Relax-and-Recover

Relax-and-Recover concept

The Workflow System

Rear is built as a modular framework. A call of rear command will invoke the following general workflow:

  1. Configuration: Collect system information to assemble a correct configuration (default, arch, OS, OS_ARCH, OS_VER, site, local). See the output of rear dump for an example. read ‘default.conf’ first and ‘site.conf’, ‘local.conf’ last.

  2. Create work area in ‘/tmp/rear.$$/’ and start logging to ‘/var/log/rear/rear-hostname.log’

  3. Run the workflow script for the specified command: ‘/usr/share/rear/lib/command-workflow.sh’

  4. Cleanup work area

Workflow Make Rescue Media

The application will have the following general workflow which is represented by appropriately named scripts in various subdirectories:

  1. Prep: Prepare the build area by copying a skeleton filesystem layout. This can also come from various sources (FS layout for arch, OS, OS_VER, Backup-SW, Output, …)

  2. Save layout: Analyse the system to create the ‘/var/lib/rear/layout’ data

  3. Analyse (Rescue): Analyse the system to create the rescue system (network, binary dependancies, …)

  4. Build: Build the rescue image by copying together everything required

  5. Pack: Package the kernel and initrd image together

  6. Backup: (Optionally) run the backup sowftware to create a current backup

  7. Output: Copy / Install the rescue system (kernel+initrd+(optionally) backups) into the target environemnt (e.g. PXE boot, write on tape, write on CD/DVD)

  8. Cleanup: Cleanup the build area from temporary files

The configuration must define the BACKUP and OUTPUT methods. Valid choices are:

|NAME        | TYPE    | Description                              | Implement in Phase
+------------+---------+------------------------------------------+-------------------
|NETFS       | BACKUP  | Copy files to NFS, CIFS share            | OK
|TAPE        | BACKUP  | Copy files to tape(s)                    | OK
|CDROM       | BACKUP  | Copy files to ISO image                  | OK
|NSR         | BACKUP  | Use Legato Networker                     | OK
|TSM         | BACKUP  | Use Tivoli Storage Manager               | OK
|DP          | BACKUP  | Use HP Data Protector                    | OK
|BACULA      | BACKUP  | Use opensource Bacula                    | OK
|FDRUPSTREAM | BACKUP  | Use FDR/Upstream                         | OK
|
|            |         |                                          |
|ISO         | OUTPUT  | Write result to ISO9660 image            | OK
|CDROM       | OUTPUT  | Write result to CD/DVD                   | on request
|OBDR        | OUTPUT  | Create OBDR Tape                         | OK
|PXE         | OUTPUT  | Create PXE bootable files on TFTP server | OK
|USB         | OUTPUT  | Create bootable USB device               | OK

Workflow Recovery

The result of the analysis is written into configuration files under ‘/var/lib/rear/recovery/’. This directory is copied together with the other Rear directories onto the rescue system where the same framework runs a different workflow the recovery workflow.

The recovery workflow is triggered by the fact that the root filesystem is mounted in a ram disk or tmpfs. Alternatively a demo recovery workflow can be started manually. This will simply recover all data into a subdirectory and not touch the hard disks.

The recovery workflow consists of these parts (identically named modules are indeed the same):

  1. Config: By utilizing the same configuration module, the same configuration variable are available for the recovery, too. This makes writing pairs of backup/restore modules much easier.

  2. Verify: Verify the integrity and sanity of the recovery data and check the hardware found to determine, wether a recovery will be likely to suceed. If not, then we abort the workflow so as not to touch the hard disks if we don’t believe that we would manage to successfully recover the system on this hardware.

  3. Recreate: Recreate the FS layout (partitioning, LVM, raid, filesystems, …) and mount it under /mnt/local

  4. Restore: Restore files and directories from the backup to ‘/mnt/local/’. This module is the analog to the Backup module

  5. Finalize: Install boot loader, finalize system, dump recovery log onto ‘/var/log/rear/’ in the recovered system.

FS layout

Rear tries to be as much LSB complient as possible. Therefore rear will be installed into the usual locations:

Layout of /usr/share/rear/conf

Layout of /etc/rear

Layout of /var/lib/rear

Layout of /usr/share/rear

Inter-module communication

The various stages and modules communicate via standarized environment variables:

|NAME             |TYPE         |Descriptions                         |Example
+-----------------+-------------+-------------------------------------+-------------------------
|CONFIG_DIR       |STRING (RO)  |Configuration dir                    |'/etc/rear/'
|SHARE_DIR        |STRING (RO)  |Shared data dir                      |'/usr/share/rear/'
|BUILD_DIR        |STRING (RO)  |Build directory                      |'/tmp/rear.$$/'
|ROOTFS_DIR       |STRING (RO)  |Root FS directory for rescue system  |'/tmp/rear.$$/initrd/'
|PROGS            |LIST         |Program files to copy                |bash ip route grep ls ...
|MODULES          |LIST         |Modules to copy                      |af_unix e1000 ide-cd ...
|COPY_AS_IS       |LIST         |Files (with path) to copy as-is      |'/etc/localtime' ...
|....

RO means that the framework manages this variable and modules and methods shouldn’t change it.

Config

Small user config in /etc/rear/local.conf for personal settings.

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