Automated: Enabling the Backup on the Cluster

Before You Begin

Note:

• Make sure you meet the prerequisites for backing up and restoring the cluster.
• Make sure you have prepared your environment for using the uipathctl.sh script. For details, see Using uipathctl.sh.
• The steps in this section will not enable the backup for any external data source backup, such as SQL Server. You must enable the external data source backup separately.

Ansible is used to automate the backup on all the server nodes in the Automation Suite cluster. Server nodes are where all the data and etcd configurations are stored. For this reason, you only need to create a backup of the server nodes.

In the following illustration, Node Server 1 (or Ansible host node) uses Ansible to orchestrate the backup configuration across all server nodes. You do not need to enable the backup on agent and specialized Task Mining or GPU nodes.

Note:

During the backup stage, you do not have to provide the Ansible inventory.ini file. The uipathclt.sh script generates this file from the existing cluster on your behalf.

However, at the time of restoring the cluster, you must provide the inventory.ini file to the restore script, as there will not be any cluster established to generate it.

Configuring the Backup

To configure the backup, take the following steps:

1. Log into the server node that you previously identified as the Ansible host node, then navigate to the installer folder. The installer is located in the /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/{version}/installer folder.
2. Run the following command with the basic parameters to enable the backup, Make sure to use the parameter values applicable to you.

   ./uipathctl.sh configure-backup --install-type online --backup-endpoint "10.0.0.1" --backup-mount "/asbackup" --backup-name "mycluster"

Basic Parameters

Parameter	Value
--install-type	Possible values: online and offline.
--backup-endpoint	The endpoint of your NFS server. Provide either the IP address or the FQDN of the NFS server. Example: IP Address – 10.0.0.1 FQDN – mynfs.mycompany.com
--backup-mount	Location on the NFS server where you have mounted the disk on which you will store the backup data. This is an absolute file path. Example: /asbackup
--backup-name	The name of the backup that you want to associate with your Automation Suite cluster. The same name will also be used to create a folder under the --backup-mount location where the backup data will be stored. The value of parameter must be a name, rather than a file path. Example: Accepted value – mycluster Incorrect value – /asbackup/mycluster
--backup-config	As an alternative to --backup-endpoint, --backup-mount, and --backup-name, you can provide the backup.json file to the uipathctl.sh script at the time of configuring the backup. For details, see the Preparing the backup configuration section.

Advanced Parameters

Parameter	Value
--ansible-username	Specify the username to be used for SSH connections to all the nodes. Defaults to the current user. If you use a different username for all the nodes, then instead of using this parameter, set the username for all the nodes in inventory.ini and pass it to the script. Example: While running the script, you are logged in as the myadminuser username. However, if you want to use the testadmin username to connect via SSH, you must provide testadmin to this parameter.
--inventory	Specify an existing Ansible inventory file. If not specified, one will be generated automatically from the existing cluster with the basic configuration. In certain scenarios where you want to have more granular control, you may want to provide your own inventory file. One such example would be if you want to use a different SSH username or SSH key for all the nodes in cluster. For details, see Generating the Ansible inventory.ini file.

Note: Once a backup is created, restore.json file will be generated and saved to /var/tmp/uipathctl_<version>/restore.json. You can use this file in restore scenarios.