Release 3.0: Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

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Updated:May 28, 2012

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Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Table Of Contents

Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Contents

Prerequisites for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Restrictions for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Information About Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Backup Environment

What Cisco StadiumVision Director Data is Backed Up

Backup Files and Directories

Disk Storage and Maintenance

Restore Environment

How to Backup a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

Setting Up the Primary and Backup Server Directories

Scheduling a Regular Backup

Starting a Backup Manually for Immediate Execution

Verifying Backup Completion

Viewing the Contents of a Backup File

How to Restore a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

Scheduling a Regular Restore

Starting a Restore Manually for Immediate Execution

Restarting the Local Control Service

Feature Information for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

First Published: May 29, 2012

This module describes how to setup and schedule backups between a primary and secondary server, and restore data between them.

Contents

•Prerequisites for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

•Restrictions for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

•Information About Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

•How to Backup a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

•How to Restore a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

•Feature Information for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Prerequisites for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Before you backup or restore Cisco StadiumVision Director servers, be sure that the following requirements are met:

•Be sure that you have an installer account on the Cisco StadiumVision Director server.

•Be sure that an SNE TAC account and login credential have been obtained for each server by your Cisco representative, or otherwise contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC). This account will be needed to authenticate and obtain an access token for the Cisco StadiumVision server to create a temporary account with certain system-level privileges.

Note To successfully configure the TUI backup configuration, the accounts that are created on both the primary and secondary Cisco StadiumVision Director servers from the SNE TAC credential must use the same username and password.

•You have the IP addresses for both the primary and backup server. You will need to provide this information during the Text Utility Interface (TUI) backup configuration.

•The IP address of the secondary server must be reachable on the network or the TUI backup configuration will fail.

•You have determined an appropriate time on the network to schedule automatic backups and restores.

Restrictions for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Consider the following restrictions when backing up and restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director servers:

Caution The tasks described in this document apply only to a redundant server environment where both Cisco StadiumVision Director servers are running version 3.0 or later software.

•If you have to failover to your secondary Cisco StadiumVision Director server due to a problem on the primary, then your original backup configuration will be invalid due to the changes in IP addressing that are required on the secondary server.

Be aware that your scheduled backup process cannot fully operate by automatically transferring a copy of the backup to the secondary server until you use the TUI automatic backup configuration again to reset the IP addresses and directories for the primary and secondary servers. However, a backup will continue to be saved on the primary server.

•When you failback to the original primary server and are now using the original IP addressing configuration, you still will need to use the TUI automatic backup configuration again so that the backup directory can be re-established on the secondary server.

•A restore cannot run while an event script is running.

Information About Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

This section includes the following topics:

•Backup Environment

•What Cisco StadiumVision Director Data is Backed Up

•Backup Files and Directories

•Disk Storage and Maintenance

Backup Environment

While you can run a backup for a network environment where there is only a single Cisco StadiumVision Director server, the recommended environment that is described in this document is a redundant environment. In a redundant environment, you are running Cisco StadiumVision Director on a primary server, with a secondary server connected to the same subnet where the backup data from the primary server is saved.

The backup process can be scheduled and also run manually.

What Cisco StadiumVision Director Data is Backed Up

There are several areas of Cisco StadiumVision Director that need to be backed up. The backup process backs up the following areas of the Cisco StadiumVision Director server:

•Cisco StadiumVision Director database

•Cisco StadiumVision Director system configuration files

•Cisco StadiumVision Director content repository

•Proof of play report data in the /var/sv/pofp/data directory

•Cisco StadiumVision Director CMS for the Self-Service Content (SSC) feature

Caution The Video Distribution Manager content and proof of play raw data in the /var/sv/pofp/raw directory is not backed up.

Backup Files and Directories

Cisco StadiumVision Director uses the following directories to store backup files:

•/var/sv/BACKUP—Primary server directory where a backup is stored.

•/var/sv/RESTORE—Secondary server directory where a copy of the primary backup is stored.

Each backup operation results in a tar file that contains separate compressed files. The file name uses the following format:

sv-VER-YYYYMMDDHHMMSS-TZOFFSET.tar

where:

•VER is the Cisco StadiumVision release and build number that the backup was created from.

•YYYYMMDDHHMMSS is the date and time of the backup with the year, month, day, hour, minute, second shown.

•TZOFFSET is the time zone offset of the server in relation to UTC.

A sample backup file name for Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.0 is "sv-3.0.0.247-20120416121212-0800.tar."

To list the contents of a backup file, replace the "sv-3.0.0.247-20120416121212-0800.tar" with the backup file you would like to list and run the following:
tar tvf sv-3.0.0.247-20120416121212-0800.tar
Disk Storage and Maintenance

Cisco StadiumVision Director automatically deletes backup files that are older than 10 days from the /var/sv/BACKUP and /var/sv/RESTORE directories. However, you should continue to monitor disk space because this removal is based on a time period and is not run based on any automatic monitoring of disk space.

Note If you have the Director Server enabled for monitoring (recommended), you can look for any alerts on the Director Server in the Service Alerts window in the Management Dashboard. To view the alert details, you can go to Event Viewer > All Events > System.

For a disk space alert based on the disk critical threshold set for the server, look for "DEGRADED" in the Sub Type column for the "Service Monitor" in the Source column.

Restore Environment

As with backups, you can schedule the restore process or run it manually. When the manual restore screen is displayed, it lists backups from both the /BACKUP and /RESTORE directories, concatenated together. This allows you to run a manual restore on either the primary or the secondary server. An automated restore always uses the most recent backup file in the RESTORE directory.

Also, the schedule of tasks to run in the primary database and the secondary database will be different, due to the existence of the backup and restore tasks. Therefore, the schedule itself is not automatically restored.

How to Backup a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

This section includes the following tasks:

•Setting Up the Primary and Backup Server Directories (required)

•Scheduling a Regular Backup (required)

•Starting a Backup Manually for Immediate Execution (optional)

•Verifying Backup Completion (optional)

•Viewing the Contents of a Backup File (optional)

Setting Up the Primary and Backup Server Directories

The configuration of the backup accounts and directories between the primary and backup server is automated using a TUI menu option. You need to use the TUI to setup the Cisco StadiumVision Server environment to be able to run the backup and restore processes.

Note The TUI is only used to configure the backup environment. You need to use the Management Dashboard to schedule or run any manual backups. For more information, see the "Scheduling a Regular Backup" section and "Starting a Backup Manually for Immediate Execution" section.

To set up the primary and backup server directories, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Use a directly connected console, or use an SSH client from a laptop computer that is connected to the Cisco StadiumVision Server network to run a secure login to the primary Cisco StadiumVision Director server using the IP address for your server.

Step 2 When the login prompt appears, enter the installer userid followed by the installer password at the password prompt.

Step 3 When the StadiumVision Director Configuration menu appears, type r and press Enter (Figure 1):

Figure 1 TUI Main Menu Option for Automatic Backup and Restore Setup

Step 4 When the backup configuration confirmation prompt appears, type c to continue (Figure 2):

Figure 2 TUI Backup Configuration Confirmation

Step 5 The backup configuration process begins. When the corresponding prompts for account information and IP addresses appear, type the following information and press Enter (Figure 3):

•SNE TAC account username with system-level privileges.

Note This should be the same account name on both servers.

•IP address of the Cisco StadiumVision Director primary server.

•IP address of the Cisco StadiumVision Director secondary server.

•Password for the specified SNE TAC account.

Figure 3 TUI Backup Configuration Prompts

Step 6 After you enter the password for the user, verification of the information occurs and the system begins to access the primary Cisco StadiumVision Director server (Figure 4):

Figure 4 TUI Backup Configuration Verification

Scheduling a Regular Backup

After you have configured the servers to support the backup process, you need to schedule backups using the Management Dashboard in the Cisco StadiumVision Director software.

Note It is recommended that you schedule backups to occur while the Cisco StadiumVision Director servers are not actively running scripts or performing other event processing.

To configure a backup to run on a regular schedule, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into the primary Cisco StadiumVision Director server as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard opens in a new window.

Step 3 Select Tools > Advanced > Scheduled Tasks.

Step 4 Click Add Row and scroll to the new blank line.

Step 5 Click in the Task Type column and type BackupTask (Figure 5).

Note Be sure to type the name of the task exactly as shown with upper and lowercase characters.

Figure 5 Adding a Backup Task to Run on a Regular Schedule

Step 6 Click in the Task Time column and specify the time (in 24:00 format) when you want the backup to run.

Step 7 Click in the Servers column and type config.

Step 8 Click Apply.

Starting a Backup Manually for Immediate Execution

If you want to start a backup other than at the regularly scheduled time, the Cisco StadiumVision Director software also allows you to run a backup process immediately.

To start a backup manually for immediate execution, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 Select Tools > Advanced > Run a Task.

Step 4 In the Tasks to Run box, select the BackupTask (Figure 6).

Figure 6 Running a Scheduled Backup Task Manually

Step 5 Click Apply.

The backup begins immediately.

Note The "success" message that appears means that the backup task has started. It does not mean that the backup has completed.

Verifying Backup Completion

To verify the backup process is complete, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Go to the /var/sv/BACKUP directory.

Step 2 Verify that the following files have recently been added:

•File ending in .chksum, which contains an MD5 checksum for the .tar file.

•File ending in .tar.

Note The following three text files are also created with 0 bytes and can be ignored:

—deleted-blob.txt
—existing-blob.txt
—stored-blob.txt

Note Messages from the backup process include the string "com.cisco.sv.backup" and are stored in the /opt/sv/servers/config/logs/sv_dev_debug.log file. However, be aware that the messages "Starting backup" and "Backup completed" will always appear in the log regardless of success. The "Backup completed" message does not necessarily mean that the backup was successful. If a log message appears before the "Backup completed" message (and after the "Starting backup" message) that includes the "com.cisco.sv.backup" string and also "ERROR," then there is a problem.

Viewing the Contents of a Backup File

To list the contents of a .tar backup file, use the tar tvf command as shown in the following example, where "sv-3.0.0.247-20120416121212-0800.tar" is the name of your backup file:
tar tvf sv-3.0.0.247-20120416121212-0800.tar
How to Restore a Cisco StadiumVision Director Server

The Cisco StadiumVision Director software automatically copies backup files between the primary and secondary servers and verifies the MD5 checksum. You can configure the secondary server to mirror the primary server by scheduling a periodic restore of the primary's backup content to the secondary server.

Note If for some reason you need to manually copy files between the servers, be sure that you copy both the .tar and .chksum files because the restore process automatically uses both files to verify the MD5 signature.

This section includes the following tasks:

•Scheduling a Regular Restore (optional)

•Starting a Restore Manually for Immediate Execution (optional)

•Restarting the Local Control Service (required after restore run)

Scheduling a Regular Restore

You can use this task to schedule an automatic restore of the primary backup file to the secondary server on a regular basis. The regularly scheduled restore task restores all components except scheduled tasks.

To configure a restore to run on a regular schedule, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into the secondary Cisco StadiumVision Director server as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard opens in a new window.

Step 3 Select Tools > Advanced > Scheduled Tasks.

Step 4 Click Add Row and scroll to the new blank line at the bottom of the box.

Step 5 Click in the Task Type column and type RestoreTask (Figure 7).

Note Be sure to type the name of the task exactly as shown with upper and lowercase characters.

Figure 7 Adding a Restore Task to Run on a Regular Schedule

Step 6 Click in the Task Time column and specify the time when you want the restore to run, preferably sometime soon after your scheduled backup task completes.

Step 7 Click in the Servers column and type config.

Step 8 Click Apply.

Starting a Restore Manually for Immediate Execution

If you want to start a restore other than at the regularly scheduled time, the Cisco StadiumVision Director software also allows you to run a restore from backup to begin immediately.

Caution You cannot successfully run the restore process while an event script is running.

To start a restore manually for immediate execution, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Log into Cisco StadiumVision Director as an administrator.

Step 2 From the Cisco StadiumVision Director main menu, click Management Dashboard.

The Cisco StadiumVision Management Dashboard is opened in a new window.

Step 3 Select Tools > Advanced > Restore system data from backup.

Step 4 For Components, select the All components except Unix, Scheduled tasks (Figure 8).

Figure 8 Running a Restore Task Manually

Step 5 (Optional) If you do not want to restore the latest backup (the default), then in the Sytem backup time box, select the date and time of the backup file that you want to restore (Figure 8).

Step 6 Click Apply.

The restore begins immediately.

Note If you need to also restore the scheduled tasks, you can rerun the Restore system data from backup and for Components, select Scheduled Tasks.

Restarting the Local Control Service

After you perform any restore on a Cisco StadiumVision Director server, you must stop and start the local control service (svd-localctl) to resume normal operation of the local control application programming interface (API).

To restart the local control service, complete the following steps:

Step 1 Use a directly connected console, or use an SSH client from a laptop computer that is connected to the Cisco StadiumVision Server network to run a secure login to the primary Cisco StadiumVision Director server using the IP address for your server.

Step 2 When the login prompt appears, enter the installer userid followed by the installer password at the password prompt.

Step 3 When the StadiumVision Director Configuration menu appears, type the letter beside the option to Start / Stop Services (f) and press Enter.

Step 4 Type the number beside the option to STOP service SVD-LOCALCTL (14) and press Enter.

Step 5 Type the number beside the option to START service SVD-LOCALCTL (13) and press Enter.

Step 6 Log out.

Feature Information for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Table 1 lists the release history for this feature.

Table 1 Feature Information for Backing Up and Restoring Cisco StadiumVision Director Servers

Date

Releases

Feature Information

May 29, 2012

Release 3.0.0-247

Initial release of Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.0.

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