Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

Table Of Contents

Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

Cisco Pulse Data

Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

What Happens During a Backup

Performing a Manual Backup

Setting Up an Automated Daily Backup

Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

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Note This information is intended for the system administrator who is responsible for performing regular backups of the Cisco Pulse data on a Pulse Connect Appliance.

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This topic is comprised of this information:

•Cisco Pulse Data

•Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

Cisco Pulse Data

The Pulse Connect Appliance stores this Cisco Pulse data:

•A database, which includes the user list, the Pulse and Restricted Vocabularies, and system configuration files.

•The Pulse Index, which includes Pulse Vocabulary terms from content shared across the network and associated metadata for people, videos, and documents that Cisco Pulse has associated with the content.

•The password files associated with these critical administrative login accounts:

–During installation of the application software on the Pulse Connect Appliance, you created a password for the ncpadmin account, which has a fixed username. This account allows a system administrator to access the Administration and Vocabulary tabs.

–During installation of the application software on the Pulse Connect and Collect Appliances, you created a management service username and password, which enables these appliances to access each other and communicate over HTTPS to authenticate Cisco Pulse users.

•The thumbnail sketch files for videos.

To protect this data, Cisco Pulse offers a utility that backs up the Cisco Pulse data into files, compresses the files, archives them in a tar file, and places the tar file in a specified location. For more information on this utility, see the "Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data" section.

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Note We strongly recommend that you perform a daily backup of Cisco Pulse data.

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Backing Up Cisco Pulse Data

This topic describes a backup of Cisco Pulse data:

•What Happens During a Backup

•Performing a Manual Backup

•Setting Up an Automated Daily Backup

What Happens During a Backup

Cisco Pulse provides a backup utility that backs up Cisco Pulse data stored on a Pulse Connect Appliance while it is up and running. For more information on Cisco Pulse data, see the "Cisco Pulse Data" section.

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Note The backup utility does not back up any of the application software.

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We recommend that you perform a backup under these circumstances:

•Daily for regular maintenance.

•Before moving the data from one Pulse Connect Appliance to another or upgrading Cisco Pulse software.

The backup utility, backup.sh, is in this directory on the Pulse Connect Appliance:

/opt/mgmt/scripts

You can perform a manual backup at any time or use Cron, a UNIX tool that allows you to schedule and run a daily backup.

The utility compresses the backup files, archives them in a tar file, and places the tar file in the location you specified. The tar filename uses this format:

ncp-backup-software-version-date-hhmmss.tar.gz

This is a sample tar filename:

ncp-backup-0.0.0-1-20090623-141938.tar.gz

The duration of a backup depends on the size of your database and Pulse Index. In most cases, a backup should take less than 2 hours. The utility displays incremental messages during the backup process so that you can track the progress.

Related Topics

•Performing a Manual Backup

•Setting Up an Automated Daily Backup

Performing a Manual Backup

This topic explains how to perform a manual backup of Cisco Pulse data at any time using the backup utility, backup.sh.

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Note We strongly recommend that you perform a daily backup of Cisco Pulse data.

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To run the script, you can establish a console port session with the Pulse Connect Appliance, or a Secure Shell (SSH) session between a UNIX- or Microsoft Windows-based management station and the Pulse Connect Appliance. (If your management station runs Microsoft Windows, you must run an SSH client.)

You must log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password. (If you do not already have this login information, you can get it from the network administrator.)

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Note As a security measure, you cannot log into the Pulse Connect Appliance directly as root. You must first log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password.

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Then, you can go to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory, where you can invoke the utility. You can specify where the utility places the backup files:

•Local hard drive option—Cisco Pulse places the backup files in the /partB directory on your local hard drive.

•Remote system option—You must specify these elements for the remote system:

–The name of the remote system.

–A username and associated password to access this system.

–The complete pathname where Cisco Pulse should place the backup files.

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Note If you choose the local hard drive option, be aware that the backup files can be large and consume a large amount of disk space when new files are added daily. Make sure to regularly maintain these backup files so that your hard disk does not run out of space.

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Before You Begin

When you perform a backup, you might need to supply this information:

•System administrator username and password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•Root password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•If you want Cisco Pulse to place the backup files on a remote system, you must do this:

–Ensure that the remote system has the SCP protocol enabled.

–Specify the system name, a username and associated password to log into the system, and the path at which the utility should place the backup files.

Procedure

To perform a backup of Cisco Pulse data, perform these steps.

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Note Although you can also establish a console port session with the Pulse Connect Appliance, or an SSH session from a Microsoft Windows workstation running an SSH client, for the sake of providing a sample scenario, this procedure assumes an SSH session established from a UNIX management station.

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Step 1 Initiate an SSH session from a management station to the Pulse Connect Appliance using this command syntax:

ssh username@ip-or-host address

or

ssh ip-or-host address -l username

where:

username = System administrator username

ip-or-host address = IP address or host name of the Pulse Connect Appliance

For example:

ssh admin@10.1.0.11

or

ssh 10.1.0.11 -l admin

Step 2 When prompted, enter the system administrator password provided by the network administrator:

Step 3 Log into the Pulse Connect Appliance as root using this command syntax:

[admin@mylocalhost ~]$ su -

Step 4 When prompted, enter the root password provided by the network administrator.

Step 5 After you have successfully logged in, change directories to the /opt/mgmt/scripts directory by entering this command:

cd /opt/mgmt/scripts

Step 6 From this directory, invoke the backup utility using this command syntax:

./backup.sh [scp://user@host:/path password]

where:

user = a username on a remote system.

password = the password associated with the specified username.

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Note The utility reads the specified password of the remote system in clear text.

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host = name of the remote system.

path = the complete pathname to which you want the system to place the backup files.

To specify the placement of backup files on the local hard drive, you do not need to enter the optional string as shown:

./backup.sh

To specify the placement of data files on a remote system called mgmt2, enter this command:

./backup.sh scp://remote-user1@mgmt2:/tmp/ mypassword

The utility displays this message:

*** WARNING *** 

ALL CISCO PULSE DATA WILL BE BACKED UP

Hit CTRL+C to abort or ENTER to continue

Step 7 To continue with the backup process, press the Enter key.

Step 8 If desired, monitor the incremental messages displayed by the utility to determine the backup progress.

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Related Topics

•What Happens During a Backup

•Setting Up an Automated Daily Backup

Setting Up an Automated Daily Backup

You can use Cron to schedule and run the backup utility, backup.sh, on a daily basis.

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Note This topic assumes that you are familiar with the UNIX environment and using such tools as Cron and the vi editor. If you do not have this skill set, we recommend that you work with someone who does.

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To set up the Cron job, you can establish a console port session with the Pulse Connect Appliance, or a Secure Shell (SSH) session between a UNIX- or Microsoft Windows-based management station and the Pulse Connect Appliance. (If your management station runs Microsoft Windows, you must run an SSH client.)

You must log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password. (If you do not already have this login information, you can get it from the network administrator.)

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Note As a security measure, you cannot log into the Pulse Connect Appliance directly as root. You must first log into the Pulse Connect Appliance using the system administrator username and password, then the root password.

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Then, you can open the crontab file in the vi editor. At the bottom of this file, you can enter this command syntax:

* * * * * echo | /opt/mgmt/scripts/backup.sh [scp://user@host:/path password] >& /var/log/
ncp-backup.log

This syntax allows you to specify these parameters:

•* * * * *

Specifies the time at which to run the backup utility, backup.sh. For example, if you want the utility to run at 5 am of each day, specify "0 5 * * *". For more information on this crontab syntax, see the appropriate UNIX documentation or manpage.

•[scp://user@host:/path password]

This optional syntax specifies a remote system on which the utility places the backup files:

–user = a username on a remote system.

–password = the password associated with the specified username.

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Note The utility reads the specified password of the remote system in clear text.

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–host = name of the remote system.

–path = the complete pathname to which you want the utility to place the backup files.

If you do not include this syntax, the utility places the backup files in the /partB directory on your local hard drive.

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Note If you choose to have the backup files placed on your local hard drive, be aware that the backup files can be large and consume a large amount of disk space when new files are added daily. Make sure to regularly maintain these backup files so that your hard disk does not run out of space.

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•>& /var/log/ncp-backup.log

Specifies that the utility creates a daily backup log file and places it in the /var/log directory.

Before You Begin

To perform this task, you might need to supply this information:

•System administrator username and password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•Root password for the Pulse Connect Appliance.

•If you want Cisco Pulse to place the backup files on a remote system, you must do this:

–Ensure that the remote system has the SCP protocol enabled.

–Specify the system name, a username and associated password to log into the system, and the path at which the utility should place the backup files.

Procedure

To set up an automated daily backup of Cisco Pulse data:

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Note Although you can also establish a console port session with the Pulse Connect Appliance, or an SSH session from a Microsoft Windows workstation running an SSH client, for the sake of providing a sample scenario, this procedure assumes an SSH session established from a UNIX management station.

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Step 1 Initiate an SSH session from a management station to the Pulse Connect Appliance using this command syntax:

ssh username@ip-or-host address

or

ssh ip-or-host address -l username

where:

username = System administrator username

ip-or-host address = IP address or host name of the Pulse Connect Appliance

For example:

ssh admin@10.1.0.11

or

ssh 10.1.0.11 -l admin

Step 2 When prompted, enter the system administrator password provided by the network administrator.

Step 3 Log into the Pulse Connect Appliance as root using this command syntax:

[admin@mylocalhost ~]$ su -

Step 4 When prompted, enter the root password provided by the network administrator.

Step 5 From any location, open the crontab file using the vi editor by entering this command:

crontab -e

Step 6 Use this command syntax to specify the time at which the backup utility runs, where the utility places the backup files, and that the utility creates a daily backup log file:

* * * * * echo | /opt/mgmt/scripts/backup.sh [scp://user@host:/path password] >& /var/log/
ncp-backup.log

For example, to specify that the backup utility runs at 5 am each day, places the backup files in the /partB directory on your local hard drive, and creates a daily backup log file, enter this command at the bottom on the crontab file:

0 5 * * * echo | /opt/mgmt/scripts/backup.sh >& /var/log/ncp-backup.log

To specify the same parameters as the previous example except that the utility places the backup files on a remote system called mgmt2, enter this command at the bottom of the crontab file:

0 5 * * * echo | /opt/mgmt/scripts/backup.sh scp://remote-user1@mgmt2:/tmp/ mypassword >& /var/log/ncp-backup.log

Step 7 Save, and close the crontab file.

Related Topics

•What Happens During a Backup

•Performing a Manual Backup