You can use Hybrid Backup Recovery (HBR) backup clients for on-premises files to back up files from user-created Network File System (NFS) file systems. You can then restore the files if they are lost or damaged. This topic describes the preparations that you must make before backup.

Prerequisites

An NFS file system is created.

Background information

Before you use HBR to back up files from an NFS file system, note the following information:

  • To achieve the optimal backup performance, we recommend that you run a backup client on a host that has the following configurations: 64-bit processors, two or more CPU cores, and more than 8 GB available memory.
  • The volume of data that can be backed up depends on the available memory. If a host has 4 GB available memory, a maximum of one million files or 8 TB data can be backed up.

(Recommended) Prepare an AccessKey pair for a RAM user

Resource Access Management (RAM) is a service provided by Alibaba Cloud. It allows you to create and manage multiple identities under an Alibaba Cloud account and then grant diverse permissions to a single identity or a group of identities. In this way, you can authorize different identities to access different Alibaba Cloud resources.

An AccessKey pair is required when you activate a backup client. The AccessKey pair is an identity credential. If an AccessKey pair of your Alibaba Cloud account is used, all cloud resources that belong to the account are exposed to risks. Therefore, we recommend that you use an AccessKey pair of a RAM user to activate backup clients. Before you back up data, make sure that a RAM user is created and an AccessKey pair is created for the RAM user. For more information, see Create a RAM user and Create an AccessKey pair for a RAM user.

Step 1: Create a mount target

Log on to the NAS console and create a mount target for the NFS file system that you want to back up. For more information, see Create a mount target.

On the Mount Target page of the file system, verify that the mount target is created.

Step 2: Mount the NFS file system

After the mount target is created, perform the following steps to mount the NFS file system:

  1. Install an NFS client.
    For more information about how to install an NFS client in the Linux operating system, see Step 1: Install an NFS client.
  2. Mount the NFS file system.
    For more information, see Step 2: Mount an NFS file system.

Step 3: Create a backup client for files

Notice
  • The host that runs the backup client for files must have access to the Internet. If the host is an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance, the ECS instance can access the Internet by using an elastic IP address (EIP) or a Network Address Translation (NAT) gateway.
  • Only a small number of commands are sent over the Internet, which incurs few traffic fees.

Before you back up and restore files, you must install a backup client for files on the host of the NFS client. To create a backup client for files in the HBR console and download the installation package of the client, perform the following steps:

  1. Log on to the HBR console.
    If the host of the NFS client runs a Linux operating system without a graphical user interface (GUI), use an intermediate host with a GUI as an agent to log on to the HBR console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Backup > On-Premises Backup > File.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select the region where you want to store backup data.
    Note
    • If you use a virtual private cloud (VPC), select the region of the VPC. This guarantees a high backup speed.
    • If you do not use a VPC and you need to achieve optimal backup performance, select a region that is close to the location of the data that you want to back up.
    • If you do not use a VPC and you need to implement disaster recovery, select a region that is distant from the location of the data that you want to back up.
  4. In the upper-right corner of the On-Premises Backup page, click Add Client.
  5. In the Add Client pane, set the parameters.
    Parameter Description
    Backup Vault The backup vault where you want to store the backup data. A backup vault is a repository that HBR uses to store backup data. You can use a single vault to store backup data that is received from multiple backup clients. Backup vaults reside in different regions. You can select or create only a backup vault in the current region.
    • If you have created backup vaults, click Select Vault, and select a backup vault from the Vault Name drop-down list.
    • If you have not created backup vaults, click Create Vault and specify the Vault Name field. The name must be 1 to 64 characters in length.
    Backup Client The backup client that you want to add. You can select an activated client or create a client.
    Client Name The name of the backup client. The name must be 1 to 64 characters in length.
    Software Platform The operating system that is running on the server or VM from which you want to back up data. Valid values:
    • Windows 32-bit
    • Windows 64-bit
    • Linux 32-bit
    • Linux 64-bit
    Network Type
    • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Select this option if the server or VM from which you want to back up data resides in a VPC and the VPC is in the same region as the backup vault.
    • Internet: Select this option if no VPCs are available.
    Use HTTPS Specifies whether to use HTTPS for encrypted data transmission. Note that HTTPS compromises the performance of data transmission. Data that is stored in the backup vault is encrypted, regardless of the setting of this switch. If you modify the setting of this parameter, the modification takes effect on the next restore job.
  6. Click Create. Then, click Download Client.
    Note The backup client is used to connect the host of the NFS client to HBR. You can also download the backup client from the client list.

Step 4: Install and activate the backup client

After you download the installation package of a backup client for files, perform the following steps to install and activate the backup client:

  1. Run the tar -xzvf hbr-install-xxx-linux-amd64.tar.gz command to decompress the installation package to a specified directory. Then, run the ./setup command to install the backup client.
    Note Make sure that enough space is available in the installation directory because both operational logs and an executable file are saved in the installation directory.
  2. Activate the backup client. Go to the HBR console. In the Add Client pane, click Next. In the Activate Client step, set the parameters. The following table describes the parameters.
    client2
    Parameter Required Description
    Client IP Address Yes The IP address of the backup client that your current host can access. You can specify an internal IP address or an Internet IP address. For example, the IP address can be 127.0.0.1 (default), 12.34.56.78:8011, or 87.65.43.21:8443.
    Note The IP address must be reachable from your browser in use.
    AccessKey Id Yes The AccessKey ID and AccessKey secret of the RAM user that is used to access HBR. For more information, see Create an AccessKey for a RAM user.
    AccessKey Secret Yes
    Client Password Yes The password that is used to log on to the backup client. The password must be at least six characters in length.
    Data Network Proxy No The information of the proxy server that is used to transmit backup data.
    Note You can configure a data network proxy only for a backup client whose version is 1.11.11 or later.
    Control Network Type No The type of the network that is used to call the HBR API.
    Control Network Proxy No The information of the proxy server that is used to call the HBR API.
    Message Network Type No The type of the network that is used to send messages from HBR to the backup client.
  3. Click Activate Client. The page of the backup client for files appears. You can then use the backup client to back up data.
    Note If the activation of a backup client fails, you can reactivate the client. For more information, see How can I reactivate a file backup client?