Backup and Restore
GBAR - Graph Backup and Restore
GBAR (Graph Backup And Restore), is an integrated tool for backing up and restoring the data and data dictionary (schema, loading jobs, and queries) of a single TigerGraph node. In Backup mode, it packs TigerGraph data and configuration information in a single file onto disk or a remote AWS S3 bucket. Multiple backup files can be archived. Later, you can use the Restore mode to rollback the system to any backup point. This tool can also be integrated easily with Linux cron to perform periodic backup jobs.
Introduction and Syntax
The current version of GBAR is intended for restoring the same machine that was backed up. For help with cloning a database (i.e., backing up machine A and restoring the database to machine B), please contact support@tigergraph.com .
The -y option forces GBAR to skip interactive prompt questions by selecting the default answer. There is currently one interactive question:
At the start of restore, GBAR will always ask if it is okay to stop and reset the TigerGraph services: (y/N)? The default answer is yes.
Config
GBAR Config must be run before using GBAR backup/restore functionality.
Note:
For S3 configuration, the AWS access key and secret are not provided, then GBAR will use the attached IAM role.
You can specify the number of parallel processes for backup and restore.
You must provide username and password using GSQL_USERNAME and GSQL_PASSWORD environment variables.
Backup
A backup archive is stored as several files in a folder, rather than as a single file. The backup_tag acts like a filename prefix for the archive filename. The full name of the backup archive will be <backup_tag>-<timestamp>, which is a subfolder of the backup repository. If System.Backup.Local.Enable is true, the folder is a local folder on every node in a cluster, to avoid massive data moving across nodes in a cluster. If System.Backup.S3.Enable is true, every node will upload data located on the node to the s3 repository. Therefore, every node in a cluster needs access to Amazon S3. If IAM policy is used for authentication, every node in the cluster needs to be attached with the IAM policy.
GBAR Backup performs a live backup, meaning that normal operations may continue while backup is in progress. When GBAR backup starts, gbar will check loading after gbar backup started, if loading is running, it will pause loading for 1 min, and then continue backup. (u can specify the loading pausing interval by env PAUSE_LOADING). And then, it sends a request to the admin server , which then requests the GPE and GSE to create snapshots of their data. Per the request, the GPE and GSE store their data under GBAR’s own working directory. GBAR also directly contacts the Dictionary and obtains a dump of its system configuration information. In addition, GBAR gathers the TigerGraph system version and customized information including user defined functions, token functions, schema layouts and user-uploaded icons. Then, GBAR compresses each of these data and configuration information files in tgz format and stores them in the <backup_tag>-<timestamp> subfolder on each node. As the last step, GBAR copies that file to local storage or AWS S3, according to the Config settings, and removes all temporary files generated during backup.
The current version of GBAR Backup takes snapshots quickly to make it very likely that all the components (GPE, GSE, and Dictionary) are in a consistent state, but it does not fully guarantee consistency. GBAR will check loading after GBAR backup started, if loading is running, it will pause loading for 1 min, and then continue backup.
Backup does not save input message queues for REST++ or Kafka.
List Backup Files
This command lists all generated backup files in the storage place configured by the user. For each file, it shows the file’s full tag, file’s size in human readable format, and it's creation time.
Restore
Restore is an offline operation, requiring the data services to be temporarily shut down. The user must specific the full archive name ( <backup_tag>-<timestamp> ) to be restored. When GBAR restore begins, it first searches for a backup archive exactly matching the archive_name supplied in the command line. Then it decompresses the backup files to a working directory. Next, GBAR will compare the TigerGraph system version in the backup archive with the current system's version, to make sure that backup archive is compatible with that current system. It will then shut down the TigerGraph servers (GSE, RESTPP, etc.) temporarily. Then, GBAR makes a copy of the current graph data, as a precaution. Next, GBAR copies the backup graph data into the GPE and GSE and notifies the Dictionary to load the configuration data. Also, gbar will notify the GST to load backup user data and copy the backup user defined token/functions to the right location. When these actions are all done, GBAR will restart the TigerGraph servers.
Note: GBAR restore does not estimate the the uncompressed data size and check whether there is sufficient disk space.
The primary purpose of GBAR is to save snapshots of the data configuration of a TigerGraph system, so that in the future the same system can be rolled back (restored) to one of the saved states. A key assumption is that Backup and Restore are performed on the same machine, and that the file structure of the TigerGraph software has not changed. Specific requirements are listed below.
Restore Requirements and Limitations
Restore is supported if the TigerGraph system has had only minor version updates since the backup.
TigerGraph version numbers have the format X.Y[.Z], where X is the major version number and Y is the minor version number.
Restore is supported if the backup archive and the current system have the same major version number AND the current system has a minor version number that is greater than or equal to the backup archive minor version number.
Backup archives from a 0.8.x system cannot be Restored to a 1.x system.
Examples:
Backup archive's system version
current system version
Restore is allowed?
0.8
1.0
NO - Major versions differ
1.1
1.1
YES - Major and minor versions are the same
1.1
1.2
YES - Major versions are the same; current minor version > archived minor version
1.1
1.0
NO - Major versions are the same; current minor version < archived minor version
Restore needs enough free space to accommodate both the old gstore and the gstore to be restored.
GBAR Detailed Example
The following example describes a real example, to show the actual commands, the expected output, and the amount of time and disk space used, for a given set of graph data. For this example, and Amazon EC2 instance was used, with the following specifications:
Single instance with 32 vCPU + 244GB memory + 2TB HDD.
Naturally, backup and restore time will vary depending on the hardware used.
GBAR Backup Operational Details
To run a daily backup, we tell GBAR to backup with the tag name daily .
The total backup process took about 31 minutes, and the generated archive is about 49 GB. Dumping the GPE + GSE data to disk took 12 minutes. Compressing the files took another 20 minutes.
GBAR Restore Operational Details
To restore from a backup archive, a full archive name needs to be provided, such as daily-20180607232159 . By default, restore will ask the user to approve to continue. If you want to pre-approve these actions, use the "-y" option. GBAR will make the default choice for you.
For our test, GBAR restore took about 23 minutes. Most of the time (20 minutes) was spent decompressing the backup archive.
Note that after the restore is done, GBAR informs you were the pre-restore graph data (gstore) has been saved. After you have verified that the restore was successful, you may want to delete the old gstore files to free up disk space.
Performance Summary of Example
GStore size | Backup file size | Backup time | Restore time |
219GB | 49GB | 31 mins | 23 mins |
Last updated