Backup and Restore Concourse with BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR)

Pivotal recommends that you perform Concourse backups with BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR). The process involves the following prerequisites:

A Concourse deployment that includes the BOSH Backup and Restore SDK
bbr, the BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR) CLI tool
fly, Concourse's CLI tool

This guide details the process of setting this system up. Once set up, you can follow the steps in the the Performing a Backup section of this guide.

Then, once you've created a valid BBR backup of Concourse, you can use the Performing a restore with BBR guide.

Use the table of contents on the right to navigate this guide.

Tip

You can use the bosh releases command to see what you have installed so far. A backup-and-restore-sdk release is required for each Concourse deployment you want to backup from or restore to.

Setup the `concourse-bosh-deployment` Directory on Your Local Machine

Any Concourse deployment you wish to backup from or restore to must have the backup-and-restore-sdk release. If you are starting from scratch on a new workstation, the instructions in this section cover cloning the concourse-bosh-deployment repository to a local directory, so that you can craft a new deployment with the appropriate release and configuration. If you already have a deployment directory with manifest and ops files on your workstation, navigate to that directory before jumping ahead to the Set Up the BBR SDK on Your BOSH Environment below.

Clone the concourse-bosh-deployment repository by running the following command:
1
git clone https://github.com/concourse/concourse-bosh-deployment.git
Move to the concourse-bosh-deployment directory:
1
cd concourse-bosh-deployment
Note

All the paths used in this topic are relative to this directory.
Checkout the release that corresponds to your working version of Concourse. For example:

```bash tab="v5.5.11" git checkout v5.5.11
1 2
```bash tab="v4.2.5" git checkout v4.2.4
bash tab="v3.13.0" git checkout v3.13.0

For a list of all Concourse releases, see concourse-bosh-deployment in GitHub.

Success

Checking out a release rather than a branch means that git produces the following output:

```bash Note: checking out 'RELEASE'.

You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this state without impacting any branches by performing another checkout.

If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may do so (now or later) by using -b with the checkout command again. Example:

git checkout -b

HEAD is now at HASH... COMMIT-MESSAGE ```

Set Up Certificates, Log In, and Alias Your BOSH Environment

Note

If you already have your CA certificate and have already logged in to and aliased your BOSH environment, you can skip this section.

Get a CA certificate for your BOSH Director.
1. If you created your BOSH Director manually, retrieve the credentials that were created during setup.
  
  If you are working with an Ops Manager-deployed BOSH Director, log in to Ops Manager and access the following endpoint in your Ops Manager domain:
  1
  https://OPS-MANAGER-DOMAIN/download_root_ca_cert
  Where OPS-MANAGER-DOMAIN is the Ops Manager domain.
  
  This will create a file in your downloads folder called root_ca_certificate.
2. Copy and rename the root_ca_certificate file into the working directory. For example, on OSX:
  1
  mv ~/Downloads/root_ca_certificate ./ca-cert.crt
  Tip
  This certificate file can be used whenever a CLI command asks for a --ca-cert flag and value.
Ensure you are logged in to your BOSH environment with the appropriate BOSH Director credentials. For example, if you saved your CA certificate as ca-cert.crt, run the following command:
1
bosh -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-IP login --ca-cert=ca-cert.crt
Where BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-IP is your BOSH environment IP address.
Finding director credentials

If you set up a BOSH Director directly, the director credentials were returned as a file after the setup process finished.

If you have an Ops Manager-deployed BOSH Director, you can find the director credentials in the Ops Manager credentials tab or at the following endpoint in your Ops Manager domain:
1
http://OPS-MANAGER-DOMAIN/api/v0/deployed/director/credentials/director_credentials
Where OPS-MANAGER-DOMAIN is your Ops Manager domain.
Give your environment an alias by running the following command:
1
bosh -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-IP alias-env ALIAS --ca-cert=ca-cert.crt
Where:
- BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-IP is your BOSH environment IP address
- ALIAS is the alias you're creating BOSH environment
Using an alias for your BOSH environment substantially reduces the keystrokes needed for commands in future.

Tip

You can use this alias whenever you target this environment by using the -e flag in a BOSH command.

Set Up the BBR SDK on Your BOSH Environment

This section details the task of uploading the BOSH backup-and-restore-sdk release to a Concourse environment.

Upload the backup-and-restore-sdk release by running the following upload-release command:

bosh \
-e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS \
upload-release \
--sha1 364838c384f2edec80866b4abf2397c4c5d15c62 \
  https://bosh.io/d/github.com/cloudfoundry-incubator/backup-and-restore-sdk-release?v=1.15.1

Where BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS is your BOSH environment alias.

Tip

An alternative approach is to download the latest release from the BOSH Backup and Restore Release Page and pass in the path to the file in the following format:

bosh -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS upload-release PATH-TO-FILE

Success

If you run the bosh releases command again, you should see backup-and-restore-sdk in the list.

If you're backing up version 3.13.0, you need to create and edit a file called backup-atc.yml in ./cluster/operations. Versions 4.2.4 and onwards of the concourse-bosh-deployment repo come with this file already.

For example:

1	`vim ./cluster/operations/backup-atc.yml`

Edit this file so that it has the following contents:

---
- type: replace
  path: /releases/-
  value:
    name: backup-and-restore-sdk
    url: https://bosh.io/d/github.com/cloudfoundry-incubator/backup-and-restore-sdk-release?v=((bbr_sdk_version))
    sha1: ((bbr_sdk_sha1))
    version: ((bbr_sdk_version))

- type: replace
  path: /instance_groups/name=web/jobs/-
  value:
    name: bbr-atcdb
    release: concourse
    properties:
      postgresql:
        database: atc
        role:
          name: ((postgres_role))
          password: ((postgres_password))
          postgresql_database: atc


- type: replace
  path: /instance_groups/name=web/jobs/-
  value:
    name: database-backup-restorer
    release: backup-and-restore-sdk

Save and close the backup-atc.yml file.

Open your versions.yml file:
1
vim versions.yml

Update versions.yml by adding lines for the backup-and-restore-sdk's version and SHA1. The two properties you need to define are bbr_sdk_version and bbr_sdk_sha1.

To deploy backup-and-restore-sdk 1.15.1, copy and paste the highlighted lines into your versions.yml file:

```yaml hl_lines="19 20" tab="v5.5.11"

this file is partially maintained by CI; the concourse and garden-runc

versions and sha1s are automatically bumped, while the rest are preserved

as-is.

this should make getting started easy while being easy enough to maintain

manually. feel free to PR sane defaults along with newly supported

infrastructures and such!

concourse_version: '5.5.11' concourse_sha1: '876a8aef1c790c6e8578a3b7c11c2265072f0565' garden_runc_version: '1.13.1' garden_runc_sha1: '54cbb89cae1be0708aa056185671665d7f4b2a4f' postgres_version: '36' postgres_sha1: '3dd10b417b21cfa3257f1cc891e9e46f02fefe16' virtualbox_cpi_version: '0.0.12' virtualbox_cpi_sha1: 537c77b087eeda859b1eb89553efa6f808214d50 virtualbox_stemcell_version: '3468.5' virtualbox_stemcell_sha1: 25301a41c15caad859b66efc0fd75bacdfc57dab bbr_sdk_version: '1.15.1' bbr_sdk_sha1: '364838c384f2edec80866b4abf2397c4c5d15c62'

```yaml hl_lines="19 20" tab="v4.2.4"
# this file is partially maintained by CI; the concourse and garden-runc
# versions and sha1s are automatically bumped, while the rest are preserved
# as-is.
#
# this should make getting started easy while being easy enough to maintain
# manually. feel free to PR sane defaults along with newly supported
# infrastructures and such!
---
concourse_version: '4.2.4'
concourse_sha1: '56122002ce49af09b03b8c3a49bdb7578ee2868a'
garden_runc_version: '1.13.1'
garden_runc_sha1: '54cbb89cae1be0708aa056185671665d7f4b2a4f'
postgres_version: '36'
postgres_sha1: '3dd10b417b21cfa3257f1cc891e9e46f02fefe16'
virtualbox_cpi_version: '0.0.12'
virtualbox_cpi_sha1: 537c77b087eeda859b1eb89553efa6f808214d50
virtualbox_stemcell_version: '3468.5'
virtualbox_stemcell_sha1: 25301a41c15caad859b66efc0fd75bacdfc57dab
bbr_sdk_version: '1.15.1'
bbr_sdk_sha1: '364838c384f2edec80866b4abf2397c4c5d15c62'

```yaml hl_lines="19 20" tab="v3.13.0"

this file is partially maintained by CI; the concourse and garden-runc

versions and sha1s are automatically bumped, while the rest are preserved

as-is.

this should make getting started easy while being easy enough to maintain

manually. feel free to PR sane defaults along with newly supported

infrastructures and such!

concourse_version: '3.13.0' concourse_sha1: 'aaa4e4d42adb2293abc79422351ca71ed548f95c' garden_runc_version: '1.13.1' garden_runc_sha1: '54cbb89cae1be0708aa056185671665d7f4b2a4f' postgres_version: '36' postgres_sha1: '3dd10b417b21cfa3257f1cc891e9e46f02fefe16' virtualbox_cpi_version: '0.0.12' virtualbox_cpi_sha1: 537c77b087eeda859b1eb89553efa6f808214d50 virtualbox_stemcell_version: '3468.5' virtualbox_stemcell_sha1: 25301a41c15caad859b66efc0fd75bacdfc57dab bbr_sdk_version: '1.15.1' bbr_sdk_sha1: '364838c384f2edec80866b4abf2397c4c5d15c62' ```

If you want to use a different version of backup-and-restore-sdk-release, see backup-and-restore-sdk Release to find the version and SHA1 for your release.

Concourse and BOSH Variables

Deploying Concourse with BOSH requires you to set some variables to fill in details in the manifest that are written as placeholders. These are in the format ((placeholder)). The currently deployed Concourse manifest contains the values that you will use to fill out each of the variables.

The preferred approach is to create a file to define a key/value pair for each required variable, and check it into version control so that it can be safely and easily maintained over time. You might already have a solution for this; if not, follow the steps below.

Tip

The following steps describe setting variables that are necessary for deployment in a yaml file. If you prefer to set them on the command line when you run bosh deploy, you can pass them in with the --var KEY=VALUE flag and syntax. For more information about bosh deploy, see Deploy in the BOSH documentation.

Run the following command to fetch the manifest and put it in a deployed-manifest.yml file:
1 2 3 4
bosh \ -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS \ -d NAME-OF-CONCOURSE-DEPLOYMENT \ manifest > deployed-manifest.yml
Tip

Sending the response to a file is a security precaution that ensures that any included keys are not echoed to your terminal session history. Ensure that you destroy this file after you are done with this backup process.
If you do not already have a variable file from a previous deployment, create a file to store your Concourse and BOSH-related environment variables. For example, use vim to create a file called variables.yml by running:
1
vim variables.yml
This file will hold all of the variables that BOSH needs to interpolate into references in the manifest file.

If you have existing variables file, open that file instead.

Why create a file for these variables?

The benefit of doing things this way is that you can check this file into your version control, track changes over time, and more easily document and share this information with others in your organization. This also saves you from looking up configuration details every time you need to change your Concourse deployment).

Ensure you have the correct key/value pairs in your variables file:

If you already have a variables file: Ensure that you have each of the key/value pairs listed in the snippet below. If any are missing, add them in.
If you have created a new file: Copy and paste the following snippet to use as a template. Replace each value placeholder in the snippet above as appropriate for your deployment and cloud configuration, using the properties in the deployed-manifest.yml file that created in step 1 of this section.

```yaml tab="v5.5.11"

local_user: username: CHOOSE-A-USERNAME password: CHOOSE-A-PASSWORD

deployment_name: DEPLOYMENT-NAME db_persistent_disk_type: PERSISTANT-DISK-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE db_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE-INSTANCE external_url: EXTERNAL-URL network_name: NETWORK-NAME postgres_password: PASSWORD web_ip: WEB-IP web_network_name: WEB-NETWORK-NAME web_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WEB-INSTANCE worker_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WORKER-INSTANCE

```yaml tab="v4.2.4"
---
local_user:
    username: CHOOSE-A-USERNAME
    password: CHOOSE-A-PASSWORD

deployment_name: DEPLOYMENT-NAME
db_persistent_disk_type: PERSISTANT-DISK-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE
db_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE-INSTANCE
external_url: EXTERNAL-URL
network_name: NETWORK-NAME
postgres_password: PASSWORD
web_ip: WEB-IP
web_network_name: WEB-NETWORK-NAME
web_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WEB-INSTANCE
worker_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WORKER-INSTANCE

```yaml tab="v3.13.0"

deployment_name: DEPLOYMENT-NAME db_persistent_disk_type: PERSISTANT-DISK-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE db_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-DATABASE-INSTANCE external_url: EXTERNAL-URL network_name: NETWORK-NAME postgres_password: PASSWORD web_ip: WEB-IP web_network_name: WEB-NETWORK-NAME web_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WEB-INSTANCE worker_vm_type: VM-TYPE-FOR-WORKER-INSTANCE ```

Where:

DEPLOYMENT-NAME is your Concourse deployment name. You can find this by running:

bash bosh -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS deployments
NETWORK-NAME is the name subproperty of the network property in your deployed manifest.
PASSWORD is the password sub-property of the postgres property in your deployed manifest.

Tip

If your Concourse is deployed with something like CredHub, these variables might be automatically interpolated after instead of during deployment. If you suspect this is the case, one way to check is with the following command:

bash bosh \ -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS \ -d TARGET-CONCOURSE-DEPLOYMENT \ manifest | grep “(("

This searches through your deployed manifest for any placeholders that are being interpolated after deployment. If this returns any values, this could indicate that you have something like CredHub involved. Before you proceed, stop to investigate your current deployment, or get in touch with whomever has the necessary context.

Save and close the file.

Confirm Your Availability Zones

The Concourse manifest has some defaults set for availability zones (AZs). You need to modify these defaults to suit a given environment. To ensure these are set correctly, follow these steps:

Retrieve the values of the azs properties in your currently deployed manifest.

To find these, reference the deployed-manifest.yml file created in the last section, or run the bosh manifest command to re-create it:
1 2 3 4
bosh \ -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS \ -d CONCOURSE-DEPLOYMENT-NAME \ manifest > deployed-manifest.yml
Open the concourse-bosh-deployment repository's cluster Concourse manifest file:
1
vim ./cluster/concourse.yml

Search through this manifest file to find any azs properties and edit each one of these so that they match the availability zones (azs) in your deployed-manifest.yml file. There should be three in total, one in each instance group.

For example, if your availability zone is default:

...
instance_groups:
- name: web
  ...
  azs: [default]
  ...

- name: db
  ...
  azs: [default]
  ...

- name: worker
  ...
  azs: [default]
  ...
...

Save and close the ./cluster/concourse.yml file.

Deploy Your Updated Concourse Deployment with BBR

Deploy the new setup to your BOSH environment. The bosh deploy command uses a manifest that acts as a recipe for the deployment that you are creating on your cloud environment. When you run bosh deploy, you need to incorporate the following:

Your new concourse manifest, for example, ./cluster/concourse.yml
Your versions file, for example, versions.yml
Your environment variables, for example, variables.yml
Any required operations files, including the ./cluster/operations/bbr.yml file
A filename where BOSH can record and access cluster credentials, for example, cluster-creds.yml

Note

Operations files make substitutions in your manifest file to customize your deployment. The example below demonstrates a simple setup with basic authentication.

To change the authentication type, change the -o ./cluster/operations/basic-auth.yml line.

Edit and run this snippet, substituting your environment alias and deployment name, along with any additional ops files you want to add.

For example:

bosh -e BOSH-ENVIRONMENT-ALIAS deploy -d CONCOURSE-DEPLOYMENT-NAME ./cluster/concourse.yml \
-l versions.yml \
-l variables.yml \
-o ./cluster/operations/backup-atc.yml \
-o ./cluster/operations/basic-auth.yml \
-o ./cluster/operations/privileged-http.yml \
-o ./cluster/operations/static-web.yml \
--vars-store cluster-creds.yml

When prompted to review the deployment, you should see the addition of the backup-and-restore-sdk and its configuration. If you continue, BOSH prepares the deployment and starts compiling packages for you.

Note

If you have CPI errors, try running the deployment script again. In rare cases the operation can time out while packages are being built, causing a CPI timeout. The deployment should be successful if you re-run it a second time, as by that point the packages are already built.

Install the BOSH Backup and Restore CLI

To install the BBR CLI on your computer, do the following:

Check if BBR is already installed by running the following command. If this returns a version number instead of an error, you can skip to the next section.
1
bbr -v
Download the latest release's asset file that corresponds to your operating system from the bosh-backup-and-restore GitHub repository. For example, Apple OSX users should download the darwin-amd64 file.

Note

There is no Windows release for the BBR CLI. If you are on Windows, you can SSH into a jumpbox where you can use a linux release of BBR. For instructions, see Installing BOSH Backup and Restore in the Cloud Foundry documentation. You can then continue to the Perform a Backup section below.
Move the file into your local /bin and rename it to bbr by running the following command:
1
mv ~/Downloads/BBR-BINARY-FILE-NAME /usr/local/bin/bbr
Make the file executable by running the following command:
1
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/bbr

Performing a Backup

To run a backup with the bbr command, do the following:

Retrieve the UAA BBR Client Credentials, username and password, from the following endpoint on your environment:
1
https://YOUR-OPS-MANAGER-DOMAIN/api/v0/deployed/director/credentials/uaa_bbr_client_credentials

Run bbr with the following command:

Note

In the following command, use the environment IP address instead of using the environment alias you used with the bosh commands above.

bbr deployment \
--target ENVIRONMENT-IP-ADDRESS \
--deployment TARGET-CONCOURSE-DEPLOYMENT-NAME \
--username UAA-BBR-USERNAME \
--password UAA-BBR-PASSWORD \
--ca-cert CA-CERTIFICATE-FILE \
backup

A successful backup results in the creation of a directory named after your deployment name and the date and time of the backup.

Move the backup directory to a secure location.

Warning

This backup might include sensitive information, such as passwords in builds, depending on how you have configured your pipelines.

Restoring Concourse with BBR

If you need to restore a backup, see Performing a Restore.

When you are ready to continue with the upgrade process, proceed to the Upgrade Concourse guide.

Backup and Restore Concourse with BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR)

Setup the concourse-bosh-deployment Directory on Your Local Machine

Set Up Certificates, Log In, and Alias Your BOSH Environment

Set Up the BBR SDK on Your BOSH Environment

this file is partially maintained by CI; the concourse and garden-runc

versions and sha1s are automatically bumped, while the rest are preserved

as-is.

this should make getting started easy while being easy enough to maintain

manually. feel free to PR sane defaults along with newly supported

infrastructures and such!

this file is partially maintained by CI; the concourse and garden-runc

versions and sha1s are automatically bumped, while the rest are preserved

as-is.

this should make getting started easy while being easy enough to maintain

manually. feel free to PR sane defaults along with newly supported

infrastructures and such!

Concourse and BOSH Variables

```yaml tab="v5.5.11"

```yaml tab="v3.13.0"

Confirm Your Availability Zones

Deploy Your Updated Concourse Deployment with BBR

Install the BOSH Backup and Restore CLI

Performing a Backup

Setup the `concourse-bosh-deployment` Directory on Your Local Machine