Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.1.1 - RELEASE NOTES, Installation Manual

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Chapter 8. Maintenance
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8.4.2. Backing up the Database
Red Hat recommends performing nightly backups of the Embedded Database and moving the
resulting directory to another system via NFS, SCP, FTP, etc. Preferably, this backup system resides
off-site. To conduct a backup, shut down the database and related services first by issuing the
following command as root:
service rhn-satellite stop
Then switch to the oracle user and issue this command to initiate the backup:
db-control backup DIRNAME
Backup files are stored in the directory specified. Note that this is a cold backup; the database must be
stopped before running this command. This process takes several minutes. The first backup is a good
indicator of how long subsequent backups will take.
Once the backup is complete, return to root user mode and restart the database and related services
with the following command:
service rhn-satellite start
You should then copy that backup to another system using
rsync
or another file-transfer utility. Red
Hat strongly recommends scheduling the backup process automatically using cron jobs. For instance,
back up the system at 3 a.m. and then copy the backup to the separate repository (partition, disk, or
system) at 6 a.m.
8.4.3. Verifying the Backup
Backing up the Embedded Database is useful only if you can ensure the integrity of the resulting
backup.
RHN DB Control
provides two methods for reviewing backups, one brief, one more detailed.
To conduct a quick check of the backup's timestamp and determine any missing files, issue this
command as oracle:
db-control examine DIRNAME
To conduct a more thorough review, including checking the md5sum of each of the files in the backup,
issue this command as oracle:
db-control verify DIRNAME
8.4.4. Restoring the Database
RHN DB Control
makes Embedded Database restoration a relatively simple process. As in the
creation of backups, you will need to shut down the database and related services first by issuing the
following commands in this order as root:
service rhn-satellite stop
Then switch to the oracle user and issue this command, including the directory containing the backup,
to begin the restoration: