This section describes the steps that are required to complete
a hot, or online, backup of the LiveCycle database, the GDS, and
Content Storage Root directories.
After LiveCycle is installed and deployed to production areas,
the database administrator should perform an initial full, or cold,
backup of the database. The database must be shut down for this
backup. Then, differential or incremental (or hot) backups of the
database should be done regularly.
To ensure a successful backup and recovery, a system image backup
must be available at all times. Then, if a loss occurs, you can
recover your entire environment to a consistent state.
Backing up the database at the same time as the GDS and Content
Storage Root directory backups helps keep these systems synchronized
if recovery is ever required.
The backup procedure described in this section requires you to
enter safe backup mode before you back up the LiveCycle database,
the GDS, and Content Storage Root directories. When backup is complete,
you must exit safe backup mode. Safe backup mode is used to mark
long-lived and persistent documents that reside in the GDS. This
mode ensures that the automated file cleanup mechanism (the file
collector) does not delete expired files until the safe backup mode
is released. It is necessary to keep a GDS backup in synchronization
with a database backup.
How often the GDS location must be backed up depends on how LiveCycle
is used and the backup windows available. The backup window can
be affected by long-lived processes because they can run for several
days. If you are continually changing, adding, and removing files
in this directory, you should back up the GDS location more often.
If the database is running in a logging mode, as described in
the previous section, the database logs also must be backed up frequently
so that they can be used to restore the database in case of media
failure.
Note: Files that are not referenced may persist in
the GDS directory after the recovery process. This is a known limitation
at this time.
Back up the database, GDS, and Content Storage Root directories
You must put LiveCycle in either the safe backup (snapshot)
mode or the rolling backup (continuous coverage) mode. Before you
set LiveCycle to enter either of the backup modes, ensure the following:
Verify the system version and record the patches or updates
that were applied since the last complete system image backup was
performed.
If you are using either rolling or snapshot mode backups,
ensure that your database is configured with the correct log settings
to allow for hot backups of the database. (See LiveCycle database.)
In addition to these, observe the following guidelines for the
backup/restore process.
You should back up the LiveCycle database, including any transaction
logs. (See LiveCycle database.) For more information, see the appropriate knowledge
base article for your database:
These articles provide guidance to basic database features for
the backup and recovery of data. They are not intended as all-inclusive
technical guides of a specific vendor's database backup and recovery
feature. They outline commands that are required to create a reliable
database backup strategy for your LiveCycle application data.
Note: The database backup must be complete before
you begin backing up the GDS. If the database backup is not complete,
your data will be out of sync.
Entering the backup modes
You can use either the Administration Console, the LCBackupMode
command, or the API available with the LiveCycle installation to
enter and leave backup modes. Note that for rolling backup (continuous
coverage), the Administration Console option is not available; you
should use either the command line option or the API. For information
about using the API to enter and leave backup modes, see LiveCycle API Reference.
Note: If you configured SSL on the LiveCycle server, then you
cannot place the LiveCycle server in back up mode using LCBackupMode.CMD
script.
Using the Administration Console to enter safe backup mode
Log in to Administration Console.
Click Settings > Core System Settings > Backup Utilities.
Select Operate In Safe Backup Mode and click OK.
This
method puts LiveCycle into backup mode indefinitely (no time out),
and it enters snapshot mode rather than rolling backup mode.
Using the command line option to enter safe backup mode
You
can use the command line interface LCBackupMode scripts
to put LiveCycle in safe backup mode.
Set ADOBE_LIVECYCLE
and start the application server.
Go to the [LiveCycle root]/sdk/misc/Foundation/BackupRestoreCommandline folder.
Depending on your operating system, edit the LCBackupMode.cmd or LCBackupMode.sh script
to provide default values that are appropriate for your system.
At the command prompt, run the following command on a single
line:
(Windows) LCBackupMode.cmd enter [-Host=hostname] [-port=portnumber] [-user=username] [-password=password] [-label=labelname] [-timeout=seconds]
(Linux, UNIX) LCBackupMode.sh enter [-host=hostname] [-port=portnumber] [-user=username] [-password=password] [-label=labelname]
In
the previous commands, the placeholders are defined as follows:
Host is
the name of the host where LiveCycle is running.
port is
the WebServices port of the application server on which LiveCycle
is running.
user is the user name of the
LiveCycle administrator.
password is the
password of the LiveCycle administrator.
label is
the text label, which can be any string, for this backup.
timeout is
the number of seconds after which the backup mode is automatically
left. It can be 0 to 10,080. If it is 0, which is the default, the
backup mode never times out.
For more information about the
command line interface to the backup mode, see the Readme file in
the BackupRestoreCommandline directory.
Leaving backup modes
You can use either the Administration Console or the command
line option to leave backup modes.
Leave safe backup mode (snapshot mode)
To use Administration
Console to take LiveCycle out of safe backup mode (snapshot mode),
perform the following tasks.
Log in to Administration
Console.
Click Settings > Core System Settings > Backup Utilities.
Deselect Operate In Safe Backup Mode and click OK.
Leave all backup modes
You can use the command line interface
to take LiveCycle out of safe backup mode (snapshot mode) or to
end the current backup mode session (rolling mode). Note that you
cannot use the Administration Console to leave rolling backup mode.
While in rolling backup mode, the Backup Utilities controls on the Administration
Console are disabled. You must use either API call or use the LCBackupMode
command.
Go to the [LiveCycle root]/sdk/misc/Foundation/BackupRestoreCommandline folder.
Depending on your operating system, edit the LCBackupMode.cmd or LCBackupMode.sh script
to provide default values that are appropriate for your system.
Run the following command on a single line:
(Windows) LCBackupMode.cmd leaveContinuousCoverage [-Host=hostname] [-port=portnumber] [-user=username] [-password=password]
(Linux, UNIX) LCBackupMode.sh leaveContinuousCoverage [-Host=hostname] [-port=portnumber] [-user=username] [-password=password]
In
the previous commands, the placeholders are defined as follows:
Host is
the name of the host where LiveCycle is running.
port is
the port on which LiveCycle is running on the application server.
user is
the user name of the LiveCycle administrator.
password is
the password of the LiveCycle administrator.
leaveContinuousCoverage Use
this option to disable rolling backup mode completely.
Important: For the time that backup mode is off, continuous
coverage cannot be reestablished. Any changes during that time are
not protected.
Note: If you enabled document storage in database, the
snapshot backup mode and rolling backup modes are not applicable.
For
more information about the command line interface to the backup
mode, see the readme file in the BackupRestoreCommandline directory.
