KACE Systems Deployment Appliance 9.0 Common Documents - Administrator Guide

Best practices for backing up appliance data

Best practices for backing up appliance data

To prevent loss of data caused by failed hardware or a failed upgrade, it is important to plan and implement a backup plan. The appliance itself cannot be backed up, but critical data (such as images, tasks, and scripted installs) can and should be backed up on a regular basis.

Backing up the data consists of two tasks:

Both of these tasks can be done manually or as scheduled jobs depending on business needs. Either way is fine, but each method has drawbacks that need to be addressed.

The main problem with running backups manually is remembering to do so on a regular basis. Since both exporting and copying the data to offsite storage can take hours depending on the amount of data at hand, running them manually can be problematic. Scheduled backups also have issues such as ensuring the offsite storage server has enough disk space, scheduling the export and offsite transfer jobs so they do not overlap and prevent the process from responding, and maintaining the ID, password, and address of the offsite storage server.

Setting up a data export

For information about the steps for setting up a data export, visit https://support.quest.com/kace-systems-deployment-appliance/kb/115080.

Any items scheduled to be exported will only be exported if the Version and Version backed up (displayed on the Exports page) are different. The line showing the item is either white or yellow if that is the case. This mechanism prevents multiple copies of the same version from being constantly exported into the restore share. While this does save space on the restore share, and consequently on the remote storage server, it also means the backup files should not be deleted from the storage server out of hand, as the object (an image, scripted Install, or a post-installation task) is not exported again until its version number changes. This means if an object is exported, copied to the offsite storage, deleted from the restore share, and then subsequently deleted from the offsite storage for any reason, you will no longer have a backup of that object and it will not be exported again unless it is edited and saved, which increments the version number (causing the object to show up as yellow on the Exports list). This way, the management of the offsite storage server is critical to ensure needed backed up objects are not accidentally deleted because there is no easy way to instruct the appliance to start over and export everything from the beginning.

What to export

NOTE: Drivers listed here correspond to folders listed in the \\<appliance>\drivers share. There are just a few items in these folders, as driver feed drivers (and manually built driver feeds) reside in \\<appliance>\drivers_postinstall instead of \\<appliance>\drivers.

Things to consider

Evaluate the total size of the items to be exported and the available disk space on the appliance. Each exported object is placed in the appliance restore share as two files: a .pkg file containing the data, and an .xml file describing the contents of the package file. Both files must be kept together and are needed in order to restore the object. As these files are written to the restore share, their size is subtracted from the total free space of the appliance. Once the available free space falls below 20 GB, many standard operations on the appliance may begin to fail for lack of space to complete. Therefore it is critical that the total size of the exported objects does not exceed the available free space (minus the 20 GB of reserved space needed for a healthy appliance).

If the total size of the data to be backed up is greater than the available free space, it is a good idea to break the export/off-board transfer into four tasks (two export/transfer pairs), and to run them at different times of the week. This would require the Clean up Restorebox to be selected on the off-board transfer setup page.

It is critical that enough time be allowed between the export job and the transfer task, to ensure the exports complete before the transfer task starts, in order to avoid hanging the transfer task which requires a Level 3 ticket to fix. To that end it is recommended leaving 24 hours between the time you expect the export task to complete and the start of the transfer task. This gives a safety margin so a slow export task will not collide with the transfer task.

Setting up off-board package transfer for exported objects

TFor information about the steps for setting up an off-board package transfer, visit https://support.quest.com/kace-systems-deployment-appliance/kb/115080.

Things to consider

The off-board storage server must have sufficient size (in terms of disk space) for the ID used to contain all the data on the appliance. In fact it should have much more free space than the total data as multiple version of a task should be backed up in case an object needs to be reverted to an older version, for some reason.

Determine how much impact will pushing the backup data have on the available network band width and what other resources might that impact. If the Off-board storage server is used for other applications, will they impact the transfer duration or will they suffer detrimental effects during the transfer process?

On the off-board package transfer set up page, if the Clean up Restore box is checked, after each object is copied to the remote storage server (off-board server) it will be deleted from the appliance restore share, freeing up needed space on the disk. Using this option is a recommended way to save space on the appliance, but it requires careful management of the files stored on the off-board storage server, to avoid deletion of needed backups.

How often one needs to back up is directly dependent on the amount of changes made to the appliance data over time. In most cases, a weekly backup is sufficient, but its solely a function of the environment you have and the risk you are willing to assume. Most people start the exports on a Friday night and the off-board transfer early Sunday morning (for example, 2:00 AM), but again this depends on your environment.

If you choose to set up automatic exports/off-board transfer, keep in mind you may from time to time need to back things up manually, as a need arises.

Updating appliance software

You can check for and install appliance software updates. When you update the appliance, custom configurations, such as the boot environments, Boot Manager, and default boot actions are preserved. Update the Remote Site Appliance (RSA) OVF image each time you update the appliance software.

View the appliance version

View the appliance version

You can view the version of your appliance from any page, and you can check for and apply appliance software updates from the Appliance Maintenance page.

Choose one of the following methods to view the appliance version:

NOTE: When your license expires, a message appears at the top of the page, instructing you to update your license. The License Maintenance Status field on this page indicates the state of your license. To update your license, obtain a new key from your KACE sales representative, and update it on the Registration and Licensing page. If one or more Remote Site Appliances are associated with this appliance, the new license key is automatically updated on those RSAs after a synchronization.

Check for and apply automatic updates

Check for and apply automatic updates

You can check whether a newer version of the appliance software is available.

NOTE: Always back up appliance components before installing updates or upgrading the appliance software. For instructions, see Use Off-Board Package Transfer.

Reboot the appliance before upgrading. If your appliance is on an earlier version, upgrade to the minimum version and enable SSH before proceeding with the installation. If using an RSA, upgrade the RSA OVF image to the current version. The appliance requires internet access to apply software updates.

Some updates take a few hours to apply and might require the appliance to reboot.

NOTE: You can only update the appliance if your license is up to date. When your license expires, a message appears at the top of the page, instructing you to update your license. The License Maintenance Status field on this page indicates the state of your license. To update your license, obtain a new key from your KACE sales representative, and update it on the Registration and Licensing page. If one or more Remote Site Appliances (RSAs) are associated with this appliance, the new license key is automatically updated on those RSAs after a synchronization.