PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec April, 2012
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Contents PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec... 1 Introduction... 1 Requirements... 1 Known Problems... 1 Directly Backing up PI versus Two Step Backup Procedures... 1 Configuring a Job in Backup Exec... 2 Step 1: Selections... 2 Step 2: Backup method and Backup Description... 2 Step 3: Site-specific Files... 6 Step 4: Review Selections... 8 Step 5: Schedule... 9 Step 6: Repeat the Procedure... 10 Restoring the PI Server from Backup Exec... 11 Step 1: Select Restore Destination... 11 Step 2: Browse to the Backup to Restore... 12 Step 3: Restore the backup... 14 Using the Backup Exec Debug Monitor for troubleshooting... 14
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Introduction This document describes how to directly backup PI Server versions 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 with Symantec Backup Exec, also known as VERITAS Backup Exec. The procedures described in this document were tested against an evaluation copy of Backup Exec 11d (version 11.0, revision 7170). This document supersedes the previous document for directly backing up PI Server versions 3.4.370.76 to 3.4.375 (PR1) with Symantec Backup Exec. Although 3.4.380 is not compatible with the previous procedures, you should find that the procedures for setting up PI Server backups with Symantec Backup Exec have been greatly simplified for 3.4.380 and 3.4.385. This document is not a substitute for the Backup Exec help files or for the chapter Backing up the PI Server in the PI Server System Management Guide. Requirements Version 11d or later of Symantec Backup Exec with Advanced Open File option PI Server version 3.4.380.xx or 3.4.385.xx Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later Known Problems It has been observed that the BackupComplete event may not be issued when the OSIsoft PI Server is selected for backup (see PLI 18798OSI8 for details). If this problem occurs, try selecting only the OSIsoft PI Server resource for backup and not any other resource for backup. If the problem still persists, you will not be able to backup the PI Server using the procedures described in this document. However, you can still use Backup Exec to backup the PI Server backup directory, where the PI Server backup directory is the target directory of the PI Server Backup scripts. In this regard, Backup Exec is no different than any other 3 rd -party backup application because any 3 rd -party backup application can be used to backup the PI Server in a two-step backup procedure, where the PI Server backup scripts are used in the first step followed by a backup of the PI Server backup directory in the second step. Directly Backing up PI versus Two Step Backup Procedures It is important to note that the procedures described in this document are for directly backing up the PI Server. The direct backup procedure described in this document does not involve the use of the PI Server Backup scripts at all. Typically, 3 rd -party backup applications are used to indirectly backup the PI Server with a so-called Two Step Backup procedure. In the first step, the PI Server Backup scripts are used to backup PI to an intermediate backup directory. In the second step, the 3 rd -party backup software is used to backup the intermediate directory. The Two Step Backup Procedure can be done with any 3 rd -party backup application, including Symantec Backup Exec. The generic Two Step Backup procedure is described in the PI Server System Management guide. If Backup Exec is used in a Two Step Backup procedure, one should browse to the backup directory in Backup Exec s file system browser. Furthermore, one should not select the OSISoft PI Writer under \Shadow Copy Components\User Data. The OSISoft PI Writer should only be selected if you are intending to directly backup the PI Server with Backup Exec as described in this document. 1
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Configuring a Job in Backup Exec Step 1: Selections From the File menu in Symantec Backup Exec, choose New Backup Job The Backup Job Properties dialog should appear. Choose Selections on the properties pane. This should be already selected by default. Select the entire OSIsoft PI Server for backup under Shadow Copy Components\User Data. Although individual PI Server components can be selected for backup, selecting individual components are not useful for a scheduled daily backup because a new archive component is created every time there is an archive shift. All archives that have data will be displayed under OSIsoft PI Server\PI Archive Subsystem.See the screenshot below. Although selecting the entire OSIsoft PI Server will cause all archives to be selected for backup, the archives that are actually backed up depend upon the Backup Method (see step 2). Step 2: Backup method and Backup Description In this step, you specify: The Backup method. The Backup Method determines whether a Full, Incremental, or Differential backup is performed. Also, the backup method is prominently displayed in a tree view when choosing backup jobs to restore (see Restoring the PI Server from Backup Exec later in this document). Unlike PI Server versions 3.4.370.76 to 3.4.375, the Backup method actually determines which components of the PI Server are backed up. Also, a pre-command is no longer necessary. 2
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec A Job name. The Job name helps identify scheduled backup jobs. The Job name should contain information about the Backup method. A Backup set description. Like the Backup method, the Backup set description helps identify backups jobs. The example restores later in this document illustrate how the Backup set description is useful for identifying restore jobs. The Backup set description is limited to 50 characters. For backup method, choose one of the following: For a FULL backup choose Full Using archive bit (reset archive bit). Although the archive bit is never actually used to determine which PI Server files are backed up, always choose archive bit (reset archive bit) instead of Using modified time. Otherwise, the correct backup method may not be forwarded to the PI Server. For an INCREMENTAL backup, choose Incremental Using archive bit (reset archive bit). Do not select Incremental Using Modified Time. If you select the latter, the correct backup type will not be forwarded to the PI Server. As mentioned above the archive bit is not actually used to determine which files are backed up. For an incremental backup, all PI Server components will be backed up except the archives components that have not changed since the last full or incremental backup. If you decide to use incremental backups in conjunction with full backups, do not use differential backups. The PI Server does not support mixed incremental/differential backups. For a DIFFERENTIAL backup, choose Differential Using archive bit (reset archive bit). Do not select Differential Using Modified Time. If you select the latter, the correct backup type will not be forwarded to the PI Server. As mentioned above the archive bit is not actually used to determine which files are backed up. For a differential backup, all PI Server components will be backed up except the archives components that have not changed since the last full backup. For a differential backup, the last backup time as reported by the PI Server is never changed. If you decide to use differential backups in conjunction with full backups, do not use incremental backups. The PI Server does not support mixed incremental/differential backups. 3
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec The following screenshot shows example descriptive names for the Job name and Backup set description for a Full backup. 4
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec The following screenshot shows example descriptive names for the Job name and Backup set description for an Incremental backup. 5
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec The following screenshot shows example descriptive names for the Job name and Backup set description for a Differential backup. Step 3: Site-specific Files The PI System administrator may want to backup Site-specific files, such as the log files and ini files in the PIPC\dat directory. Site-specific files are backed up outside of the context of the Shadow Copy Components\User Data\OSIsoft PI Server. The screenshot below illustrates how you would include these site-specific files. In the task pane, choose Selections. Click on the Include/Exclude button. Browse to the PIPC\dat directory. The location of this directory is determined by the PIPCHOME entry in the %windir%\pipc.ini file. Specify *.log for the file mask. Close the dialog and repeat this procedure to include *.ini files from the PIPC\dat folder. 6
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec 7
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Step 4: Review Selections As shown in the screenshot below: Shadow Copy Components\User Data\OSIsoft PI Server is selected. Files on the D: drive are selected. These files should correspond to the site-specific files that you selected in step 4. These files must not correspond to the files of the PI Server itself. The PI Server databases must be selected only via Shadow Copy Components. 8
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Step 5: Schedule Select Schedule from the task pane and choose the days on which you want the backup job to run. 9
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec As shown in the screenshot below, the scheduled jobs will appear in Backup Exec s Job Monitor. The scheduled jobs can be identified by the Job Name configured in Step 1. In this example, full backups are scheduled in conjunction with differential backups. The Full/Differential strategy is a good for Backup Exec because only 1 backup can be restored at a time. A maximum of two restores would be needed to completely restore your PI Server with the Full/Differential strategy. Step 6: Repeat the Procedure Repeat steps 1-6 above to configure and schedule another backup. For example, if you have just configured a full backup, configure an incremental or a differential backup to run on the days when the full backup is not scheduled. 10
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Restoring the PI Server from Backup Exec Step 1: Select Restore Destination Unless you choose File Redirection for the restore job in Backup Exec, the PI Backup Subsystem must be running for the restore to succeed, and the PI Server files will be restored to the directory specified by the %PIRESTOREDIR% environment variable. The following dialog illustrates how to use File Redirection. 1. Select File Redirection from the task pane. 2. Check Redirect file sets 3. Choose a restore drive and a restore path. Note: Currently, there is no option to restore files to their original location. This is because files are restored to %PIRESTOREDIR% instead. However, in a future version of the PI Server, files may actually be restored to their original location. See PLI 21390 for updates on this work item. In view of this, you should always use file redirection, unless you actually want to try to restore files to their original location. 11
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Step 2: Browse to the Backup to Restore Select Restore from the navigation pane, then Selections from the task pane and then browse to the backup you want to restore. The screenshot below shows the restore job properties for PI Server backups. In the diagram, the Full backup on 10/2/2008 3:02:20 PM is selected, and the Backup Set Description that was configured in step 2 of Configuring a Backup Job in Backup Exec is shown in the bottom of the screenshot. 12
PI Server Backups with Symantec Backup Exec When the PI Archive Subsystem is selected for the Full backup on 10/2/2008 3:02:20 PM, the archives that were included in the backup are displayed, as shown in the following screenshot. The restore properties display the following information about each of the PI Server backups. The time and date of the backups The backup method (Incremental, differential, or full). The following information about the archives that were backed up: The start and end time of each of the archive in the backup The file name of each archive in the backup The archive number of each archive at the time of the backup The Backup Set Description 13
PI Server 3.4.380 and 3.4.385 Backups with Symantec Backup Exec Step 3: Restore the backup To run a restore: 1. Select either the entire OSIsoft PI Server or an individual component. 2. Click the Run Now button.. To bring the files on line for the PI Server, they must be manually copied to the appropriate PI Server directories while the PI Server is not running. Using the Backup Exec Debug Monitor for troubleshooting The Backup Exec Debug Monitor, or SGMon, is a diagnostic tool that captures debug output from Backup Exec and saves it in debug logs. SGMon debug logs can help you troubleshoot backup issues. Furthermore, debug logs can help Symantec Technical Support diagnose and repair problems. When you open SGMon, it automatically captures debug data from Backup Exec's services. To collect debug information while SGMon is closed, enable debug log creation outside of SGMon and specify a directory in which to save the logs. For more information about how to configure the Debug Monitor and read log files, refer to the help within the Debug Monitor. To use the Backup Exec Debug Monitor for troubleshooting: On the Tools menu, click Support Utilities > Run the Debug Monitor for active debugging. Or run simply run the program: c:\program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\SGMon.exe The log file is written to: c:\program Files\Symantec\Backup Exec\Logs\%COMPUTERNAME%-SGMon.log 14