Best Practices for Cloud Backup
Contents
Purpose of this Guide
Document Conventions
Key Concepts
Choosing What to Backup
Backup and Restore Best Practices
Backup Frequency
Effective Restores
Encryption: Costs and...
Background
There are 3 types of files that change as Cloud Backup backs them up:
Files that are being overwritten or get deleted as we back them up.
Files like logs that get appended to as we back them up.
Files like databases...
Overview
Rackspace Private Cloud Software installs a collection of Chef cookbooks that deploy and manage the suite of OpenStack core projects: Compute (Nova), Image Service (Glance), Dashboard (Horizon), Identity (Keystone), and...
Yes, you can. After you have attached and mounted your Cloud Block Storage Volume, you can add it to your current Cloud Backup Schedule. Edit the Backup Schedule and browse to the drive letter of your Volume or to individual...
Detaching a Cloud Block Storage (CBS) Volume will prevent you from writing to it when you want to take a Snapshot. It is also useful when you want to take a Volume offline for storage purposes, or to move a Volume to another...
A Snapshot is a copy made of your Volume at a specific moment in time. It contains the full directory structure of the Volume. Snapshots can be used as incremental backups of your Volumes, as restore points for your data, as long...
Rackspace Cloud Block Storage is a block-level storage solution that allows you to expand the storage capacity of your Rackspace Next Generation Cloud Server™. This means you can increase your storage without increasing the size...
In Cloud Block Storage (CBS), you both attach and mount a Volume to a Server. These terms might sound similar, so it can get confusing as to their differences.
Attach: When you attach a CBS Volume to a Server, a logical...
After you have created and attached your Cloud Block Storage (CBS) Volume you must prepare it for use on your Server. In order to prepare your Volume you must partition, format, and mount it. Once you have successfully completed...
Rackspace Cloud Block Storage provides persistent block-level storage volumes for use with Rackspace next generation Cloud Servers. Volumes can be created and deleted independently of the Cloud Servers they are attached to....
Cloud Block Storage provides persistent data storage for next generation Cloud Servers. Persistent storage can exist independent of your cloud server, even after the server has been deleted. The local storage bundled with Cloud...
Cloud Block Storage is an excellent option for you if you:
Want more control over your storage or application infrastructure
Are looking for a higher performance storage option (SSD)
Are currently using Rackspace next...
Cloud Block Storage (CBS) is not meant as a direct replacement of any existing Rackspace products (shared or dedicated). CBS allows Rackspace Cloud customers to add “a la carte” storage to their existing next generation Cloud...
The Cloud Block Storage system overwrites the used portions of the disk with zeros prior to that resource getting returned to the pool that is available for use by other Cloud Block Storage customers.
Cloud Block Storage back-end storage volumes employ a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) level 10 configuration. RAID 10 provides high availability by combining features of RAID level 0 and RAID level 1 in which data is...
The hardware RAID level 10 employed by Cloud Block Storage nodes provides protection against disk failures on the storage nodes themselves. However customers are strongly encouraged to implement a RAID level 1 (mirror)...
No. Cloud Block Storage is not a shared storage offering. You may attach multiple volumes to a single Cloud Server instance, but you may not attach multiple Cloud Servers to a single Cloud Block Storage volume.
Not at the current time. Once a volume is created, it cannot be resized. In order to move to a larger/smaller volume size, you need to create a new volume of the desired size and then copy your data from the old volume to the new...
You can verify a volume’s capacity and available space using basic system commands available via their Cloud Server operating system:
In Linux CLI: From a terminal window, run the “df -h” command and note the Size, Used, Avail,...
Yes. However at some point the cost benefit of utilizing multiple less expensive SATA volumes in a RAID configuration will be outweighed by the benefit of utilizing a single higher I/O SSD volume. In the event that you are...
Cloud Block Storage is charged by gigabytes of storage used per month, not the IOPs, which can be difficult to predict.
US Pricing
Volume Types
SATA - $0.15 / GB / Month
SSSD - $0.70 / GB / Month
No charge for IOPs
Snapshots...
Yes - Some Ubuntu users have older agents installed on their machines. In order to communicate properly with your system, the config file may need to be overwritten with a current version.
Rackspace double checks to make sure files get written properly when backed up and restored. However, if an uploaded file is corrupt, it will get backed up and restored as corrupted. The backup and restore processes themselves...
Rackspace does not store customer encryption keys. Only you will know and be able to access your encryption passphrase. If you forget your passphrase, you will not be able to restore data from your Backups.
See our section on...
If you wish to create your own encrypted key and bypass the default client-side encryption, please refer to this article on using OpenSSL to generate a key.
All of your Cloud Backups are stored in your Cloud Files account.
But what if I never set up a Cloud Files account?
When you established your Cloud Account, a Cloud Files account was set up as well. You are not charged...
You can create any number of backup jobs for each of your servers, and you can include any number of fileswhich also includes a nearly unlimited number of files.
See our chapter on Creating a Backup in the Getting Started Guide...
Our block-level de-duplication backs up only those portions of files that have changed since the previous backup. This means you don’t needlessly backup the same unchanged data again and again. This increases efficiency by...
You can use Rackspace Cloud Backup on virtually any Cloud Server, legacy or Next Generation. The only exceptions are FreeBSD 9, Debian 5, and Windows 2003.
If you have a Managed Cloud Account, you may already have the agent...
Rackspace Cloud Backup is a service that allows you to select and backup specific files and folders from your Cloud Server. You can schedule any number of Backup jobs, and restore to the same system or a different one, giving you...
You choose how long your backups are saved: 30 days, 60 days, or indefinitely.
Read more about Retaining your Backup in the RCBU Getting Started Guide.
You set up your backups in the Rackspace Cloud Backup Control Panel.
If you need to create a new Backup, click the System you want to backup, and then the Create Backup button. If you already have a Backup and want to re-...
Rackspace Cloud Backup
Using Rackspace Cloud Backup for your Database
You can use Rackspace Cloud Backup to backup your database by following a few steps.
First, some background
Rackspace Cloud Backup backs up files, provided it...
Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Part 6
Preferences
On the Preferences screen, you can determine how Cloud Backup notifies you about Backup activity on your Account.
Wait, didn't I do this already? When you created...
Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Part 3
How to View Backup Information
On the last page, we discussed How to Create a Backup. Once your Backup is set up, you might want to confirm its settings, make sure a clean up...
Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Part 2
If you have a Managed Cloud account and do not see your Server under Systems, check with your account manager to install the RCBU Agent.
Other users who do not see their Server...
Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Overview
Overview
Rackspace Cloud Backup (RCBU) is a file-based backup application that lets you choose which files and folders to backup from your Cloud Server. You can choose to...
Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Part 1
Install the Agent
If you have a Managed Cloud account, you may already have the agent installed on your server. You know you have the agent when you see your Cloud Server(s)...
The entire Cloud Sites FTP structure is backed up in an FTP Snapshot at the top of every hour, going back 32 hours. Those backups are rolled into a nightly backup, which are retained for two days. However, these backups are for...
Nothing as important as your website should be served from a single hard drive, but you'd be surprised by how many web hosts have little more redundancy than a pair of crossed fingers. We're different - and for good reason.
The...
Many of you are used to taking snapshots of your servers. If you have a solution where you want to save the server’s state or configuration, or want to keep gold copies of your system, then you basically create an image backup...