Indeni can be set to automatically collect backup data across multi-vendor equipment. Typically, you want to automate network device configuration backup for a group of devices. Indeni backups are fully automated. You can define a recurring task, which lets you set up a schedule and target devices. The configuration backup can be scheduled hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and also on demand. Indeni uses securely managed credentials and secure transports to access each device and retrieve configurations to a central data store.

Creating a Device Backup

Open the Devices tab from the left, select the Backup option to open the backup configuration wizard then perform the following steps:

1. Create your backup by clicking on the + sign.
2. Provide a meaningful name for your backup. The name cannot exceed 128 characters.
3. Choose the frequency (Daily, Weekly, Monthly).
4. Select the devices you wish to backup. In GA 6.4.9 and up, you will receive an error message if you select a device where backup is not supported.
5. Select Labels for the the group of devices you wish to backup. You can also perform the ‘and‘ operator by selecting Devices along with Labels.
6. Click on the blue Save button to save the configuration.

This completes the backup configuration task and the configuration will be listed under the Backup List. On point-click, it displays the schedule and the configuration on the right panel.

Please Note: You cannot schedule a backup for the same device at the same time even though the device may be in two different labels. In this case, one of the scheduled backup would fail.

Modifying the Backup Configuration

From the Backup List, mouse over to the backup configuration you want to modify. To change the name of the backup configuration, press the pencil icon and change the backup list name. Modify the backup configuration information (schedule, devices or labels) and click on save, to save your changes.

Configuring the Backup Files

Device configurations can be easily retrieved in case of emergencies. Open the Devices tab from the left, select the Backup option to open the backup configuration wizard. Choose Output to obtain the list of backup files.

Select the job you want to review from the backup. You can store up to 10 versions of backups. The job outputs are listed in chronological order. To retrieve the backup file, you can select the version you want to retrieve, click on the file icon associated with the device. The system will prepare the file by compressing the backup file and the file will be downloaded to your computer.

There are three possible outcomes of the backup:

•  Indicates there was a successful backup.
•  Indicates that the backup failed.
•  Indicates that the backup is pending, likely in a transient state.

A backup job may consist of multiple devices. If backup fails for one of the devices, the job is considered a “partial success” (yellow). If backup passes for all devices, the job is considered a “success” (green). If backup fails for all devices, the job has “failed” (red), in which case, manual intervention may be required.

Please Note: In GA 6.4.9 and up, the system will automatically retry backup three time. The system will wait for 10 minutes between each retry.

Scroll down to select the version you want to retrieve. All outputs contain the timestamps when the backup was run along with the statuses.

Please Note: The system does not provide issue notifications should a backup fail at this time, therefore the users are encouraged to check the Backup tab regularly.

To remove a backup configuration

From the Backup List, mouse over to the backup configuration you want to remove, click X. The configuration along with the backup files will be removed from the system.

Device Backup Success and Failure Notifications

Please Note: In GA 7.8 and up, in addition to the Dashboard based Backup reports, you have the option to send a daily digest email for all your backup jobs. 

Your backup jobs can fail sometimes. When a failure occurs, you want to be notified so you can investigate when there is a problem. The issue is that at times, the backup wasn’t successful but you haven’t received a failure notification. To add a layer of protection to your automated backup routine, success and failure notifications will be sent daily. 

To enable the Device Backup Daily Digest feature, navigate to Settings > Application.

Enable “Device Backup Daily Digest”. Provide a list of email addresses of the recipients. The system will send automated email notifications every day at midnight. The email will identify if the backup jobs are successful, or a backup failure occurs. 

Sample Report:

Retrieving the Backup Files

The other option to retrieve the configuration file is to select the Device(s), located under  the Devices icon in the left menu pane.

Check off the device you want the backup for and look to the right, under Device Summary. You can only select one device per backup at this time. If there was a last successful backup associated with that device, you will see a check mark next to LAST BACKUP. In this case, a Check Point VSX had a successful backup, which has a file icon with start and end dates noted for your convenience. You can mouseover to the file icon and click to download the backup file.

Managing the Device Backup Datastore

If you are running low on disk space on your indeni server, consider increasing disk space or reduce the number of backups per device (the default is 10). To verify if the disk space is being taken up by device backup, check /usr/share/indeni-services/backup/data/sources. As a temporary measure, consider reducing the number of revision and let the backup service purge the older version of backup files. The parameters are in /usr/share/indeni-services/backup/conf/application.conf

  cleanup {
    auto-cleanup-interval = 24 hours
    successful-keep-count = 10
    unsuccessful-keep-count = 10
  }

Reduce unsuccessful-keep-count to 1 and lower the value of successful-keep-count. Change auto-cleanup-interval to 6 hours in order to get the cleanup to run sooner.

Remember to backup the configuration file before you make changes and restart the backup when done.

sudo service indeni-backup restart

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