Scheduling Backups

To back up your Spectrum™ Technology Platform server, you need to create a backup copy of the server's configuration database. The configuration database contains your security settings, dataflows, service options, data resource definitions, and other configuration settings. If you were to lose your server due to a severe system failure or other disaster, you could use the backup of the configuration database to restore your configuration to another Spectrum™ Technology Platform server.

This procedure describes how to configure Spectrum™ Technology Platform to create a backup on a regular schedule.

Important: Schedule backups to occur when there is little or no activity on the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server. While the backup is in progress, calls to services may time out and jobs may fail to run successfully. When scheduling backups, replace localhost with the node's IP address in property spectrum.backup.databaseURL=localhost. If you do not change the default property setting, the backup will not run. Restart your server for this change to take effect.
  1. Stop the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server.
    Note: If you are running Spectrum™ Technology Platform in a clustered environment, choose a node on which to configure scheduled backups and stop the server on that node. You will configure this node for scheduled backups then apply the configuration to the other nodes.
  2. Open this file in a text editor:

    SpectrumLocation\server\app\conf\spectrum-container.properties

  3. Specify these parameters:
    spectrum.backup.enabled=true
    spectrum.backup.cron=Interval
    spectrum.backup.directory=Destination

    Where:

    Interval
    A cron expression that specifies how often to create the backup database. A cron expression consists of six space-separated values, with an optional seventh value:
    Field Valid Values Valid Special Characters
    Seconds 0-59 , - * /
    Minutes 0-59 , - * /
    Hours 0-23 , - * /
    Day of the month 1-31 , - * ? / L W
    Month 1-12 or JAN-DEC , - * /
    Day of the week 1-7 or SUN-SAT , - * ? / L #
    Year (Optional) 1970 - 2099 , - * /

    For example, this expression would back up the configuration database every day at 10:00 AM:

    spectrum.backup.cron=0 0 10 * * ?

    This expression would back up the configuration database on the first day of the month at 2 AM:

    spectrum.backup.cron=0 0 2 1 * ?

    The special characters are:

    *
    Specifies all values. For example, if you use * in the day-of-the-month field, it means every day of the month.
    ?
    Specifies no specific value. This is used in combination with other fields. For example, if you want to run a backup on the first day of the month and don't care which day of the week the first is on, you would specify ? in the day-of-the-week field and 1 in the day-of-the-month field.
    -
    Specifies a range of values. For example, SAT-SUN means the Saturday through Sunday.
    ,
    Separates multiple values. For example, 15,30 in the day-of-the-month field means the 15th day of the month and the 30th day of the month.
    /
    Specifies increments. For example, 0/3 in the hour field means the backup will occur at midnight then every three hours.
    L
    Specifies "last", which has different meaning depending on the field in which it is used. When used in the day-of-the-month field, it means the last day of the month. When used alone in the day-of-the-week field, it means Saturday. However, when used in the day-of-the-week field in combination with a day, it means the last day-of-the-week in the month. For example, 6L means the last Friday of the month.
    W
    Use this value in the day-of-the-month field to specify the weekday nearest to a given day. For example, 15W means the nearest weekday to the 15th day of the month.

    For more information about cron expressions, including examples, see quartz-scheduler.org.

    Destination
    The directory where you want to save the backup database. For example,
    spectrum.backup.directory\\\\exampleserver1\\Shared\\Backup

    You must use the escape character \ when specifying a backslash in the path.

    Note: If you are using Spectrum™ Technology Platform in a clustered environment, you should specify a centralized location as the backup destination. This is because in a clustered environment, scheduled backups occur on a random node in the cluster. By specifying a centralized location it will be easier to retrieve the latest backup from the cluster.
  4. If you are running the configuration database on a separate server from the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server, configure these properties. If not, leave them with their default values.
    spectrum.backup.databaseURL=Host
    spectrum.backup.http.port=Port
    

    Where:

    Host
    The host name or IP address of one of the configuration databases. Typically the configuration database is run in a cluster. You can use any node in the cluster as the source for the backup.
    Port
    The HTTP database backup port configured on your database.
  5. Save and close the properties file.
  6. Start the Spectrum™ Technology Platform server.
  7. Optional: If you are using Spectrum™ Technology Platform in a clustered environment, repeat this procedure for each node in the cluster.
    Note: You must specify identical values for spectrum.backup.cron and spectrum.backup.directory on all nodes in the cluster.
  8. Some modules store additional data that is not backed up as part of the Spectrum™ Technology Platform scheduled backup process. You must back up this data manually, or create a separate process to back up this data.
    Module Items to Back Up
    Advanced Matching Module, Data Normalization Module, and Universal Name Module Back up the contents of these subfolders located in SpectrumLocation/server/modules:
    • cdqdb
    • lucene
    • matcher
    • parser
    • searchindex
    • tables
    Data Hub Module Open the Relationship Analysis Client and click Manage. Select the model you want to back up then click Backup.
    In addition to backing up your models, back up these two property files:
    Location Intelligence Module Back up your named resources, data, and configuration files.