EMC Documentum xPlore Disaster Recovery

Using EMC NetWorker

Best Practices Planning

Abstract
The objective of this white paper is to describe the architecture and procedure for configuring EMC®
Documentum® xPlore disaster recovery using EMC NetWorker ®.

January 2011
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Part Number h8144

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Table of Contents

Executive summary ............................................................................................ 4

Introduction ......................................................................................................... 4
Audience ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Backup and restore Documentum xPlore with NetWorker ............................. 4
Architecture description .................................................................................... 4
Overview of the xPlore backup process ........................................................... 5
Supported backup technologies, levels, and techniques ............................................................. 6
File backup .......................................................................................................... 7
File, full, cold backup for xPlore federations ................................................................................ 7
File, full, warm backup for xPlore federations ............................................................................ 10
Native-xDB backup ........................................................................................... 10
Native-xDB, full, cold backup for xPlore federations ................................................................. 12
Native-xDB, full, hot backup for xPlore federations ................................................................... 12
Native-xDB, full, incremental backup for xPlore federations ..................................................... 12
Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore domains.................................................................... 13
Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore collections ................................................................ 13
Volume backups ............................................................................................... 13
Volume, full, cold backup for xPlore federations........................................................................ 14
Volume, full, warm backup for xPlore federations ..................................................................... 14
Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 15

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Executive summary
Backup and recovery is a key component of business continuity. Business continuity is the umbrella term
that covers all efforts to keep critical data and applications running despite any type of interruption (both
planned and unplanned). Planned interruptions include regular maintenance or upgrades. Unplanned
interruptions could include hardware or software failures, data corruption, natural or man-made disasters,
viruses, and human errors. Backup and recovery is essential for operational recovery; that is, recovery from
errors that can occur on a regular basis, but that are not catastrophic—for example, data corruption or
accidentally deleted files. Disaster recovery is concerned with catastrophic failures.

Introduction
Enterprise content management has become a key component for global companies to conduct business
efficiently. A powerful search is one of the critical requirements; metadata searches as well as full-text
searches of the content itself fulfill these requirements. This white paper describes EMC® Documentum®
xPlore disaster recovery and gives detailed setup examples using EMC NetWorker® 7.6.

Audience
This paper is written for IT staff who are considering how to back up and restore Documentum xPlore
using NetWorker.

Backup and restore Documentum xPlore with NetWorker

NetWorker provides the ability to protect enterprises against data loss. NetWorker software is a cross-
platform, client-server application that remotely manages all NetWorker clients and servers from a web-
enabled, graphical interface.

xPlore is a multi-instance, scalable, high-performance, full-text index server that can be configured for high
availability and disaster recovery. xPlore provides command-line utilities for backup and restore.

The focus of this white paper is on integrating NetWorker with xPlore to achieve disaster recovery.

Architecture description
You can negatively impact performance if you concentrate content processing, indexing, and query
activities on a single instance in a large xPlore deployment with a high volume of documents to index. To
improve performance, set up multiple secondary xPlore instances on the same machine or on different
machines. This distributed configuration improves performance by enabling parallel index processing.
Multi-instance deployments are best used where large volumes of data are indexed and searched and high
performance is required. In this specific deployment, two instances (the primary and one secondary) are
deployed.

The following diagram shows the topology for the components and connections.

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 Host: Primary Node Networker Client

Agent1 Primary Node

Host: ContentServer

Host: Networker
Host: Database
Docbase1

Networker Server
DB

Docbase2

Agent2 Secondary Node

Networker Client
Host: Secondary Node

Figure 1. Deployment diagram

In this deployment:
There is one connection broker and two repositories (Docbase1 and Docbase2).
For the xPlore deployment, two hosts are deployed: one hosts the xPlore primary instance and the
other one hosts the secondary instance. On the primary host, an index agent is deployed and used by
Docbase1 while the index agent on the secondary host is used by Docbase2.
For details on deployment of multi-instance xPlore, please refer to the EMC Documentum xPlore
Deployment Guide.
NetWorker Server is deployed on a separate host where the NetWorker server, NetWorker console,
and NetWorker storage reside.
An EMC NetWorker client is installed on each xPlore host. For details on installing NetWorker, please
refer to the EMC NetWorker 7.6 Installation Guide.

Overview of the xPlore backup process

The xPlore backup process is usually composed of the following steps:

1. Pre-processing (optional)
2. An xPlore backup with the xPlore command line (only required when using native-xDB backup)
3. A NetWorker backup
4. Post-processing (optional)

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Pre-processing is usually required for cold and warm backups. This pre-processing consists of suspending
or stopping the xPlore application or service to prepare it for the actual backup process.

An xPlore backup is only required when performing a native-xDB backup. xPlore backup commands are
used to generate a dump file based on the current xPlore data files, log files, and configuration files.

NetWorker backup is to back up the xPlore files or the dump file generated by xPlore native backup with
NetWorker command line or console.

Post-processing is required for cold and warm backups to resume the xPlore application or service after the
backup has completed. In many cases, it also cleans up the files that have been backed up to NetWorker
storage.

The following table lists the typical backup scenarios. See the “Supported backup technologies, levels, and
techniques” section for explanations of the individual backup technologies, levels, and techniques.

Table 1. Typical backup scenarios

Scenarios by backup technology, level, and technique
1 File, full, cold backup for xPlore federation
2 File, full, warm backup for xPlore federation
3 Native-xDB, full, cold backup for xPlore federation
4 Native-xDB, full, hot backup for xPlore federation
5 Native-xDB, full, incremental backup for xPlore federation
6 Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore domain
7 Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore collection
8 Volume, full, cold backup for xPlore federation
9 Volume, full, warm backup for xPlore federation

Note: Restore is not included with the listed backup scenarios since it does not require automatic execution with
NetWorker as is required for backup scenarios.

Supported backup technologies, levels, and techniques

The following tables describe the backup technologies, levels, and techniques supported by xPlore.
Table 2. File, volume, and native-xDB backups
Backup Technology Description
File A backup of individually listed files or entire
directories (and their contents)
Involves copying the files from their current
location to a backup staging area
The most basic form of backup but has limited
support on Windows

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Volume A backup that is based on the underlying blocks
in the file system
Typically does not have knowledge of the file
system
Typically requires some extra technology to
assist (for example, the Linux dd command)
Native-xDB Backup files created by the xPlore command-
line interface

Table 3. Full, incremental, and differential backups

Backup Level Description
Full A complete copy of all required files
Incremental A backup in which only the files or blocks that
have been changed since the last backup are
saved (incremental or full)
You must first apply the last full backup and all
incremental backups in sequence up to the most
recent incremental backup
Therefore, the recovery will only be successful
up to the last good incremental backup (because
each incremental backup depends on the
previous ones)
Differential A rollup of all the incremental backups since
the last full backup
The restore time for a differential backup is
shorter than an incremental, but the amount of
data backed up (per differential) is larger

Table 4. Cold, warm, and hot backups

Backup Technique Description
Cold xPlore is down for the duration of the backup
The simplest and safest form of backup
Warm xPlore is up and servicing queries, but index
agents do not send data during the duration of
backup
Hot xPlore services queries and ingests data

File backup
NetWorker directly backs up specified xPlore files. Hot backup is not supported in this scenario because
indexing during the backup process could change these files and make the backup inconsistent.

At least the following directories must be backed up:

/config
/data
/dblog

File, full, cold backup for xPlore federations

Use NetWorker to configure a full, cold, file backup of an xPlore federation as follows:

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 1. In NetWorker, create a group, xPloreBackup, and in the properties of the group, set a start time
for running the backup.

2. Create a new client in the xPloreBackup group, specify a Save set, and add at least the /config,
/data, and /dblog directories to the save set.

3. Create a device based on a Windows folder, C:\backup, and set Media type to file.

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 4. Label this device as networker.001.

Note: These steps are required for every backup scenario in which NetWorker is used as the backup application.

Since you are configuring a cold backup, you must shut down xPlore and the index agent manually before
the backup. Otherwise, at the scheduled start time, NetWorker automatically starts to back up the three
specified xPlore directories.

Follow these steps to restore xPlore from the NetWorker backup.

Note: If you are performing a federation restore, clean up all xPlore data, configuration, and log files before
performing these steps.

1. On the NetWorker client machine that hosts the xPlore primary instance, execute this command
syntax on the NetWorker command line to connect to the NetWorker server:

recover -s <NetWorker_server> -c <NetWorker_client> <backup_folder>

For example:

recover –s networker –c xPlore C:\xPlore

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 2. After connecting to the NetWorker server, execute the following commands to select the files you
want to recover:

add C:\xPlore\config
add C:\xPlore\data
add C:\xPlore\dblog

3. Start the restore by executing the following command:

recover

4. Start xPlore.

File, full, warm backup for xPlore federations

Since indexing is stopped, but the query service is allowed to run during the warm backup process, you
must run a script that suspends the disk(s) used by xPlore. For instructions, follow the procedure in the next
section.

Native-xDB backup
In a native-xDB backup, NetWorker is configured to call a customized script. The following steps describe
the overall process:

1. On the NetWorker client machine (for example, the xPlore primary node), create a NetWorker
command-line script file (*.bat/*.sh) to suspend the disk and back up the files.

The file must meet the following requirements:

The name of the script must begin with save.

The file must be located in the /NetWorker_install_dir/nsr/bin directory.
The NetWorker save command must be called in the script. On Linux, you must append $@
to save.

2. On the NetWorker console, on the client’s Properties page, select the Apps & Modules tab and
input the name of the script file in the Backup command field.

With this configuration, when the group starts a backup, the NetWorker server calls the script file
instead of the default backup method.

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The following sample script executes a warm, file backup:
Note: This script must include NetWorker backup commands.

@echo off
setlocal

set XHome=C:\xPlore\dsearch\xhive\admin
set CLASSPATH=%XHome%\activation.jar;%XHome%\ant.jar;%XHome%\ant-
launcher.jar;%XHome%\aspectjrt.jar;%XHome%\commons-codec-
1.3.jar;%XHome%\commons-httpclient-3.0.1.jar;%XHome%\commons-logging-
1.1.jar;%XHome%\commons-pool-1.4.jar;%XHome%\debugtools.jar;%XHome%\dsearch-
client.jar;%XHome%\dsearch-install.jar;%XHome%\dsearch-utils.jar;%XHome%\jaxb-
api.jar;%XHome%\jaxb-impl.jar;%XHome%\jline.jar;%XHome%\log4j.jar;

rem xDB command to start keep disk in suspend state

cmd /c XHCommand suspend-diskwrites

rem NetWorker internal command 'save.exe' to backup directories from client (-

c) to server (-s)
save -s %NetWorker_Server% -c %Client_Name% C:\xPlore\config C:\xPlore\dblog
C:\xPlore\data

rem xDB command to stop the disk on suspend state

cmd /c XHCommand suspend-diskwrites --resume

The following sample script executes a native-xDB federation backup. In this script, an xPlore backup
command is executed before performing the NetWorker backup and before setting the post-processing that
deletes the xPlore backup dump files.

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 @echo off
setlocal

# backup federation with xPlore CL

cmd /c dsearch-backup federation localhost 9300 full %BACKUP_FOLDER%

# backup the dump file with NetWorker’s CL

save -s %NetWorker_Server% -c %Client_Name% %BACKUP_FOLDER%/federation

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rmdir /S /Q %BACKUP_FOLDER%/federation

To restore from a native-xDB backup:

1. Restore from the NetWorker backup.
2. Restore xPlore using the xPlore command line.

For details, refer to the EMC Documentum xPlore Administration Guide.

Native-xDB, full, cold backup for xPlore federations

This sample script executes a native-xDB, full backup.
Note: This script runs on Linux. The $@ characters are appended to save.

#!/bin/bash

# backup federation with xPlore CL

/usr/sbin/dsearch-backup.sh federation localhost 9300 full /$BACKUP/

# backup the dump file with NetWorker’s CL

save "$@" /$BACKUP/federation

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -r /$BACKUP/federation/*

Native-xDB, full, hot backup for xPlore federations

A hot backup allows both querying and indexing to run during the backup. You can use the same cold
federation backup script for this backup process.

Native-xDB, full, incremental backup for xPlore federations

Since an incremental backup must be based on a full backup, the restore must first be performed from a full
backup.

This sample script performs a native-xDB, incremental backup.

Note: The incremental option is specified when invoking dsearch-backup.sh.

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 #!/bin/bash

# backup federation with xPlore CL

/usr/sbin/dsearch-backup.sh federation localhost 9300 incremental /$BACKUP/

# backup the dump file with NetWorker’s CL

save "$@" /$BACKUP/federation

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -r /root/Desktop/backup1/*

Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore domains

A domain is a subset of a federation in xPlore. Backing up and restoring a domain does not impact any
other domains. Domain backups only allow hot or warm backups; cold backups are not supported.

This sample script executes a domain backup. The domain must be specified.

#!/bin/bash

# backup federation with xPlore CL

/usr/sbin/dsearch-backup.sh domain localhost 9300 $DOMAIN /$BACKUP/

# backup the dump file with NetWorker’s CL

save "$@" /$BACKUP/federation

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -r /root/Desktop/backup1/*

Native-xDB, full, warm backup for xPlore collections

A collection is a subset of a domain in xPlore. Backing up and restoring a collection does not impact any
other collections. Collection backups only allow hot or warm backups; cold backups are not supported.

This sample script executes a collection backup. The collection and its associated domain must be specified.

#!/bin/bash

# backup federation with xPlore CL

/usr/sbin/dsearch-backup.sh collection localhost 9300 $DOMAIN $COLLECTION
/$BACKUP/

# backup the dump file with NetWorker’s CL

save "$@" /$BACKUP/federation

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -r /root/Desktop/backup1/*

Volume backups
Volume backup is supported only in Linux. The dd command is used to back up a physical or logical
partition.

Note: Because the dd command generates a considerable amount of data and the backup can be quite slow,
volume-based backups should be considered only after you have determined that file and native-xDB backups do
not meet your requirements.

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To use the dd command to back up a partition, EMC recommends that you:
Store all xPlore data and configuration files on a stand-alone disk.
Back up the data to another stand-alone disk; that is, not the partition on which the system files reside.

To begin the backup using the dd command, stop the nfs service and unmount the device to keep the disk
in a no-access state in case of a cold backup.

NetWorker backs up the file exported by the dd command to a NetWorker storage location. For a volume-
based backup, NetWorker must use the customized backup script located on the xPlore primary host.

The dd command is also used to restore the backup. Before restoring from the volume-based backup, you
must first stop the nfs service and unmount the device.

Volume, full, cold backup for xPlore federations

This sample script executes a volume, cold backup.

#!/bin/bash

# stop nfs service

stopnfs.sh

# dd backup the device which store the xPlore data.

dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=/mnt/sdb/coldnw.img

# NetWorker backup CL
save "$@" /mnt/sdb/coldnw.image

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -f /mnt/sdb/coldnw.img

Volume, full, warm backup for xPlore federations

For warm backups, you are not required to stop the nfs service and unmount the device. The suspend-disk-
write script should be included to ensure that the backup is consistent.

This sample script executes a volume, warm backup:

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 #!/bin/bash

export XHOME=/root/xPlore/dsearch/xhive/admin
export CLASSPATH=$XHome\activation.jar;$XHome\ant.jar;$XHome\ant-
launcher.jar;$XHome\aspectjrt.jar;$XHome\commons-codec-1.3.jar;$XHome\commons-
httpclient-3.0.1.jar;$XHome\commons-logging-1.1.jar;$XHome\commons-pool-
1.4.jar;$XHome\debugtools.jar;$XHome\dsearch-client.jar;$XHome\dsearch-
install.jar;$XHome\dsearch-utils.jar;$XHome\jaxb-api.jar;$XHome\jaxb-
impl.jar;$XHome\jline.jar;$XHome\log4j.jar

# xDB command to start keep disk in suspend state

/root/xPlore/dsearch/xhive/admin/XHCommand suspend-diskwrites

# dd backup the device which store the xPlore data.

dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=/mnt/sdb/warmnw.image

save "$@" /mnt/sdb/warmnw.image

# xDB command to stop disk on suspend state

/root/xPlore/dsearch/xhive/admin/XHCommand suspend-diskwrites –resume

# Clean the dump file on the NetWorker client machine.

rm -f /mnt/sdb/warmnw.img

Conclusion
This white paper describes the methodology for backing up xPlore using EMC NetWorker, which is a
popular enterprise backup software. This white paper focuses on the integration between xPlore backup and
NetWorker backup.

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