Chapter 26. Backup and restore
The ability to backup and restore your system is integrated into the Ansible Automation Platform setup playbook. For more information, see the Backup and restore clustered environments section.
Ensure that you restore to the same version from which it was backed up. However, you must use the most recent minor version of a release to backup or restore your Ansible Automation Platform installation version. For example, if the current Ansible Automation Platform version you are on is 2.0.x, use only the latest 2.0 installer.
Backup and restore only works on PostgreSQL versions supported by your current platform version. For more information, see Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform system requirements in the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Installation Guide.
The Ansible Automation Platform setup playbook is invoked as setup.sh from the path where you unpacked the platform installer tarball. It uses the same inventory file used by the install playbook. The setup script takes the following arguments for backing up and restoring:
-
-b: Perform a database backup rather than an installation. -
-r: Perform a database restore rather than an installation.
As the root user, call setup.sh with the appropriate parameters and the Ansible Automation Platform backup or restored as configured:
root@localhost:~# ./setup.sh -b root@localhost:~# ./setup.sh -r
Backup files are created on the same path that setup.sh script exists. You can change it by specifying the following EXTRA_VARS:
root@localhost:~# ./setup.sh -e 'backup_dest=/path/to/backup_dir/' -b
A default restore path is used unless you provide EXTRA_VARS with a non-default path, as shown in the following example:
root@localhost:~# ./setup.sh -e 'restore_backup_file=/path/to/nondefault/backup.tar.gz' -r
Optionally, you can override the inventory file used by passing it as an argument to the setup script:
setup.sh -i <inventory file>
26.1. Backup and restore playbooks
In addition to the install.yml file included with your setup.sh setup playbook, there are also backup.yml and restore.yml files for your backup and restoration needs.
These playbooks serve to backup and restore.
The overall backup, backs up:
- The database
-
The
SECRET_KEYfile
The per-system backups include:
- Custom configuration files
- Manual projects
- The restore backup restores the backed up files and data to a freshly installed and working second instance of automation controller.
When restoring your system, the installer checks to see that the backup file exists before beginning the restoration. If the backup file is not available, your restoration fails.
Ensure that your automation controller hosts are properly set up with SSH keys, user or pass variables in the hosts file, and that the user has sudo access.
26.2. Backup and restoration considerations
Consider the following points when you backup and restore your system:
- Disk space
- Review your disk space requirements to ensure you have enough room to backup configuration files, keys, other relevant files, and the database of the Ansible Automation Platform installation.
- System credentials
-
Confirm you have the required system credentials when working with a local database or a remote database. On local systems, you might need
rootorsudoaccess, depending on how credentials are set up. On remote systems, you might need different credentials to grant you access to the remote system you are trying to backup or restore. - Version
- You must always use the most recent minor version of a release to backup or restore your Ansible Automation Platform installation version. For example, if the current platform version you are on is 2.0.x, use only the latest 2.0 installer.
- File path
-
When using
setup.shin order to do a restore from the default restore file path,/var/lib/awx,-ris still required in order to do the restore, but it no longer accepts an argument. If a non-default restore file path is needed, you must provide this as an extra_var (root@localhost:~# ./setup.sh -e 'restore_backup_file=/path/to/nondefault/backup.tar.gz' -r). - Directory
-
If the backup file is placed in the same directory as the
setup.shinstaller, the restore playbook automatically locates the restore files. In this case, you do not need to use therestore_backup_fileextra var to specify the location of the backup file.
26.3. Backup and restore clustered environments
The procedure for backup and restore for a clustered environment is similar to a single install, except for some of the following considerations:
For more information on installing clustered environments, see the Install and configure section.
- If restoring to a new cluster, ensure that the old cluster is shut down before proceeding because they can conflict with each other when accessing the database.
- Per-node backups are only restored to nodes bearing the same hostname as the backup.
When restoring to an existing cluster, the restore contains the following:
- A dump of the PostgreSQL database
- UI artifacts, included in the database dump
-
An automation controller configuration (retrieved from
/etc/tower) - An automation controller secret key
- Manual projects
26.3.1. Restore to a different cluster
When restoring a backup to a separate instance or cluster, manual projects and custom settings under /etc/tower are retained. Job output and job events are stored in the database, and therefore, not affected.
The restore process does not alter instance groups present before the restore. It does not introduce any new instance groups either. Restored automation controller resources that were associated to instance groups likely need to be reassigned to instance groups present on the new automation controller cluster.
