Re: LVM snapshot as a backup method

[Pavlos Parissis <p_pavlos@freemail.gr>]

On Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:39:07 +0100
Duncan Gibb <Duncan.Gibb@SiriusIT.co.uk> wrote:

> Pavlos Parissis wrote:
> 
> PP> Has anyone used LVM snapshot as a backup method when
> PP> downtime isn't allowed and slapcat takes hours to finish?
> 
> I'd have thought it worth investigating _why_ slapcat takes so long.
> Unless your database is truly gargantuan, very slow slapcat probably
> indicates something is misconfigured, or the hardware is underspecified.

Well 20M entries in 600GB of db is the reason of the delay.

> PP> I have to find a way to backup the LDAP without bring
> PP> it down or set it in ReadOnly mode, thus I thought about
> PP> the LVM snapshot.
> 
> A clean way to do this would be to set up a slave whose sole purpose is
> to replicate from the main database, freeze, back-up, rinse and repeat.

That was my initial thought as well but I can't use another server for operational reasons.

>  But if you have a performance problem with your master, hitting it with
> something that keeps stopping and starting a syncrepl consumer is likely
> to make that problem bigger.
> 
> PP> I can run LVM snapshot every day and then run db_recover -c for
> PP> making the snapshot LDAP DB in a good state.
> 
> I'll bow to the greater wisdom of those who know the innards of BDB, but
> I would expect a dirty slapcat from a running server to be more likely
> to give you a restore-able backup than a 'db_recover'ed LVM snap (for a
> start the LDIF will be portable, whereas the snapshot will be tied to
> the specific machine architecture and BDB version of the system it was
> taken from).  But neither of these are a particularly brilliant idea.
> 

I've just made a backup using LVM snapshot like this (for testing only)

1) add 100.000 entries
2) create 2 lvm snapshots, one for db and for logs
3) mount the LVM snapshots and rsync the data to another disk
4) umount and delete LVM snapshots
5) stop the LDAP
6) delete all the dbs and logs
7) rsync from the backup dir
8) db_recover
9) start ldap and check if all entries are there

It worked but I want to do more tests, like load a test of LDAP Write operations while the LVM snapshot is being created and few other things


> Cheers
> 
> 
> Duncan
> 
> -- 
> Duncan Gibb, Technical Director
> Sirius Corporation plc - The Open Source Experts
> http://www.siriusit.co.uk/
> Tel: +44 870 608 0063