Skyline Collector Configuration Backup and Restore

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

In rare conditions, a Skyline Collector might lose it’s product configuration. This issue occurs when the Collector is restarted at the same time product password file (skyline.ks) is updated. This happens when the write process is interrupted which leaves the file in an inconsistent state due to underlying implementation of java nio library. The likelihood of hitting this issue is higher if you have added many products to a single Collector.

When this happens, customers need to manually re-add their product endpoints to the Collector. 

Resolution

This issue will be resolved in Skyline Collector v2.5. The Skyline team will add the attached “backup.sh” and restore.sh scripts to the Skyline Collector v2.5, and your product configuration will be backed-up automatically before an upgrade to v2.5 is completed. This includes if you have Auto-Upgrade enabled for your Skyline Collector.

Additionally, we recommend you backup your Skyline Collector product configuration before making any changes to the Skyline Collector, or restarting the Skyline Collector virtual appliance.

Workaround:

To work around this issue, you can download the attached “backup.sh” and “restore.sh” scripts and execute the script locally prior to upgrading the Skyline Collector appliance.

To backup the Collector configuration:

1.    Login to root for the console of the Skyline Collector VM. 
2.    Edit /etc/ssh/sshd.conf 
3.    Set “PermitRootLogin” from No to Yes
4.    Save sshd.conf and run “service ssh restart”
5.    SCP the backup.sh and restore.sh files to the Collector VM
6.    Once executed you’ll see following folder created /usr/local/skyline/ccf/config/backup
7.    in the folder, there will be file like backup-1592472664.tar number represent timestamp of datetime creation
8.    Done will be printed in console if operation was executed successfully.

To restore the Collector configuration:

1.    Login to the Collector console as user ‘root’.
2.    Recommended (not required): Stop the Collector process. To do so, login to the Collector console as user ‘root’, and execute the following command: systemctl stop ccf-collector
3.    Execute the restore.sh script referencing the backup from the backup.sh step above. Example: restore.sh /usr/local/skyline/ccf/config/backup/ backup-1592472664.tar
4.    Done will be printed in console if operation was executed successfully.
5.    If you stopped the Collector process (Step 2), restart the Collector process: systemctl start ccf-collector
6.    Login to the Skyline Collector (https://fqdn_or_ipaddress_of_Collector) and ensure that your Skyline Collector is operating properly, and all products previously added are present.