same setup on which a backup was taken and not on a fresh installation using the procedure described in this section. To restore backed up data on a fresh installation, use the procedure described in Disaster Recovery.

  • Since a backup does not store the certificates and infrastructure services configurations, that information must be kept unchanged during restoration.

  • Resources allocated to the network won’t be preserved after a restore and you must ensure that you release the allocated resources during the window between taking a backup and performing a restore.

View Backup Files

To view a list of all backup files across all nodes, use the following command:

root@Primary1> show paragon backup

The node connects to all the other nodes in the Paragon Automation cluster using SSH and displays a list of all backup file names along with the IP address of the node on which the file is located.

To view a list of backup files along with a list of failed backup attempts, use the following command:

root@Primary1> show paragon backup include-failure true

Delete Backup Files

To delete a backup file, use the following command.

root@Primary1> request paragon backup delete backup-id backup-id

You can delete a backup file that is located only on the node that you execute the command.

Disaster Recovery

You can restore data on a fresh installation from a backup take on a different setup using the procedure described in this section. You can back up your Paragon Automation cluster and all associated application configuration by exporting it to your ESXi server. Once exported, you can redeploy it on a new installation. During back up and re-installation, your cluster is shutdown and is nonoperational. Perform the following steps to export and redeploy:
  1. Verify that the cluster is in good health. Log in to one of the primary nodes and execute the # health-check command from the Linux root shell.

    The Overall Cluster Status must be GREEN.

  2. Export your current cluster configuration.

    1. Log in to your node VMs. You are placed in Paragon Shell.

    2. Type exit to exit to the Linux root shell.

    3. Shut down the node using the # shutdown -h now command.

      Note:

      You must shut down all the node VMs around the same time. We recommend that the time taken to execute the shutdown -h now command on all the four VMs does not exceed ~120 seconds. The VMs might take longer to actually shutdown but you must execute the command on all the VMs within ~120 seconds.

    4. Log in to your ESXi server.

    5. Export the configuration of all VMs one after another and enter appropriate names when prompted.

      Perform the steps described in the VMware v Sphere documentation at Export an OVF Template.

    The VM configuration is backed up locally as four sets of OVF, .vmdk, .nvram, and .mf configuration files.
  3. Redeploy the exported configuration as a fresh installation.

    Perform the steps described in Create the node VMs. Select the corresponding sets of OVF and configuration files for each VM.

    The cluster is re-installed afresh.
  4. (Optional) Verify that the cluster is in good health. Log in to one of the primary nodes and execute the # health-check command from the Linux root shell.

    The Overall Cluster Status must be GREEN.

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