Tech Notes

Backing Up the Mobility XE Warehouse Settings

Technical Note 2129

Last Reviewed 06-Jun-2008
Applies To
Mobility XE
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Summary

This tech note describes how you can create a backup of your Mobility warehouse. You can use the backup file to restore your warehouse in the event of a primary warehouse failure.

Important: Automated backup tools cannot be used to backup the warehouse directory. If you are using an automated backup program on the machine hosting the Mobility primary and/or standby warehouse, you must exclude the warehouse (the entire Sun directory tree) from the backup.

Important: Disk cloning and/or imaging tools should only be run if the warehouse (primary or standby) has been stopped beforehand. If cloning or imaging takes place while the warehouse is running, the database may become corrupted. If the stopped warehouse is your primary warehouse, your NetMotion servers will fail over to a standby warehouse (if you have one) until the primary has been restarted and comes back online. If you do not have a standby warehouse, no clients will be allowed to connect, and the Mobility console will report an error, until the primary has been restarted and comes back online.

To stop the warehouse services, open the Control Panel, then Administrative tools, then Services. The services that must be stopped are the Sun ONE Administrative Server and the Sun ONE Directory Server. After the cloning or imaging process has completed, the services may be restarted.

Background

There are two ways to provide redundancy or backups to your Mobility XE warehouse:

Ensure real-time backups by setting up a second, standby warehouse, or
Occasionally export the warehouse settings into an LDIF file, to be imported in case of a failure.

You can use one or both of these options, depending on your configuration and needs.

Considerations

Use the following considerations to determine which method(s) to use to provide backups or redundancy to your Mobility warehouse:

If you have only one warehouse, or if you want maximum redundancy for a primary-and-standby warehouse configuration, follow the instructions below to backup your Mobility XE settings to a file. You should consider creating a script to perform backups regularly to keep the backup settings as close to current as possible.
In addition to nmwdump.exe, NetMotion strongly recommends installing a standby warehouse. The standby warehouse will be kept current, in real time, with the latest Mobility settings, and it will allow clients to continue to connect if the primary warehouse fails. Follow the instructions in Tech Note 2130 to create a standby warehouse.

The standby warehouse can also be promoted to primary if the original primary isn't coming back online, or its settings can be imported into a new primary. See Tech Note 2135 for details on Mobility XE warehouse recovery options.

Backing Up the Mobility Warehouse

NetMotion Mobility provides a command line tool called nmwdump.exe that you can use to export an LDIF file from either your original warehouse, or the standby warehouse if the primary is unavailable.

On the computer running an existing Mobility XE server, open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where you installed Mobility XE (typically, C:\Program Files\NetMotion Server).
To runnmwdump.exe and direct the output to a file, enter the following. The command is case-sensitive so be sure to type it exactly as shown.

For warehouses installed with version 6.x
```
nmwdump.exe objectclass=* nsRoleDn nssizelimit nslookthroughlimit * > [filename].LDIF
```
For warehouses installed with version 7.0 and higher
```
nmwdump.exe > [filename].LDIF
```
You can output the file to any name and location that you prefer.
If you cannot access your primary warehouse, you can export the LDIF file from the standby warehouse by using the following command to specify the IP address and port (default port is 389) of the standby warehouse. The command is case-sensitive so be sure to type it exactly as shown. Note that the standby's IP address comes immediately after the -h switch, with no space inbetween, and the standby's port number comes immediately after the -p switch, with no space inbetween.

For warehouses installed with version 6.x
```
nmwdump.exe -h[host] -p[port] -objectclass=* nsRoleDn nssizelimit nslookthroughlimit * > [filename].LDIF
```
where [host] is the IP address of your standby warehouse and [port] is the port number (default is 389).
For warehouses installed with version 7.0 and higher
```
nmwdump.exe -h[host] -p[port] > [filename].LDIF
```
where [host] is the IP address of your standby warehouse and [port] is the port number (default is 389).
You can output the file to any name and location that you prefer.

Restoring the Mobility Warehouse from a Backup

The Mobility warehouse is powered by the Sun ONE Directory Server. Use the Sun ONE Directory Server console to import the saved LDIF file. (If you have a standby warehouse, you should consider restoring your primary warehouse by exporting the LDIF file from your standby warehouse. See Tech Note 2135 for details.)

Open the Sun ONE Server Console. (On the Start menu, click Programs, Sun ONE Server Products, Sun ONE Server Console 5.2.)
On the Servers and Applications tab, expand the tree until you see your Directory Server listing. Select your server, and then click Open.
On the Configuration tab, select Schema, and then click Disable on the right panel.
On the Tasks tab, click Import from LDIF.
In the Import LDIF dialog box, enter the path to your LDIF file, or click Browse to select it.
Click OK to import the file. A status dialog box will show the progress and success or failure of your import.

Note: you may see a few errors, but the dialog should indicate a successful import. When the import has completed successfully, click Close to dismiss the Import LDIF dialog box.
On the Tasks tab, click Restart Directory Server, and then click Yes in the confirmation dialog box. Close the status dialog box once it has indicated a successful restart.
On the Configuration tab, select Schema, and then click Enable on the right panel.

Related Technical Notes

2130: Configuring a Standby Mobility XE Warehouse

2131: Moving a Mobility XE Warehouse to a New Computer

2135: Mobility XE Warehouse Recovery Options

9979: NetMotion Mobility Technical Notes

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