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Backing up Lenovo XClarity Administrator

If you already have backup procedures in place for virtual hosts, ensure that your procedures include Lenovo XClarity Administrator.

Before you begin

Restriction: Backup and restore operations are not supported when XClarity Administrator is set up as a container.
Attention
Ensure that you notify all active users before you initiate the backup procedure. XClarity Administrator is quiesced during the procedure to prevent data from being modified. Therefore, you cannot access XClarity Administrator while the backup procedure is running.

Ensure that the Certificate Authority certificate was downloaded from the XClarity Administrator virtual appliance and imported into your web browser (see Importing the Certificate Authority certificate into a web browser).

Ensure that all running jobs are complete and that there are no pending jobs. If jobs are running, you can choose to stop the running jobs and continue creating the backup.

Ensure that the DNS servers are set up correctly; otherwise SMTP and NTP might not work correctly after the backup is restored.

Ensure that there is enough disk space available in the management server for the backup. If not, free up disk space by deleting XClarity Administrator resources, including previous backups, that are no longer needed (see Managing disk space) or choose to create a new backup without including operating-system images, firmware updates, and OS device drivers.

Ensure that OS deployment is configured on appropriate network interface, eth1 or eth0, if you want to backup OS images (see Configuring network access).

About this task

Always back up XClarity Administrator after performing the initial setup and after making significant configuration changes, including:

  • Before you update XClarity Administrator

  • When you manage new chassis or rack servers

  • When you add users to XClarity Administrator

  • When you create and deploy new Configuration Patterns

Ensure that you back up XClarity Administrator on a regular basis.

It is recommended that you download backups to your local system. If the host operating system shuts down unexpectedly, you might not be able to authenticate with XClarity Administrator after the host operating system is restarted. To resolve this problem, restore XClarity Administrator from the last backup on your local system (see Restoring Lenovo XClarity Administrator.).

Procedure

Complete the following steps to back up XClarity Administrator.

  1. From the XClarity Administrator menu bar, click Administration > Back Up and Restore Data. The Back Up and Restore Data page is displayed.
  2. Click the Back Up icon (Create backup icon). The Back Up Data and Settings dialog is displayed.
  3. Enter a description for this backup.
  4. Choose the location where you want to create the backup. This can be the local repository or a remote share.

    The backup is created in the local repository by default. You can copy a backup from the local repository to a remote share by clicking the Copy Backup icon (Copy icon).

    If you choose a remote share, the backup is first created in the local repository. Then, the backup is copied to the selected remote share, and the local copy is deleted. For more information, see Managing remote shares.

  5. Optionally select to include operating-system images, firmware updates, and OS device drivers.
  6. Specify the encryption passphrase for the backup.
    Attention
    Record the encryption passphrase. The passphrase is needed to restore the backup to this or another XClarity Administrator instance. If you forget the passphrase, there is no way to recover it.
  7. Click Back Up to backup data and settings immediately, or click Schedule to schedule this backup to run at a later time.
    Attention
    If you choose to back up immediately, do not close or refresh the web browser tab or window before the process completes. Otherwise, the backup might not be generated.

    Generating the backup might take a while. A progress bar shows the status of the job.

    If you chose to create the backup on a remote share, you can monitor progress from the Jobs page (see Monitoring jobs).

    If you schedule a backup, the management server is shut down temporarily during the backup process. After the management server comes back online, you can monitor the status of the backup process from the Jobs page.

  8. Log in to the XClarity Administrator to continue managing your devices.

After you finish

From the Back Up and Restore Data page, you can perform the following actions:

  • Copy XClarity Administrator backups to or from a remote share clicking the Copy Backup icon (Copy icon).

  • Delete selected backups from the local repository or remote shares that are no longer needed by clicking the Delete Backup icon (Delete icon).

  • Restore system data and settings to this management server (see Restoring Lenovo XClarity Administrator).

  • Import or export backups from the local system by clicking the Import Backup icon (Import backup icon) or Export Backup icon (Export backup icon), respectively.

  • Push the selected backup to a new XClarity Administrator instance (see Migrating system data and settings to another XClarity Administrator instance).