TFTP Backup ??

[TipandRingtoSIP]

Ok so I finally got my backups nice and sorted, (thanks DonB and others)and now my two V5 sites have migrated to V7. No more CF backups..... I'd like to set up the FTP, or TFTP backup, but wanted to ask, are there specific requirements on the backup server?? I asked our IT people about setting it up, and they act like they don't know what I'm asking them for...

Thanks in advance for any help...

 

[donb01]

Use SFTP for the backup server. I am using a cute little application that is free from Solarwinds (lookup Solarwinds SFTP) and it has been working quite well for me and is easy to set up. You can either run it on demand or as a service, and I have it set up as a service so it stays running all the time and restarts if the machine happens to reboot. I also created a local user on that machine to use as my FTP user that has full rights to the directory the data will be stored in.

There are some important considerations when setting up the server. Create a directory where your backups will be stored and then when you create your SFTP server set that as the home directory for the user that the server runs as. As mentioned previously, the user should have full rights to that directory. The next thing is that "Backup Server" is VERY picky about its world. The directory you create to store the backups in on the server must not have ANY other files or directories in it. The PBX wants to write directly to that home directory and it will create its own subdirectories as it wants. If it sees any alien files or folders in that directory it will give an error and refuse to run. So when you go to set up "backup server" in the PBX you will specify your SFTP server (I used the IP address), the username and password the SFTP server is running under, and when you specify the directory you will use ./ only (dot slash) - that means write to the home directory of the server, and for the "account" field I used the same thing I used for the login on the SFTP server. Remember logins and passwords are case sensitive.

After you get it set up you should be able to hit the Test button and it will tell you how you did. Then once it is working you can schedule a weekly or as often as you want backup of both "dada" and "logical" to "Backup Server".

Keep in mind when scheduling backups to stay at least 90 minutes before or after 2:00 AM, which is the default time the system does its "housekeeping" and stay at least an hour before or after any other scheduled backup on the same day, including is you have remote sites with APE processors because there is another backup called AP Backup that runs for those at the same time every day.

Hope that helps!


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[TipandRingtoSIP]

Thanks Don, I'll see what my IT folks say about that... I work in healthcare as well, but our IT security is over the top here. They control everything, what ever I end up using will be installed and managed by them. I will not actually have access to the backup server... Frustrating??? Oh Yeah!

 

[keyset6]

Just curious about what media is being used for backups these days - when you said 'No more CF backups'... does that mean it's no longer an option in V7 or you don't need to since TFTP is available?

 

[donb01]

In V7 you have an option of installing an accessory HD tray. You pop in a drive, and go to the portal under recovery disk and it will RAID to the primary hard disk and make a clone of it. That takes about 3 hours on average depending on how big your system is and how much traffic there is, and then you click on Make Recovery Disk and it un-RAIDs the disk and makes it bootable. Then you remove the drive and store it someplace remote to the system to use in case the main hard disk completely fails. V7 has a number of different ways to do backups - the recovery HD, the Backup Server, you can do a Regen of the whole switch, which is a line by line macro that has every command to recreate your database on a restored system, and the duplex systems have a couple more options yet besides. V7 is a different bird and runs on Linux instead of unixware, and relies heavily on VMs for most of the telephony and admin stuff. I don't get anything for saying this, but Unify has some excellent service courses served up down in Texas and there really is a ton of stuff to learn about how to protect yourself and do some of your own maintenance. I have taken most of the service track now, and it's really cool when you get to take a USB dongle, plug it into the front of the processor card, boot off of it just like it's a PC and build a whole 4000 V7 from scratch - including putting on your own database, etc. If you do a whole system regen and you know how to build a system from scratch you can literally have your system completely melt down, and once you get your hands on the replacement hardware you can literally rebuild your whole system from a dongle! Even more fun, is because you get a 30 day trial when you build a new system if you don't register it, and because you can build a purely virtual IP system on any decent standard server, you can actually build one for home and run IP phones off of it. Just do a regen before your 30 days are up, do a fresh install and load your regen file, and you are back in business for another 30 days....


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[TipandRingtoSIP]

Yeah, I'm headed to Irving soon for the update.... Sounds like I better pay attention while I'm there..

 

[donb01]

The V6 to V7 update course is the one I have not taken yet because it wasn't in the service track, but I know what content it covers. We went through some of that in the Basic and Advanced class, but the upgrade course goes into a lot more detail.


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[Moriendi]

From V7 R2 you have "Recovery ISO" under Application Management, a bootable backup which will reinstall the system with your database. Best backup solution by far in my opinion. You can backup to USB or SFTP. Before this, the only bootable backup was a recovery HD, all the other backups required to you reinstall the system before your backup could be restored, you could be looking at 5 hours downtime by the time you'd finished messing. With Recovery ISO the system can be back on its feet with working telephony in under an hour. If you have a V7 R2 system and haven't taken a RISO backup to USB yet - it should be your first job Monday morning.

 

[TipandRingtoSIP]

Wow, I just took a look at that App Management tab... that looks pretty nice. Do you have to format the USB drive or anything?? I have absolutely no service documentation on this thing..yet.

 

[donb01]

Be careful in App Management - Do not just turn everything on because it is there. Those apps consume system resources so they should not be enabled unless you are actually using them for something.

You should not have to do any special formatting on the USB stick besides what it comes with, EXCEPT they reccomend you do not buy a USB stick that comes loaded with extra crap (SanDisk is one) - Lexar is a recommended brand and they are inexpensive. Those are what were suggested for class. If you do use one of the other ones, reformat it to FAT32 in Windows to get all that junk off of it. If the system needs to do any special formatting it will take care of it on its own.

If you have V7R2 and it's not one of the older versions of V2 that had a bug in the installer, You DO have ALL the service documentation. Just login to the Portal IP address with the same login and password you use for Assistant and go to the Documentation tab. It is all there. If your portal IP address had not been provided to you then you can usually look it up by scrolling through the information screens on the LCD display on the front of the processor board. If you don't already know, there is a black button next to the display that sticks out. Use that to cycle through the screens. The IP stuff will be on one of them.


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[Moriendi]

Sorry, I meant Appliance Management (under Software management), not Application Management. But I see you found it anyway. Don is referring to Application Control (under Base Administrstion), which is something different.