Best practices to backup/snapshot Aria Operations for Networks Clustered deployments

Products

• VMware Aria Operations for Networks

Issue/Introduction

This article offers detailed recommendations on how to effectively take and restore Aria Operations for Networks Clustered deployment, specifically focusing on platform/collector nodes, during maintenance activities such as:

1.  Upgrades to Next/New Released version.
2.  Appling GA Patches on top of  current release deployments.
3.  Applying Hot Patches 

This script helps ensuring the process is smooth and well-prepared and ready for above mentioned activities.

This script can be executed for Clustered deployment running 3/5/7/10/15 Platform Node cluster.

This is applicable for Aria Operations for Networks which are not managed by Aria Suite Lifecycle (vRSLCM).

Environment

VMware vRealize Network Insight 6.9
Aria Operations for Networks 6.10.0
Aria Operations for Networks 6.11.0
Aria Operations for Networks 6.12.0
Aria Operations for Networks 6.12.1
Aria Operations for Networks 6.13.0
Aria Operations for Networks 6.14.0

Resolution

Follow the below given sequence of steps needs to followed  as in order mentioned

1. Download the Script :-Download the script  from the attachment section in this article to your local system.

2. Copy the Script to Platform Node1 in a Clustered deployment :-

Once the script is downloaded, it needs to be transferred to platform 1.

You can use the scp (Secure Copy Protocol) command or any other secure file transfer method to copy the script to the platform 1.

For example, using scp:

scp vrni-reboot-script.sh support@<platform1-IP>:/home/support/

After the password prompt, input the support user password to copy the file.

Alternatively, WinSCP can be used to copy the file to Platform1 under location /home/support.

Validate the downloaded script file against the below mentioned details and any one of the checksum values mentioned in below section.

Filename, size and checksum values details:

Filename: vrni-reboot-script
File size: 14KB
Checksum Values:
MD5: 1A83F88D13D425442C591354217B3E6D
SHA-1: 362D65061AF06612FE9D1247B2A3E22CA7751B6B
SHA-265: 3B5CFE3AFFEA880B6F58708FFA7D1CD38EF5F7AB483812EA4CC4A8C316D122E4

For checksum values use any one of the below commands :

Type md5sum followed by the file name  
Press Enter
The md5sum of the file will be displayed

or 

Type sha1sum followed by the file name
Press Enter
The sha1sum sum of the file will be displayed

or 

Type sha256sum followed by the file name
Press Enter
The sha256sum sum of the file will be displayed

3. Steps to take snapshot :-

Once the script is transferred to Platform1, execute the below mentioned steps:

0.  Manually shutdown collector nodes from vCenter using  Power > Shut down guest OS.
1.  Take a SSH/Putty session to Aria operations for Networks Platform Node1
2.  Login with username support
3.  Run ub which will change the prompt from support to ubuntu
4.  Run sudo mv /home/support/vrni-reboot-script.sh /home/ubuntu/vrni-reboot-script.sh
5.  Run sudo chown ubuntu:ubuntu vrni-reboot-script.sh
6.  Run sudo chmod +x vrni-reboot-script.sh
7.  Run below command to stop all the platforms.
     ./vrni-reboot-script.sh shutdown 127.0.0.1 "/home/ubuntu/vrni-reboot-script.$(date +%s).log"     
8.  Verify all the nodes are successfully powered off in vCenter GUI
9.  Take snapshots of the platforms and collector nodes.
10. Power on all the platform nodes in the cluster, order should be 1 to N.
11. Verify all the platform nodes are powered on in vCenter GUI
12. Run below command to start the services on all the platforms 
     ./vrni-reboot-script.sh start-services 127.0.0.1 "/home/ubuntu/vrni-reboot-script.$(date +%s).log" 
13. After a few minutes, access the Aria Operations for Networks GUI and validate login is successful and also ensure no apparent issues are seen  GUI. 
14. Power on the Collector VM from vCenter.
15. Verify all the collector nodes are powered via vCenter GUI

 

4. Steps to restore snapshots

1.  Power off all the nodes from vCenter GUI.
2.  Verify all the nodes in the deployment i.e. Platform(s) and collectors(s) are successfully powered off in vCenter UI
3.  Revert the snapshots of the platforms and collectors.
4.  Power on all the platform nodes in the cluster, order should be 1 to N.
5.  Verify all the platform nodes are powered on in vCenter UI
6.  Run below start the services on all the platforms nodes.
    ./vrni-reboot-script.sh start-services 127.0.0.1 "/home/ubuntu/vrni-reboot-script.$(date +%s).log" 
8.  After a few minutes, access the Aria Operations For Networks UI and validate login is successful. 
9.  Power on the Collector VM on from vCenter GUI.
10. Verify all the collector nodes are powered on in vCenter UI.

Now login to Aria Operations for Networks GUI and proceed with performing the upgrade/apply GA /Hot patches.

Additional Information

Important Notes:- 

1.  For a Single platform environment, the script is NOT needed, just turn off the platform through vCenter via shutdown GuestOS and take a snapshot/backup.
2.  To revert the snapshot, turn off the platform through vCenter via shutdown GuestOS and restore the snapshots.
3.  To take collector(s) node snapshots, the script is not needed, just turn off the collector through vCenter via shutdown GuestOS and take snapshot.
4.  To revert the snapshot, turn off the collector through vCenter via shutdown GuestOS and restore the snapshot/backup.
5. This attached script can be also used to take snapshot when performing a Cluster and Cluster expansion operations as well.

 

Additional Information:-

1.  Log Files: 
     The log file path is optional. If provided, the script will store the log file at the specified location for later review. If not, logging will be limited to the console during script execution.
2.   Always ensure you are working with the correct Platform Node 1 IP and have SSH access configured properly.
3.   Execute the script from Platfrom Node1. 
4.   Do not execute this script from collector node since running from collector node is blocked.