Backup

The backup is using the backup function of the database in use. Possible shortcomings of the database in use must therefore be accepted (and can’t be fixed by LIMBAS).

• PostgreSQL supports at the moment only a database dump, where at the same time no access should be made to the database.
• MaxDB supports incremental data backup during operation.

Interactive

Before the start of the interactive backup, the following settings must be applied:

• Type: database-dependent choices e.g. ‘Complete Data Backup’
• Media: database-dependent choices such as ‘File’ or ‘Tape’
• target (on db-host): Location path, format depending on the medium, e.g. < Servername > :/ < Path > ‘File’. The default value for this field is taken from the environment variable “backup_default”.

To ensure a successful backup:

• Backup to a file on the ’localhost’, must have the appropriate directory write permissions for the Apache user (if necessary use ‘chown’).
• Backup to a file on a remote host using ‘ssh/scp’. This requires a corresponding key in the ‘ authorized_keys ‘ file of the remote computer for the Apache user
• LIMBAS runs the backup with database –user and password stored in the file ./dependent/inc/include_db.lib

$DBA["DBCUSER"] = '<DB control user>';
$DBA["DBCPASS"] = '<DB control user password>';

This user must have the permission to perform a backup of the database.

The path for backup tools of the database must be specified in the ./dependent/inc/include_db.lib under

$DBA["DBPATH"] = "<path to backup tool>";

unless they are an integrated part of the database (such as PostgreSQL).

Start the backup with a click on the ‘Start Backup’ button. A successfully generated backup file is saved at the location specified in target (on db-host). A message, which also contains the filename, will appear on the screen.

Periodic

Periodically execute backups are started by Cron. Prerequisites:

• A corresponding entry in the Crontab
• A corresponding entry in the LIMBAS system table ‘lmb_crontab‘

Cron starts, at the set time, a script that takes the call for backup from the LIMBAS system table.

Add periodic backup

To add a periodic backup in LIMBAS, in addition to the settings of the Interactive Backup the following settings are required:

• Alive (days): Number of days that a generated backup file should remain. Corresponding backup files that are older will be deleted.
• Timeperiod (cron) minute/hour/day of month/month / day of week: Start time for the backup.

Syntax see: http://en.Wikibooks.org/wiki/Linux-Kompendium:_crontab or http://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/cron

When clicking on the ‘Add Job!’button, LIMBAS generates, the corresponding entry in the LIMBAS system table ‘lmb_crontab’, using the provided settings. The backup entries of the ‘lmb_crontab’ are displayed below the ‘Add Job!’ button. Displayed below the headline ‘Crontab Value’ are also, all Crontab entries for periodic backups, which are NOT automatically generated by LIMBAS, therefor they have to be entered manually by the user.

To avoid incorrect settings, it is useful to test a new Crontab entry in the Terminal window and then enter it in the Crontab.

Remove periodic backup

To remove a periodic backup

• manually delete the corresponding Crontab entry
• manually delete the corresponding entry from the LIMBAS system table ‘lmb_crontab’ e.g. clicking on the ‘Trash’ icon right next to the entry

History

The backup history displays an overview of previously performed backups with information about

• Carried out actions
• Date
• Status
• Backup Media
• Backup Size
• Backup Server
• Backup Target

Backups that could not be completed are color highlighted here.