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Manual Chapter : Manage BIG-IQ UCS Backup and Restore

Applies To:

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BIG-IQ Centralized Management

  • 8.2.0, 8.1.0
Manual Chapter

Manage BIG-IQ UCS Backup and Restore

What is the difference between a UCS backup and a snapshot?

The BIG-IQ provides a couple different ways that you can make copies of the configuration information that it creates and uses. To understand how this works, the first thing you need to know is the difference between a UCS backup and a snapshot.
  • UCS backup
    : A compressed user configuration set (UCS) file contains all of the information required to restore a device's configuration. You can create and restore UCS backups for both BIG-IP and BIG-IQ.
  • Snapshot
    : A snapshot is a point in time copy. BIG-IQ uses two types of snapshots: one for the DCD cluster, and the other for the settings you specify for the configuration objects (such as virtual servers or ASM policies on your managed devices.
Use this table to find the backup content that pertains to the task you need to perform.
For this type of backup task
Look here for the documentation
DCD snapshots back up the alert, event, and analytics data collected by your DCDs.
Refer to
Managing Data Collection Device Snapshots
 in the
Setting up and Configuring a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Solution
 article on
support.f5.com
 for details.
Configuration snapshots back up the settings for configuration objects that reside on your managed BIG-IP devices.
Refer to
Managing Configuration Object Snapshots
 in the
Managing BIG-IP Devices from BIG-IQ
article on
support.f5.com
 for details.
To back up the entire configuration of a managed BIG-IP device, you create a compressed user configuration set (UCS).
Refer to
Managing BIG-IP UCS Backup and Restore
 in the
Managing BIG-IP Devices from BIG-IQ
article on
support.f5.com
 for details.
To back up the entire configuration of a BIG-IQ system, you create a compressed user configuration set (UCS).
Refer to
Managing BIG-IQ UCS Backup and Restore
 in the
Setting up and Configuring a BIG-IQ Centralized Management Solution
article on
support.f5.com
 for details.

What is included in a BIG-IQ backup UCS file?

The configuration details of the BIG-IQ system are kept in a compressed user configuration set (UCS) file. The UCS file has all of the information you need to restore a BIG-IQ configuration, including:
  • System-specific configuration files
  • License
  • User account and password information
  • SSL certificates and keys
  • Master Key

Schedule BIG-IQ UCS file backups

Back up the BIG-IQ UCS file on a regular basis to be sure you have a current copy of its configuration in case you ever have to perform a system recovery.
If your BIG-IQ system is part of an high availability (HA) configuration, create a backup schedule only for the active BIG-IQ. Backing up the standby BIG-IQ in a HA configuration is not supported.
  1. On the left, click
    BACKUP & RESTORE
    Backup Schedules
    .
  2. the
    Schedule Backup
     button.
  3. Type a name to identify this backup, and an optional description for it.
  4. If you want to include the SSL private keys in the backup file, select the
    Include Private Keys
     check box.
    If you save a copy of the SSL private key, you can reinstall it if the original one becomes corrupt.
  5. To encrypt the backup file, select the
    Encrypt Backup Files
     check box, and type and verify the passphrase.
  6. For the
    Backup Frequency
     setting, select
    Daily
    ,
    Weekly
    , or
    Monthly
     for the
    Schedule Backup
     to specify how often backups are created. Based on the frequency, you can then specify the days and time you want to create the backups..
  7. For the
    Start Date
     setting, click the calendar and select the date you want BIG-IQ to start creating backups.
  8. Use the
    Local Retention Policy
     setting to specify how long you want to keep the backup file on BIG-IQ.
    • To delete the copies of the backup after a certain number of days, select
      Delete local backup copy
       and specify the number of days to keep the backup copy before deleting it.
    • To keep copies of the backups indefinitely, select
      Never Delete
      .
  9. To keep copies of backups remotely on a SCP or SFTP server:
    1. For the
      Archive
       setting, select the
      Store archive copy of backup
       check box.
    2. For the
      Location
       setting, select
      SCP
       or
      SFTP
      .
    3. In the
      IP Address
      field, type the IP address of the remote server where you want to store the archives.
    4. In the
      User Name
       and
      Password
       fields, type the credentials to access this server.
    5. In the
      Directory
       field, type the name of the directory where you want to store the archives on the remote server.
    Storing a backup remotely means you can restore data to a BIG-IP device even if you can't access the archive in the BIG-IQ system directory.
    If you configure BIG-IQ to save backup files to a remote server and that server is unavailable during a scheduled backup, BIG-IQ ignores the local retention policy and retains the local copy of the backup file. This ensures that a backup is always available. To remove those local backups, you must delete them.
    Archived copies of backups are kept permanently on the remote server you specify. If you want to clear space on the remote server, you have to manually delete the backups.
  10. Click the
    Save & Close
     button at the bottom of the screen to save your changes.

Create an immediate backup of the current BIG-IQ UCS file

It's a good idea to create a BIG-IQ backup before you make any major configuration changes, or perform an upgrade.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    Devices
    .
  2. On the left, click
    BACKUP & RESTORE
    Backup Schedules
    .
  3. Click the
    Back Up Now
     button.
  4. Type a name to identify this backup, and an optional description for it.
  5. If you want to include the SSL private keys in the backup file, select the
    Include Private Keys
     check box.
    If you save a copy of the SSL private key, you can reinstall it if the original one becomes corrupt.
  6. To encrypt the backup file, select the
    Encrypt Backup Files
     check box, and type and verify the passphrase.
  7. Use the
    Local Retention Policy
     setting to specify how long you want to keep the backup file on BIG-IQ.
    • To delete the copies of the backup after a certain number of days, select
      Delete local backup copy
       and specify the number of days to keep the backup copy before deleting it.
    • To keep copies of the backups indefinitely, select
      Never Delete
      .
  8. To keep copies of backups remotely on a SCP or SFTP server:
    1. For the
      Archive
       setting, select the
      Store archive copy of backup
       check box.
    2. For the
      Location
       setting, select
      SCP
       or
      SFTP
      .
    3. In the
      IP Address
      field, type the IP address of the remote server where you want to store the archives.
    4. In the
      User Name
       and
      Password
       fields, type the credentials to access this server.
    5. In the
      Directory
       field, type the name of the directory where you want to store the archives on the remote server.
    Storing a backup remotely means you can restore data to a BIG-IP device even if you can't access the archive in the BIG-IQ system directory.
    If you configure BIG-IQ to save backup files to a remote server and that server is unavailable during a scheduled backup, BIG-IQ ignores the local retention policy and retains the local copy of the backup file. This ensures that a backup is always available. To remove those local backups, you must delete them.
    Archived copies of backups are kept permanently on the remote server you specify. If you want to clear space on the remote server, you have to manually delete the backups.
  9. Click the
    Start
     button at the bottom of the screen.
When UCS backup file is complete, you can restore the BIG-IQ system.

Restore BIG-IQ from the UCS backup file

It's important to back up your BIG-IQ system on a regular basis so in the event you have an issue, you can restore your BIG-IQ and return to managing your BIG-IP devices with limited interruption.
Use your BIG-IQ UCS backup to restore your BIG-IQ configuration.
Restore only the active BIG-IQ in a high availability (HA) configuration.
To recover the standby BIG-IQ in an HA configuration, synchronize the configuration from the active BIG-IQ after you restore it. In the unlikely event that the active and standby BIG-IQ systems fail, use the backup to restore the active BIG-IQ and then synchronize with the standby BIG-IQ.
  1. At the top of the screen, click
    System
    .
  2. On the left, click
    BACK UP & RESTORE
    Backup Files
    .
  3. Select the check box next to the UCS backup you want to use to restore this BIG-IQ.
    You cannot restore a UCS backup to BIG-IQ version 7.1 from any version previous to version 7.1.
  4. Click the
    Restore
     button.
The BIG-IQ UCS file is restored.
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