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Disaster Recovery

Back up BusinessObjects content with MetaMiner on a schedule, protect MetaMiner's own database and configuration, and restore after accidental deletion or a lost server.

Goal

A user deletes a folder of production reports, or a BusinessObjects server is lost. You need recent, restorable copies of the content, the ability to restore one report or a whole folder to the same or another environment, and a MetaMiner installation you can rebuild quickly.

Who

BI administrators and the infrastructure team that owns backups.

Before you begin

  • Your license includes Backup/Promote, and you have the MMC permission Tab: Backup/Promote (and Import on the environment you restore to). See Permissions Reference.
  • You have a backup location with enough space, ideally a network share that is itself backed up. The Windows account that runs the MetaMiner service must be able to read and write it.

Steps

1. Set the backup location

  1. In MMA, open Preferences > Settings > Backup.
  2. Set Backup Archive Path to your backup location. By default backups go to <install folder>\server\alerts\archives on the MetaMiner Server.
  3. Optionally set Versions Path and select Keep Web Intelligence versions? so MetaMiner keeps earlier versions of Web Intelligence documents. Keep Universe versions? is on by default.
  4. Save and restart the MetaMiner service when prompted.

See Backup settings.

2. Schedule content backups

  1. In the MMC Backup/Promote tab, click New Backup....
  2. Choose the type:
    • Wizard-based backs up the objects and folders you pick. New content in other folders is not included.
    • SQL-based backs up whatever a SQL query returns at each run, for example every document changed in the last day.
  3. Set the schedule and, on the Retention Policy tab, how many backups to keep.
  4. Save the job, then run it once and check that it completed.

Image of the New Backup dialog with an SQL-based backup and a daily schedule here

../images/use-cases/dr-new-backup-sql-based.png

See Backup and Restore and Backup and Promote Wizard.

3. Protect MetaMiner itself

  1. Back up the MetaMiner Database (MMDB) with PostgreSQL tools on a schedule. See Back Up and Restore MMDB.

  2. Include these MetaMiner Server folders in your file backup:

    Folder under <install folder>\server Holds
    config Server configuration, environments, certificates
    security MetaMiner users, roles and per-environment permissions
    alerts Alert and backup job definitions, their history, and backup archives (default location)
    scripts The Meta Query Script Catalog
    Your backup, versions and validation output paths Content backups, document versions, Report Validation outputs

TODO: confirm the complete list of MetaMiner Server folders to back up

Confirm against Moving to a New Server and Configuration Files.

What a re-pull can and cannot rebuild

If the MMDB is lost, MetaMiner re-collects current BusinessObjects metadata on the next pull. History is not re-collected: document versions, audit events older than the audit database keeps, alert history and pull history come back only from an MMDB backup.

4. Restore content

Choose the case:

  1. In the Backup/Promote tab, select the backup job.
  2. Click Restore Backup... and choose the backup date.
  3. Select the objects to restore and the target environment and folder. You can restore to the original environment or another one.
  4. Run the restore and wait for Restore is completed with success!.
  1. In the Backup/Promote tab, choose Restore using SQL....
  2. Write a query that selects the objects to restore across backups, review the result and restore.
  1. In the Backup/Promote tab, click Find and search the backups by name or path.
  2. Restore the object from the backup that contains it.
  1. In the CMS Explorer, right-click the document and choose View > View Versions... (requires Keep Web Intelligence versions?).
  2. Compare versions in Visual Diff and restore the one you need.

Image of the Restore from Backup dialog with target environment and folder selected here

../images/use-cases/dr-restore-from-backup.png

5. Rebuild the MetaMiner Server

  1. Install the same MetaMiner version on the new server.
  2. Restore the MMDB and the server folders listed in step 3.
  3. Start the MetaMiner service and connect with the MMC.

See Moving to a New Server.

Expected result

Scheduled content backups you have restored at least once in a test, an MMDB backup and server file backup on your normal backup schedule, and a written procedure for each restore case.

Variations

  • Restore into a different environment for testing: pick the test environment as the restore target.
  • Import a BIAR made outside MetaMiner: use Import from BIAR in the Backup/Promote tab.
  • Clean up before you back up: see Content Cleanup.

Next steps