Maintenance and Data Collection › How to Back Up and Restore Data

How to Back Up and Restore Data

Use the procedures in this section to back up and restore the CA Network Flow Analysis databases. You can back up CA Network Flow Analysis databases manually, as described in this section, or back up the databases automatically. To back up databases automatically, add the appropriate directories to your regular backup routine, such as:

• Customized configuration files: Custom locations (Any server)
• Customized data_retention database: <install_path>\MySql51\data\data_retention (Stand-alone or Harvester servers)
• Enterprise Overview data and NFA console configuration data: <install_path>\MySql51\data\reporter (NFA console server)
• Historical (15-Minute) Data on a stand-alone server or a two-tier distributed deployment: <install_path>\Netflow\datafiles\ReaperArchive15 (Stand-alone or Harvester server)
• Historical (15-Minute) Data on a three-tier distributed deployment: <install_path>\MySql51\data\nqrptr (DSA server)
• Harvester Configuration Data: <install_path>\mysql51\data\harvester (Stand-alone or Harvester server)
• Poller Data: <install_path>\mysql51\data\poller (Stand-alone or Harvester server)

Important:

• Run backups concurrently. If you restore data from backups that have different timestamps, problems can result. Ensure that your backed-up data files are timestamped with the same hour.
• Store backups to a remote location to guard against the possibility of a hardware or operating system failure on the main server. For example, back up the databases to an administrative share or mapped network drive.

Consider the general recommendations for backup frequency.

Before you back up large databases, consider how much disk space the backups will require and the lifespan of the files you are backing up. You probably will not want to back up the raw flow data (.NFA files) or back up the entire datafiles directory.

More information:

Back Up the Databases

Restore the Databases