Automatic Backup Server Profile in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers A Dell Technical White Paper on scheduling periodic Automatic Backup Server Profile using various interfaces such as RACADM, WS-Man, iDRAC GUI, and Lifecycle Controller Dell Engineering December 2013 A Dell Technical White Paper
Revisions Date Description December 2013 1.0 Release: Initial release TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. © 2013 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell. Dell, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge are trademarks of Dell Inc.
Contents Revisions .................................................................................................................................................................................................2 Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................................. 4 1 About Automatic Backup Server Profile ............................................................
Executive Summary To prevent server downtime for long duration that is caused by corrupted firmware, incorrect configuration changes, or motherboard damage, Dell recommends you to back up the server profile and save in an external location or storage device. When the server is not functional because of the aforesaid reasons, Lifecycle Controller provides a feature to backup and export the server profile to a vFlash Card or a CIFS or NFS share, and then restore the earlier saved server profile.
1 About Automatic Backup Server Profile Lifecycle Controller allows you to create a copy of the server's profile on the vFlash SD card attached to a server, or on a CIFS or NFS share on the network. The server profile includes server component configuration and firmware installed on various components on the server. For more information about the supported components, see Supported Components available .
2 Backing up Server Profile 2.1 Using RACADM racadm systemconfig backup -f [-n ] -time
2.3 Using WS–Man The BackupImage() method of the DCIM_LCService class is used to create a backup server profile using WS–Man. The profile for LC Management Profile contains detailed information about this method. The LC Best Practices Guide available at delltechcenter/lc provides more information about scripting this command. A job ID is returned by the command and can be used to query the status of the backup command. 2.3.1 1.
2.4 1. Using the iDRAC GUI Log in to the iDRAC Web GUI by typing the IP address or hostname of the iDRAC in the address bar, and then typing appropriate information. You must have the ‘login’ and ‘server control’ privileges. 2. In the left pane, click iDRAC Settings -> Server Profile. 3. Select the location for the backup and type details such as file name and passphrase. Click Backup Now. The Backup Server Profile operation is performed and a Job ID is returned.
4. The status of the job can be monitored by going to Server Job Queue. 2.4.1 Using Lifecycle Controller This whitepaper provides additional information about Backup Server Profile using Lifecycle Controller. Lifecycle Controller Backup & Restore in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers 9 Automatic Backup Server Profile | Revision 1.0.
3 Scheduling Automatic Backup Server Profile Backup Server Profile can be scheduled to run at periodic intervals. iDRAC will periodically create a profile and store it in a selected CIFS or NFS network share, or a vFlash SD card. A vFlash SD card stores only one image at a time. Newer backup server profile replaces the image stored earlier. Network shares allow up to 50 images. New images are suffixied with the index number of an image.
Note: The -dom, -wom, or -dow options should be included in the command for the autobackup schedule if -dom option is included in the command, then -wom and -dow options should not be included. if -wom option is included in the command, then only -dow option should be included. if -dom or -wom option is non-'*', then the autoupdate is scheduled for every month. if -dom and -wom options are '*'and -dow option is non-'*', then the autobackup is scheduled for every week.
this command. A job ID is returned by the command and can be used to query the status of the SetBackupSchedule() command. 3.2.1 Usage Examples 1. Using WINRM client for Windows: a. Check whether or not the Automatic Backup feature is enabled. winrm get "cimv2/root/dcim/DCIM_LCEnumeration?InstanceID=LifecycleController.Embedded.1 #LCAttributes.1#AutoBackup" -r:https://10.94.195.40:443/wsman -u:root p:calvin -SkipCNcheck -SkipCAcheck -SkipRevocationCheck -encoding:utf-8 b i f t tt b.
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3.3 1. Using iDRAC GUI Log in to the iDRAC Web GUI by typing the IP address or hostname of the iDRAC in the address bar, and then enter appropriate information. You must have the ‘login’ and ‘server control’ privileges. 2. In the left pane, click iDRAC Settings Server Profile. Click the Automatic Backup tab. Select the Enable Automatic Backup option to enable the Automatic Backup feature. 3. Type the details such as file location, file name, and so on. 4.
5. A job ID is displayed after successfully scheduling a server profile backup job. The status of a job can be monitored by clicking Server Job Queue. 3.3.1 Using Lifecycle Controller Lifecycle Controller currently does not support configuration of automatic backup server profile settings. 15 Automatic Backup Server Profile | Revision 1.0.
4 Getting Automatic Backup Server Profile Schedule 4.1 Using RACADM racadm systemconfig getbackupscheduler 4.2 Using WS–Man The GetBackupSchedule() method used by the DCIM_LCService class is used to get the automatic backup schedule using WS–Man. The profile for the LC Management Profile contains additional information about this method. The LC Best Practices Guide provides more information about scripting this command. winrm i GetBackupSchedule http://schemas.dmtf.
4.3 1. Using iDRAC GUI Log in to the iDRAC Web GUI by typing the IP address or hostname of the iDRAC in a address bar and typing the appropriate information. You must have the ‘login’ and ‘server control’ privileges. 2. In the left pane, click iDRAC Settings Server Profile. Click the Automatic Backup tab. The currently configured settings of automatic backup is displayed. 4.3.
5 Clearing Automatic Backup Server Profile Schedule The automatic scheduling of the backup server profile operation can be disabled and the settings are cleared. 5.1 Using RACADM racadm systemconfig clearbackupscheduler 5.2 Using WS–Man The ClearBackupSchedule() method used by the DCIM_LCService class is used to configure automatic backup schedule using WS–MAN. The profile for the LC Management Profile contains additional information about this method.
5.4 Using Lifecycle Controller Lifecycle Controller currently does not support configuring or viewing of automatic backup server profile settings. Learn More For more information about Backup Server Profile, see Lifecycle Controller Backup & Restore in Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation Servers For more information about Dell’s enterprise-class servers of Dell, click Dell.com/PowerEdge. About the Authors This whitepaper has been co-authored by Ajay Shenoy and Anis A.