Installing and Configuring BOSH Backup and Restore

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This topic describes how to install BOSH Backup and Restore (BBR).

Overview

To install BBR, first validate that your jumpbox VM is a valid BOSH backup host, then copy the bbr executable to the jumpbox and configure BBR.

For more information, see Install and Configure BOSH Backup and Restore below.

After installing BBR, you can run bbr commands to back up and restore your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition deployment.

For more information about using BOSH Backup and Restore, see:

Prerequisites

Using BBR requires the following:

  • A jumpbox.

    A jumpbox is a separate, hardened server on your network that provides a controlled means of accessing the other VMs on your network. See the jumpbox-deployment GitHub repository for an example jumpbox deployment.

    You must have a jumpbox before you can install BBR to the jumpbox.

  • The OpenBSD version of netcat must be installed on the jumpbox host.

  • A bbr executable file. You must have the correct BBR executable version for your TKGI installation.

Note: BBR does not support SSH gateways.

Install and Configure BOSH Backup and Restore

To install and configure BBR:

  1. Configure Your Jumpbox for BBR
  2. Install BBR on Your Jumpbox
  3. Verify Your BBR Installation
  4. Configure BBR Logging

Configure Your Jumpbox for BBR

Your jumpbox must meet or exceed minimum BBR requirements. You can use the Ops Manager VM as your jumpbox if it can be configured to meet all of the requirements below.

To configure your jumpbox to meet BBR requirements:

  1. Size the jumpbox to have sufficient storage space for your backups.

  2. Ensure the jumpbox can communicate with the network containing your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition deployment.

    BBR uses SSH to orchestrate the backup of your Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Integrated Edition instances using port 22 by default.

  3. Configure the jumpbox to be in the same network as the deployed VMs.

    BBR connects to the deployed VMs at their private IP addresses.

  4. Ensure there is minimal network latency between the jumpbox and the source VMs BBR backs up.

Install BBR on Your Jumpbox

To install the bbr executable to your jumpbox:

  1. Download the latest compatible BOSH Backup and Restore release from the VMware Tanzu Network.

  2. To add executable permissions to the bbr binary file, run the following command:

    chmod a+x bbr

  3. To securely copy the bbr binary file to your jumpbox, run the following command:

    scp LOCAL-PATH-TO-BBR/bbr JUMPBOX-USER@JUMPBOX-ADDRESS:

    Where:

    • LOCAL-PATH-TO-BBR is the path to the bbr binary you downloaded from VMware Tanzu Network.
    • JUMPBOX-USER is the ssh username for connecting to the jumpbox.
    • JUMPBOX-ADDRESS is the IP address, or hostname, of the jumpbox.

Verify Your BBR Installation

To verify that BBR is installed:

  1. Run the following command:

    bbr version

    Verify the returned BBR version.

Configure BBR Logging

BBR writes backup and restore logs to the current directory in a file named bbr-TIMESTAMP.err.log.

By default BBR writes errors associated with stack traces to the log file.

BBR also reports default information about the backup and restore run:

  • The backup and restore scripts that it finds.
  • When it starts or finishes a stage, such as pre-backup scripts or backup scripts.
  • When the process is complete.
  • When any error occurs.

To troubleshoot a failed BBR run, enable verbose logging. When executed in verbose mode, BBR reports the following additional information:

  • Logs about the API requests made to the BOSH server.
  • All commands executed on remote instances.
  • All commands executed on local environment.
  • Standard in and standard out streams for the backup and restore scripts when they are executed.

To enable verbose logging, use the optional --debug flag.

Please send any feedback you have to pks-feedback@pivotal.io.