Backup and Restore

Overview

The primary use cases for backup/restore are:

• Disaster recovery
• Debugging
• Restoring clusters to a consistent state

Currently, InfluxEnterprise supports backups and restores for all data in the cluster; a single database; a single database and retention policy; and a single shard.

Note: Backups are not interchangeable between InfluxDB OSS and InfluxEnterprise. You cannot restore an OSS backup to an InfluxEnterprise data node, nor can you restore an InfluxEnterprise backup to an OSS instance.

If you are working with InfluxDB OSS, please see the Backup and Restore documentation in the InfluxDB OSS documentation.

Backup

A backup creates a copy of the metastore and shard data at that point in time and stores the copy in the specified directory. All backups also include a manifest, a JSON file describing what was collected during the backup. The filenames reflect the UTC timestamp of when the backup was created, for example:

• Metastore backup: 20060102T150405Z.meta
• Shard data backup: 20060102T150405Z.<shard_id>.tar.gz
• Manifest: 20060102T150405Z.manifest

Backups can be full (using the -full flag) or incremental, and they are incremental by default. Incremental backups create a copy of the metastore and shard data that have changed since the last incremental backup. If there are no existing incremental backups, the system automatically performs a complete backup.

Restoring a -full backup and restoring an incremental backup require different syntax. To prevent issues with restore, keep -full backups and incremental backups in separate directories.

Syntax

influxd-ctl [global-options] backup [backup-options] <path-to-backup-directory>

Global options:

Please see the influxd-ctl documentation for a complete list of the global influxd-ctl options.

Backup options:

• -db <string>: the name of the single database to back up
• -from <TCP-address>: the data node TCP address to prefer when backing up
• -full: perform a full backup
• -rp <string>: the name of the single retention policy to back up (must specify -db with -rp)
• -shard <unit>: the ID of the single shard to back up

influxd-ctl backup -db myfirstdb ./myfirstdb-allrp-backup

influxd-ctl backup -db myfirstdb -rp autogen ./myfirstdb-autogen-backup

influxd-ctl backup -db myfirstdb ./myfirstdb-allrp-backup

influxd-ctl backup -db myfirstdb ./myfirstdb-allrp-backup

Examples

Example 1: Perform an incremental backup

Perform an incremental backup into the current directory with the command below. If there are any existing backups the current directory, the system performs an incremental backup. If there aren’t any existing backups in the current directory, the system performs a backup of all data in InfluxDB.

influxd-ctl backup .

Output:

$ influxd-ctl backup .
Backing up meta data... Done. 421 bytes transferred
Backing up node 7ba671c7644b:8088, db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 4... Done. Backed up in 903.539567ms, 307712 bytes transferred
Backing up node bf5a5f73bad8:8088, db _internal, rp monitor, shard 1... Done. Backed up in 138.694402ms, 53760 bytes transferred
Backing up node 9bf0fa0c302a:8088, db _internal, rp monitor, shard 2... Done. Backed up in 101.791148ms, 40448 bytes transferred
Backing up node 7ba671c7644b:8088, db _internal, rp monitor, shard 3... Done. Backed up in 144.477159ms, 39424 bytes transferred
Backed up to . in 1.293710883s, transferred 441765 bytes
$ ls
20160803T222310Z.manifest  20160803T222310Z.s1.tar.gz  20160803T222310Z.s3.tar.gz
20160803T222310Z.meta      20160803T222310Z.s2.tar.gz  20160803T222310Z.s4.tar.gz

Example 2: Perform a full backup

Perform a full backup into a specific directory with the command below. The directory must already exist.

influxd-ctl backup -full <path-to-backup-directory>

Output:

$ influxd-ctl backup -full backup_dir
Backing up meta data... Done. 481 bytes transferred
Backing up node <hostname>:8088, db _internal, rp monitor, shard 1... Done. Backed up in 33.207375ms, 238080 bytes transferred
Backing up node <hostname>:8088, db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 2... Done. Backed up in 15.184391ms, 95232 bytes transferred
Backed up to backup_dir in 51.388233ms, transferred 333793 bytes
~# ls backup_dir
20170130T184058Z.manifest
20170130T184058Z.meta
20170130T184058Z.s1.tar.gz
20170130T184058Z.s2.tar.gz

Example 3: Perform an incremental backup on a single database

Point at a remote meta server and back up only one database into a given directory (the directory must already exist):

influxd-ctl -bind <metahost>:8091 backup -db <db-name> <path-to-backup-directory>

Output:

$ influxd-ctl -bind 2a1b7a338184:8091 backup -db telegraf ./telegrafbackup
Backing up meta data... Done. 318 bytes transferred
Backing up node 7ba671c7644b:8088, db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 4... Done. Backed up in 997.168449ms, 399872 bytes transferred
Backed up to ./telegrafbackup in 1.002358077s, transferred 400190 bytes
$ ls ./telegrafbackup
20160803T222811Z.manifest  20160803T222811Z.meta  20160803T222811Z.s4.tar.gz

Restore

Restore a backup to an existing cluster or a new cluster. By default, a restore writes to databases using the backed-up data’s replication factor. An alternate replication factor can be specified with the -newrf flag when restoring a single database. Restore supports both -full backups and incremental backups; the syntax for a restore differs depending on the backup type.

Restores from an existing cluster to a new cluster

Restores from an existing cluster to a new cluster restore the existing cluster’s users, roles, databases, and continuous queries to the new cluster.

They do not restore Kapacitor subscriptions. In addition, restores to a new cluster drop any data in the new cluster’s _internal database and begin writing to that database anew. The restore does not write the existing cluster’s _internal database to the new cluster.

Syntax for a restore from an incremental backup

Use the syntax below to restore an incremental backup to a new cluster or an existing cluster. Note that the existing cluster must contain no data in the affected databases.* Performing a restore from an incremental backup requires the path to the incremental backup’s directory.

influxd-ctl [global-options] restore [restore-options] <path-to-backup-directory>

* The existing cluster can have data in the _internal database, the database that the system creates by default. The system automatically drops the _internal database when it performs a complete restore.

Global options:

Please see the influxd-ctl documentation for a complete list of the global influxd-ctl options.

Restore options:

• -db <string>: the name of the single database to restore
• -list: shows the contents of the backup
• -newdb <string>: the name of the new database to restore to (must specify with -db)
• -newrf <int>: the new replication factor to restore to (this is capped to the number of data nodes in the cluster)
• -newrp <string>: the name of the new retention policy to restore to (must specify with -rp)
• -rp <string>: the name of the single retention policy to restore
• -shard <unit>: the shard ID to restore

Syntax for a restore from a full backup

Use the syntax below to restore a backup that you made with the -full flag. Restore the -full backup to a new cluster or an existing cluster. Note that the existing cluster must contain no data in the affected databases.* Performing a restore from a -full backup requires the -full flag and the path to the full backup’s manifest file.

influxd-ctl [global-options] restore [options] -full <path-to-manifest-file>

* The existing cluster can have data in the _internal database, the database that the system creates by default. The system automatically drops the _internal database when it performs a complete restore.

Global options:

Please see the influxd-ctl documentation for a complete list of the global influxd-ctl options.

Restore options:

• -db <string>: the name of the single database to restore
• -list: shows the contents of the backup
• -newdb <string>: the name of the new database to restore to (must specify with -db)
• -newrf <int>: the new replication factor to restore to (this is capped to the number of data nodes in the cluster)
• -newrp <string>: the name of the new retention policy to restore to (must specify with -rp)
• -rp <string>: the name of the single retention policy to restore
• -shard <unit>: the shard ID to restore

Examples

Example 1: Perform a restore from an incremental backup

influxd-ctl restore <path-to-backup-directory>

Output:

$ influxd-ctl restore my-incremental-backup/
Using backup directory: my-incremental-backup/
Using meta backup: 20170130T231333Z.meta
Restoring meta data... Done. Restored in 21.373019ms, 1 shards mapped
Restoring db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 2 to shard 2...
Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Done. Restored shard 2 into shard 2 in 61.046571ms, 588800 bytes transferred
Restored from my-incremental-backup/ in 83.892591ms, transferred 588800 bytes

Example 2: Perform a restore from a -full backup

influxd-ctl restore -full <path-to-manifest-file>

Output:

$ influxd-ctl restore -full my-full-backup/20170131T020341Z.manifest
Using manifest: my-full-backup/20170131T020341Z.manifest
Restoring meta data... Done. Restored in 9.585639ms, 1 shards mapped
Restoring db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 2 to shard 2...
Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Done. Restored shard 2 into shard 2 in 48.095082ms, 569344 bytes transferred
Restored from my-full-backup in 58.58301ms, transferred 569344 bytes

Example 3: Perform a restore from an incremental backup for a single database and give the database a new name

influxd-ctl restore -db <src> -newdb <dest> <path-to-backup-directory>

Output:

$ influxd-ctl restore -db telegraf -newdb restored_telegraf my-incremental-backup/
Using backup directory: my-incremental-backup/
Using meta backup: 20170130T231333Z.meta
Restoring meta data... Done. Restored in 8.119655ms, 1 shards mapped
Restoring db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 2 to shard 4...
Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Done. Restored shard 2 into shard 4 in 57.89687ms, 588800 bytes transferred
Restored from my-incremental-backup/ in 66.715524ms, transferred 588800 bytes

Example 4: Perform a restore from an incremental backup for a database and merge that database into an existing database

Your telegraf database was mistakenly dropped, but you have a recent backup so you’ve only lost a small amount of data.

If Telegraf is still running, it will recreate the telegraf database shortly after the database is dropped. You might try to directly restore your telegraf backup just to find that you can’t restore:

$ influxd-ctl restore -db telegraf my-incremental-backup/
Using backup directory: my-incremental-backup/
Using meta backup: 20170130T231333Z.meta
Restoring meta data... Error.
restore: operation exited with error: problem setting snapshot: database already exists

To work around this, you can restore your telegraf backup into a new database by specifying the -db flag for the source and the -newdb flag for the new destination:

$ influxd-ctl restore -db telegraf -newdb restored_telegraf my-incremental-backup/
Using backup directory: my-incremental-backup/
Using meta backup: 20170130T231333Z.meta
Restoring meta data... Done. Restored in 19.915242ms, 1 shards mapped
Restoring db telegraf, rp autogen, shard 2 to shard 7...
Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Copying data to <hostname>:8088... Done. Restored shard 2 into shard 7 in 36.417682ms, 588800 bytes transferred
Restored from my-incremental-backup/ in 56.623615ms, transferred 588800 bytes

Then, in the influx client, use an INTO query to copy the data from the new database into the existing telegraf database:

$ influx
> USE restored_telegraf
Using database restored_telegraf
> SELECT * INTO telegraf..:MEASUREMENT FROM /.*/ GROUP BY *
name: result
------------
time                  written
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z  471

Common Issues with Restore

Issue 1: Restore writes information not part of the original backup

If a restore from an incremental backup does not limit the restore to the same database, retention policy, and shard specified by the backup command, the restore may appear to restore information that was not part of the original backup. Backups consist of a shard data backup and a metastore backup. The shard data backup contains the actual time series data: the measurements, tags, fields, and so on. The metastore backup contains user information, database names, retention policy names, shard metadata, continuous queries, and subscriptions.

When the system creates a backup, the backup includes:

• the relevant shard data determined by the specified backup options
• all of the metastore information in the cluster regardless of the specified backup options

Because a backup always includes the complete metastore information, a restore that doesn’t include the same options specified by the backup command may appear to restore data that were not targeted by the original backup. The unintended data, however, include only the metastore information, not the shard data associated with that metastore information.

Issue 2: Restore a backup created prior to version 1.2.0

InfluxEnterprise introduced incremental backups in version 1.2.0. To restore a backup created prior to version 1.2.0, be sure to follow the syntax for restoring from a full backup.