Backing up Call Manager

[jasonkthomas]

I am running Cisco CallManager 4.1 along with Cisco Unity 4.0. I would like to know the best way to backup the data from both these systems. I understand there is some type of utility on the CDs?

Thanks

 

[HmmG3]

For the CallManager, you must use BARS. You browse to

http://CCM-Publisher/bars

(where CCM-Publisher is the name of your Publisher).

You can configure it to backup the CCM to one of the following: tape drive, local file, or remote file server. We use the remote file server. By pointing it to a file server off-site, you get an immdiate off-site backup of the data.

For Unity, you have several options. Cisco includes a utility called DIRT. I've never used this, so I can't really comment on it. From what I hear it's not great, but better then nothing. If you are running an Exchange message store, then you can use any 3rd party backup method that supports it. We are going to start using Veritas on ours. That way another group can deal with the tapes and software.

 

[ADB100]

If you have MCS7835 or MCS7845 (DL380's) then you have hot-plug SCSI drives. I know someone who has a spare couple of 18.2GB SCSI drives and just takes one out, replaces it with a spare and keeps the original one as a hot-spare. They cycle the drives around like a normal Tape cycle procedure.

I have booted the CCM server off a Windows PE bootdisk (BartPE) and used Drive SnapShot to take an image of the drive and copy it to a server. The server with the image is then backed up along with other servers in a regular backup.

BARS is the Cisco way to go for CCM though (the 2 other options I posted are pretty generic).

HTH

Andy

 

[HmmG3]

Thanks for mentioning the drive method, I forgot about that. We do that before/after every upgrade/patch. Then we have BARS scheduled to run every night. That way if there is a total system failure, we can restore the system fast using the drive and bring it up to the latest configuration with BARS.

 

[ADB100]

I forgot to mention the recovery from the Drive SnapShot is to boot off a Windows XP PE bootdisk, map a drive and restore the image with SnapShot. I have done this several times recently when I needed a spare server. I simply backed the CCM image to a server, rebuilt the DL320 as a new server, did my testing and then re-imaged it with the CCM image.

HTH

Andy

 

[ribett]

I use Powerquest V2i Protector for make the HD image (including open files).

 

[jasonkthomas]

I put the backup utility CD in and got two options. What is the difference between BARS and Cisco CallManager CIPT Backup (for the Publisher Database Server Only).

 

[HmmG3]

I checked the web site and can't find any reference to "Cisco CallManager CIPT Backup". They do however reference CIPT Backup and Restore, which is another name for BARS. Regardless, I would just download the latest version of BARS from the Cisco web site. The version on your CD may be an old one. You can find it here:

http://www.cisco.com/cgi-bin/tablebuild.pl/cmva-3des

 

[jerake75]

CIPT Backup and Restore was the version before BARS; it was used on 3.1 up to 3.3, I believe. BARS replaced it; the CD's may provide both if you're doing an upgrade.

TMH