Snapshot Management in Gaia Portal

Important:

  • On Scalable Platforms (ElasticXL, Maestro, and Chassis), you must connect to the Gaia Portal of the applicable Security Group.

  • Maestro Security Groups that contain different Security Appliance models do not support Gaia Snapshot operations (in the Global Gaia Portal or Global Gaia Clish).

    To collect or import a Gaia Snapshot in such a Security Group, connect directly to Gaia Portal or Gaia Clish on each Security Appliance in the Security Group.

Before you create a snapshot image, make sure the appliance or storage destination meets the prerequisites.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Snapshot Management.

2

In the Snapshot Management section, click New.

The New Image window opens.

3

In the Name field, enter a name for the image.

Optional: In the Description field, enter a description for the image.

4

Click OK.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Snapshot Management.

2

In the Snapshot Management section, select a snapshot.

3

Check the snapshot size.

4

Make sure that there is enough free disk space in the /var/log/ partition:

  1. Connect to the command line on Gaia.

  2. Log in to the Expert mode.

  3. Run:

    df -kh | egrep "Mounted|/var/log"

    Check the value in the Avail column.

5

In Gaia Portal, select a snapshot.

6

Click Export.

The Export Image window opens.

7

Click Start Export.

Important - You must not rename the exported image. If you rename a snapshot image, it is not possible to revert to it.

To use the snapshot on another appliance, it has to be the same type of appliance you used to export the image.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Snapshot Management.

2

In the Snapshot Management section, click Import.

The Import Image window opens.

3

Click Browse to select the snapshot file for upload.

4

Click Upload.

5

Click OK.

Watch the Video

Important:

  • Reverting to the selected snapshot overwrites the existing running configuration and settings. Make sure you know credentials of the snapshot, to which you revert.

  • Before you revert to a snapshot on a new appliance, or after a reset to factory defaults, you must run the Gaia First Time Configuration Wizard and configure the same settings as before you created the snapshot.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Image Management.

2

In the Snapshot Management section, select a snapshot.

3

Click Revert.

The Revert window opens.

Important - Pay close attention to the warnings about overwriting settings, the credentials, and the reboot and the image details.

4

Click OK.

5

If you reverted a snapshot on a Security Gateway / Cluster Member, install the Security Policy.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Snapshot Management.

2

In the Snapshot Management section, select a snapshot.

3

Click Delete.

The Delete Image window opens.

4

Click OK.

To configure scheduled snapshots in Gaia Clish, see Snapshot Management in Gaia Clish - Scheduled Snapshots.

Step

Instructions

1

In the navigation tree, click Maintenance > Snapshot Management.

Refer to the Scheduled Snapshots section.

2

Click the Scheduled Snapshot Settings button.

3

Select the Enable option to configure a schedule.

(Clear the Enable option to disable the configured schedule.)

4

In the Snapshot name field, enter the name of the job.

The final name of the snapshot consists of two parts - the prefix (you enter in this field) and the time stamp (format is hard-coded):

<Prefix>_<YYYY_MM_DD__HH_mm>

  • The prefix maximum length is 15 characters.

  • The prefix can consist only of letters, numbers, or underscore "_".

  • Default prefix: snap.

5

Optional: In the Description field, enter the description of the snapshot image.

Default description : default_snapshot

6

In the Destination section, configure the location of the backup file:

  • Local LVM

    To keep the collected snapshot locally in the /var/log/CPbackup/backups/ directory.

  • SCP server

    To send the collected snapshot to an SCP server.

    Enter the IP address, User name, Password, and Upload path.

    Important:

    • First, you must follow sk164234 to configure ‎the ‎SCP ‎server as a trusted host on Gaia.‎

    • The username must have permissions to delete files on the SCP server.

  • FTP server

    To send the collected snapshot to an FTP server.

    Enter the IP address, User name, Password, and Upload path.

    Important -The username must have permissions to delete files on the FTP server.

7

In the Recurrence section, configure the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Minute Interval, Hourly) for this snapshot.

Note - This is available only for the Local LVM location.

8

Optional: In the Retention Policy section, configure the snapshot retention policy:

  • In the Maximum snapshots field, configure the maximum number of snapshot images to save.

    If the new snapshot image exceeds this number, then Gaia deletes the oldest snapshot.

  • In the Keep disk-space above (in GB) field, configure the amount of free disk space to maintain at all times.

    If the new snapshot image exceeds this number, then Gaia does not create the new snapshot image.

  • In the Minimum snapshots field, configure the minimum number of snapshot images to save.

    When Gaia deletes the old snapshots, it always keeps the specified number of snapshot images.

Important:

  • The retention policy supports only the local LVM volume.

  • The retention policy applies only to the new snapshots (and does not apply to existing snapshots).

  • If the retention policy fails to calculate the configured criteria, Gaia does not create the new snapshot image.

    In this case, Gaia does not show a notification.

    An administrator must manually check why Gaia did not create the new snapshot image.

 

The disk space limit you need to configure is:

Limit = (Available free disk space for all snapshot images) - (Free disk space to maintain)

Where:

Available free disk space for all snapshot images =

= (Output of: vgdisplay | grep Free) - 1.1*(Output of: lvs | egrep "LSize|lv_current")

For more information, see sk80260.

  1. Log in to the Expert mode.

  2. Get the free disk space in volume groups:

    [Expert@MyGaia:0]# vgdisplay | grep Free
  Free  PE / Size       4090 / 127.81 GiB
[Expert@MyGaia:0]#

  3. Get the free disk space in the "lv_current" partition:

    [Expert@MyGaia:0]# lvs | egrep "LSize|lv_current"
  LV         VG       Attr       LSize  Pool Origin Data%  Meta%  Move Log Cpy%Sync Convert
  lv_current vg_splat -wi-ao---- 40g
[Expert@MyGaia:0]#

  4. Calculate the free disk space available for snapshot images:

    Available free disk space for all snapshot images =

    = (Output of "vgdisplay" command) - 1.1*(Output of "lvs" command) =

    = (127.81) - 1.1*(40) = 83.81 GB

  5. Calculate the limit for the scheduled snapshot task:

    For example, you need to maintain 30 GB of free disk space at all times.

    Limit = (Available free disk space for all snapshot images) - (Free disk space to maintain) =

    = (83.81 GB) - (30 GB) = 53.81 GB

9

Click Apply.

The scheduled snapshot configuration appears in the Scheduled Snapshot section.

  • If a snapshot was not created, examine these files:

    /var/log/messages*

  • If a snapshot was created, but there were some issues, examine this file:

    /var/log/CPsnapshot/<Snapshot Name>_<Timestamp>