5. Install the a9s Backup Service

info

The a9s Backup Service provides backup and restore functionality to all a9s Data Services, and to a9s-pg. The deployment of the a9s Backup Service is mandatory. The a9s Data Services Framework cannot be operated without it.

It is mainly comprised of two components: the a9s Backup Manager and the a9s Backup Monit.

The a9s Backup Manager is responsible for orchestrating the creation, restoration, and deletion of backups of Service Instances created by the a9s Data Services Framework. For further details on the specifications of this component, see a9s Backup Manager.

caution

The a9s Backup Manager components are NOT horizontally scalable, so it is not possible to increase the number of VMs.

The a9s Backup Monit is deployed as part of the a9s Backup Service in order to monitor backups of both Service Instances and a9s-pg. For further details on the specifications of this component, see a9s Backup Monit.

5.1. Backup Stores

The anynines Data Services Framework supports several storage services as its backup store, however only one storage service can be enabled at a time. This contrasts with the different types of Data Services that a Platform Operator can offer. This means it is a "one storage, many Data Services" offering.

The following tabs explain how to use the a9s Backup Service with a specific storage service. This means that, with the exception of AWS S3, an Ops file, specific for each storage service, must be applied when deploying the a9s Backup Service.

AWS S3

In order to use AWS S3 as a backup store, the following variables must be configured in CredHub:

Variable name	Description
/backup_access_key	The AWS access key
/backup_secret_access_key	The AWS secret key
/backup_bucket	The AWS bucket name
/backup_region	The AWS region where the bucket is

Supported AWS S3 Storage Classes

While the a9s Backup Framework supports AWS S3 as a backup store, this does not extend to every AWS S3 Storage Class. Currently, the supported AWS S3 storage class is S3 Standard.

Azure Blob Storage

In order to use Azure Blob Storage as a backup store, the a9s Backup Service must be deployed with the ops/backup-on-azure.yml Ops file. Furthermore, the following variables must be configured in CredHub:

Variable name	Description
/azure_storage_access_key	The Azure storage access key
/azure_storage_account_name	The Azure storage account name
/azure_container	The Azure container name

Aliyun Object Storage Service

In order to use Aliyun Object Storage Service as a backup store, the a9s Backup Service must be deployed with the ops/backup-on-alicloud.yml Ops file. Furthermore, the following variables must be configured in CredHub:

Variable name	Description
/aliyun_accesskey_id	The Aliyun Object Storage Service access key ID
/aliyun_accesskey_secret	The Aliyun Object Storage Service access key secret
/aliyun_oss_bucket	The Aliyun Object Storage Service container name
/aliyun_oss_location	The Aliyun Object Storage Service location
/aliyun_oss_endpoint	The Aliyun Object Storage Service endpoint

Generic S3 API

In order to use a generic S3 API as a backup store, the a9s Backup Service must be deployed with the ops/backup-on-generic-s3.yml Ops file. Furthermore, the following variables must be configured in CredHub:

Variable name	Description
/generic_s3_access_key_id	The generic S3 API access key
/generic_s3_secret_access_key	The generic S3 API secret key
/generic_s3_bucket	The generic S3 API bucket name
/generic_s3_region	The generic S3 API region where the bucket is
/generic_s3_endpoint	The generic S3 API endpoint
/generic_s3_path_style	The generic S3 API path style

5.2. Register the a9s Data Services

In order to enable the a9s Data Services to use the a9s Backup Service, the corresponding Ops file must be applied to the a9s Backup Service deployment manifest. Each individual Ops file adds the Data Service specific a9s Service Broker to the a9s Backup Service configuration.

The supported Ops files are:

• a9s-pg: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/a9s-pg.yml
• a9s KeyValue: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/keyvalue.yml
• a9s LogMe2: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/logme2.yml
• a9s MariaDB: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/mariadb.yml
• a9s MongoDB: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/mongodb.yml
• a9s PostgreSQL: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/postgresql.yml
• a9s Messaging: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/rabbitmq.yml
• a9s Search: ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/search.yml

Multiple a9s Data Services can be enabled by adding the corresponding Ops file, one after the other, on the same command.

5.3. Deploy the a9s Backup Service

The a9s Backup Service is deployed alongside any a9s Data Service by executing:

For AWS S3:

bosh -d backup-service deploy backup-service/backup-service.yml \
  -o ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/<data-service>.yml \
  -l config/iaas-config.yml

For all other storage services:

bosh -d backup-service deploy backup-service/backup-service.yml \
  -o ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/<data-service>.yml \
  -o ops/backup-on-<storage-service>.yml \
  -l config/iaas-config.yml

5.4. a9s Backup Monit

The a9s Backup Monit component is deployed by default as part of the a9s Backup Service deployment. It fetches backup metrics from the a9s Backup Manager and exposes them to Logstash for monitoring and alerting purposes. The component runs colocated with Logstash on a dedicated VM within the backup-service deployment.

No additional configuration is required for a9s Backup Monit; it operates automatically once the a9s Backup Service is deployed.

5.4.1. Disable a9s Backup Monit (Optional)

If backup monitoring through a9s Backup Monit is not required, the component can be disabled by applying the ops/disable-backup-monit.yml Ops file during deployment:

bosh -d backup-service deploy backup-service/backup-service.yml \
  -o ops/add_broker_to_backup_service/<data-service>.yml \
  -o ops/disable-backup-monit.yml \
  -l config/iaas-config.yml