How to setup a process to automatically move the backup files off of the Quest KACE SMA appliance (4287783)

This article gives instructions on how to use FTP to backup your KACE SMA on a regularly scheduled basis.

Please pay attention to the version when setting up this process as the commands are different from version 6.3 and below compared to version 6.4 and higher.

Note: This article applies to versions 8.1 and below. For version 9.0, please see How to setup offboard backup transfer (260737).

CODE WRITTEN BY KACE SUPPORT FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY AND NOT SUPPORTED BY QUEST KACE TECHNICAL SUPPORT. CLIENT CONFIRMS THE NEED FOR TESTING AND ACCEPTS ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR USE AND MISUSE OF CODE. QUEST KACE SHALL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR DAMAGE OR DOWN TIME RESULTING  FROM USE OF THIS OR ANY CODE PRESENTED FOR PURPOSES OF TROUBLESHOOTING OR DEMONSTRATION

The name of the file backups have changed in 6.4.

Setting up the script

Create a script that leverages Windows FTP to automatically copy the two backup files off your KACE SMA appliance into a directory with a date-based name. Here is how you set it up:

1. Enable FTP by going to (System level if ORG-enabled): Settings | Security Settings | Enable backup via FTP | Save or Save and Restart Services

2. On the Windows machine you want to copy the files to, create a directory that you want the backups to be saved to c:\K1000Backup

   This can also be a networked drive, say to your SAN or other networked storage. 

   E.g. X:\K1000Backup  

3. Copy the files attached to this article (located down at the bottom in attachment area) (i.e. backup.txt and bkupkbox.zip) to c:\K1000Backup .
4. Open backup.txt and look at the first line. It reads  open k1_ip
5. Modify backup.txt file
   1. If version 6.3.x or below, open the backup.txt file and update the following:
      1. Change k1_ip to the hostname or IP of the SMA
      2. If the FTP password has been changed from the default password in Settings | Security Settings | New FTP user password, it will be necessary to change getbxf to the new password.
   2. If version 6.4.x, open the backup.txt file and update the following:
      1. Change k1_ip to the hostname or IP of the SMA
      2. Change mget kbox_* to mget k1_*
      3. If the FTP password has been changed from the default password in Settings | Security Settings | New FTP user password, it will be necessary to change getbxf to the new password.
6. Save backup.txt then rename it to backup.scr. Verify file extension is .scr instead of .txt. You can verify it in the properties of backup.scr and navigating to the details tab.

7. Open a command prompt and navigate to c:\K1000Backup  

   On Windows 7, holding shift while right-clicking in a folder will give you an option to open the command prompt windows in that directory

8. Run the backup using this command

   c:\K1000Backup\BKUPKBOX.bat c:\K1000backup

9. Check your c:\K1000\KBackup folder as it should now have a subfolder of today's date. (e.g. C:\K1000Backup\20101105\)

For reference here are the ftp commands if you need to test manually:

Running the script on a schedule

If you want the script to run automatically on a regular basis you can use the Windows Task Scheduler to accomplish this.

1. Go to Start I (All) Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Task Scheduler
2. In the Task Scheduler tool bar click on Action | Create Basic Task…
3. Name the task K1000 Backups and a provide description
4. Click Next
5. Select at what time that you want the script to run
6. Click Next
7. Select the time you want the task to run
8. Click Next
9. Select Start Program
10. Click Next
11. Click Browse and navigate to where you have bkupkbox.bat (e.g. C:\K1000Backup\bkupkbox.bat )
12. In the Add arguments field type  C:\K1000Backup
13. In the Start in field type C:\K1000Backup
14. Click Next
15. Click Finish

You can test your task by:

1. Selecting Task Scheduler Library on the left hand pane 
2. Right-click on the name of the task for the backup
3. Select Run

Appendix: Verifying your Backups

It's always a good idea to verify your backups, whether it's for your KBOX, or any other computer that holds irreplaceable data. The SMA does have a separate hard drive for physical systems that the backups are stored on, but those won't do you any good in the event of hardware failure, or other catastrophic event. For virtual systems, the backups are all stored on a single VHD file.

Below are some items you can check for to check the validity of your SMA backup files.

I. Visually inspect the size of the files

This isn't a fool-proof way of checking backups, but it's something you can do to help notice any serious problems quickly.

There are 2 files that makeup your KACE SMA backup, kbox_dbdata.gz and kbox_file.tgz.

• kbox_dbdata.gz is your database; this is where everything is stored, excluding any file attachments, patches, installers, etc. on your K1000.
• kbox_file.tgz is all of your files, excluding your patch files.

Every database are all different sizes, but they should be somewhere around 1-10MB upwards to 100MB.

If your DB backup is only a few kilobytes, your backups are failing, and you should contact support.

If your DB backup is over 100MB, there isn't necessarily an urgent problem, but there could be some DB maintenance that needs to be performed by support.

II. Inspect the db_data file directly

This method will require that you can decompress the kbox_dbdata.gf file.

1. Copy the k1_dbdata.gz so you have two versions
2. Unzip one of the k1_dbdata.gz files. This will create a file like kbox_dbdata (no gz extension)
3. Look for the line Dump Completed at the end of the file.
   1. For Windows systems: Find /N "dump completed" /I kbox_dbdata

   2. For Mac/Unix systems: tail -n 5 kbox_dbdata

      
      

      !Note! running this find on windows can take a long time on large backup files

4. Example output:

   ---------- K1_DBDATA [15150]-- Dump completed on 2011-04-27  0:17:21

   That means that the string was found on line 15150. The backup file is a full backup completed at April 27, 2011 kbox time.  On a 5Gb file on my laptop this took about 20 minutes to find. It is a very memory efficient method.

    

   DO NOT try to open the dbdata file with a text editor. It is normally too large of a file to try and open, and it may cause your PC or Mac to lock up trying to open such a large text file.

III. (5.4 and up only) Check the backup log

Starting in the KACE SMA version 5.4, there is a new log under Settings | Logs called the Backup Log.

1. Open this log on a regular basis and verify there are not any errors. E.g. Healthy backup log

   [2012-11-07 02:01:01 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Begin KBOX Backup [2012-11-07 02:01:01 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Stopping webserver... [2012-11-07 02:01:03 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE: Processing uploaded files... [2012-11-07 02:01:03 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE DISK_SIZE_TOTAL: 228434066 [2012-11-07 02:01:03 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE: Creating tar archive [2012-11-07 02:01:14 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE TAR_SIZE_TOTAL: 228485120 [2012-11-07 02:01:14 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE: Performing File Retention [2012-11-07 02:01:14 -0600] [info] BACKUP FILE LAST SIZE: 222992271 [2012-11-07 02:01:14 -0600] [info] KBOX Database Maintenance [2012-11-07 02:01:16 -0600] [info] BACKUP DB: Processing Entire Database... [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP DB: Performing DB Retention [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP DB LAST SIZE: 4952976 [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP DB: DB Maintenance Complete. [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP CLEANUP: Cleaning up files created by running reports [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP CLEANUP: Cleaning up any uploaded inventory files that got dropped on the floor due to processing errors [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP CLEANUP: Cleaning up any files generated by an upgrade [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Performing other nightly activities [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Complete. [2012-11-07 02:01:20 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Running Backup Verification steps [2012-11-07 02:01:21 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Backup Verification complete [2012-11-07 02:01:21 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Processing Status file [2012-11-07 02:01:21 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Backup verification complete. No errors found. [2012-11-07 02:01:21 -0600] [info] BACKUP: Backup files available for off-box storage via ftp. [2012-11-07 02:01:21 -0600] [info] Backup: Starting webserver...

Troubleshooting