Disaster Recovery System

Backup and Restore Overview

The Disaster Recovery System (DRS) provides full data backup for all servers in a Cisco Unified Intelligence Center cluster. It allows you to perform regularly scheduled automatic or user-invoked data backups.

The Disaster Recovery System performs a cluster-level backup, which means that it collects backups for all servers in a Cisco Unified Intelligence Center cluster to a central location and archives the backup data to physical storage device. Backup files are encrypted and can be opened only by the system software.

DRS restores its own settings (backup device settings and schedule settings) as part of the platform backup/restore. DRS backs up the drfDevice.xml and drfSchedule.xml files. When the server is restored with these files, you do not need to reconfigure DRS backup device and schedule.

The Disaster Recovery System includes the following capabilities:

A user interface for performing backup and restore tasks.
A distributed system architecture for performing backup functions.
Scheduled backups or manual (user-invoked) backups.

Backup Prerequisites

To back up data to a remote device on the network, you must have an SFTP server that is configured. You can use an SFTP server product that is certified with Cisco Technology Partners. Technology partners certify their products with specified versions of Cisco Unified Communications Manager. For information on which vendors have certified their products with your version of Cisco Unified Communications Manager, see the Solutions Catalog on the Cisco Developer Network at https://marketplace.cisco.com.

Ensure that all cluster nodes are running the same version of Cisco Unified intelligence Center. If different nodes are running different versions, the certificates will not match and your backup or restore could fail.

Note

Retest the DRS with your SFTP server after you upgrade your Unified Communications Manager, upgrade your SFTP server, or you switch to a different SFTP server. Perform this step to ensure that these components operate correctly together. Additionally, perform a backup and restore on a standby or backup server.

Use the information in the following table to determine which SFTP server solution to use in your system.

Table 1. SFTP Server Information
SFTP Server	Information
SFTP Server from a Technology Partner	These servers are third party provided, third party tested, and jointly supported by TAC and the Cisco vendor. Version compatibility depends on the third party test. See the Technology Partner page if you upgrade their SFTP product and/or upgrade Unified Communications Manager for which versions are compatible: https://marketplace.cisco.com
SFTP Server from another Third Party	These servers are third party provided, have limited Cisco testing, and are not officially supported by Cisco TAC. Version compatibility is on a best effort basis to establish compatible SFTP versions and Unified Communications Manager versions. For a fully tested and supported SFTP solution, use Cisco Prime Collaboration Deployment or a Technology Partner.

Cisco uses the following servers for internal testing. You may use one of the servers, but you must contact the vendor for support:

Open SSH
Cygwin
Titan

Cisco does not support using the SFTP product freeFTPd. This is because of the 1GB file size limit on this SFTP product.

For Cygwin to function properly as your backup SFTP server, you must add the following lines to the sshd_config file:

The cipher key: ciphers aes128-cbc

The Unified Communications Algorithm: KexAlgorithms diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1

For details on how to set up third-party SFTP products, contact the third-party vendor for support. For issues with third-party products that have not been certified through the Cisco Technology Developer Program process, contact the third-party vendor for support

Note

While a backup or restore is running, you cannot perform any OS Administration tasks, because Disaster Recovery System blocks all OS Administration requests by locking the platform API. However, Disaster Recovery System does not block most CLI commands, because only the CLI-based upgrade commands use the Platform API locking package.

Backup Procedure Taskflow

Configure backup devices

You can configure up to 10 backup devices. Perform the following steps to configure the location where you want to store backup files.

Before you begin

Ensure you have write access to the directory path in the SFTP server to store the backup file.
Ensure that the username, password, server name, and directory path are valid as the DRS Primary Agent validates the configuration of the backup device.

Note

Schedule backups during periods when you expect less network traffic.

Procedure

Step 1	From Disaster Recovery System, select Backup > Backup Device.
Step 2	In the Backup Device List window, do either of the following: To configure a new device, click Add New. To edit an existing backup device, enter the search criteria, click Find, and Edit Selected. To delete a backup device, select it in the Backup Device list and click Delete Selected. You cannot delete a backup device that is configured as the backup device in a backup schedule.
Step 3	Enter a backup name in the Backup Device Name field. The backup device name contains only alphanumeric characters, spaces (), dashes (-) and underscores (_). Do not use any other characters.
Step 4	In the Select Destination area, under Network Directory perform the following: In the Host name/IP Address field, enter the hostname or IP address for the network server. In the Path name field, enter the directory path where you want to store the backup file. In the User name field, enter a valid username. In the Password field, enter a valid password. From the Number of backups to store on Network Directory drop-down list, choose the required number of backups.
Step 5	Click Save.

What to do next

Estimate Size of Backup Tar

Configure a Schedule Backup

You can create up to 10 backup schedules. Each backup schedule has its own set of properties, including a schedule for automatic backups, the set of features to back up, and a storage location.

Caution

Schedule backups during off-peak hours to avoid service interruptions.

Before you begin

Configure backup devices

Procedure

Step 1

From the Disaster Recovery System, choose Backup Scheduler.

Step 2

In the Schedule List window, do one of the following steps to add a new schedule or edit an existing schedule.

To create a new schedule, click Add New.
To configure an existing schedule, click the name in the Schedule List column.

Step 3

In the scheduler window, enter a schedule name in the Schedule Name field.

Note

You cannot change the name of the default schedule.

Step 4

Select the backup device in the Select Backup Device area.

Step 5

Select the features to back up in the Select Features area. You must choose at least one feature.

Step 6

Choose the date and time when you want the backup to begin in the Start Backup at area.

Step 7

Choose the frequency at which you want the backup to occur in the Frequency area. The frequency can be set to Once Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. If you choose Weekly, you can also choose the days of the week when the backup will occur.

Tip

To set the backup frequency to Weekly, occurring Tuesday through Saturday, click Set Default.

Step 8

To update these settings, click Save.

Step 9

Choose one of the following options:

To enable the selected schedules, click Enable Selected Schedules.
To disable the selected schedules, click Disable Selected Schedules.
To delete the selected schedules, click Delete Selected.

Step 10

To enable the schedule, click Enable Schedule.

The next backup occurs automatically at the time that you set.

Note

Ensure that all servers in the cluster are running the same version of Cisco Unified Intelligence Center and are reachable through the network. Servers that are not reachable at the time of the scheduled backup will not get backed up.

What to do next

(Optional) View Current Backup Status

Start a Manual Backup

Before you begin

Ensure that all cluster nodes have the same installed version of Cisco Unified Intelligence Center.
Ensure that there is adequate space in the remote server.
Ensure that there are no network interruptions.
Configure backup devices
Be aware that your backup .tar files are encrypted by a randomly generated password. This password is then encrypted by using the cluster security password and gets saved along with the backup .tar files. You must remember this security password or take a backup immediately after the security password change/reset.

Procedure

Step 1	From the Disaster Recovery System, select Backup > Manual Backup.
Step 2	In the Manual Backup window, select a backup device from the Backup Device Name area.
Step 3	Choose a feature from the Select Features area.
Step 4	Click Start Backup.

What to do next

(Optional) View Current Backup Status

View Current Backup Status

Perform the following steps to check the status of the current backup job.

Caution

Be aware that if the backup to the remote server is not completed within 20 hours, the backup session times out and you must begin a fresh backup.

Procedure

Step 1

From the Disaster Recovery System, select Backup > Current Status.

Step 2

To view the backup log file, click the log filename link.

Step 3

To cancel the current backup, click Cancel Backup.

Note

The backup cancels after the current component completes its backup operation.

What to do next

View Backup History

Estimate Size of Backup Tar

Cisco Unified Intelligence Center will estimate the size of the backup tar, only if a backup history exists for one more selected features.

The calculated size is not an exact value but an estimated size of the backup tar. Size is calculated based on the actual backup size of a previous successful backup and may vary if the configuration changed since the last backup.

You can use this procedure only when the previous backups exist and not when you back up the system for the first time.

Follow this procedure to estimate the size of the backup tar that is saved to a SFTP device.

Procedure

Step 1	From the Disaster Recovery System, select Backup > Manual Backup.
Step 2	In the Select Features area, select the features to back up.
Step 3	Click Estimate Size to view the estimated size of backup for the selected features.

What to do next

View Backup History

Perform the following steps to view the backup history.

Procedure

Step 1

From the Disaster Recovery System, select Backup > History.

Step 2

From the Backup History window, you can view the backups that you have performed, including filename, backup device, completion date, result, version, features that are backed up, and failed features.

Note

The Backup History window displays only the last 20 backup jobs.

Administration Console User Guide for Cisco Unified Intelligence Center, Release 12.0(1)

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Administration Console User Guide for Cisco Unified Intelligence Center, Release 12.0(1)

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