Back Up On-Prem Deployment With Object Storage

Note

Chef Automate 4.10.1 released on 6th September 2023 includes improvements to the deployment and installation experience of Automate HA. Please read the blog to learn more about key improvements. Refer to the pre-requisites page (On-Premises, AWS) and plan your usage with your customer success manager or account manager.

This document shows how to configure, back up, and restore a Chef Automate high availability deployment with object storage.

During deployment of Chef Automate, if you set backup_config = "object_storage" or backup_config = "file_system" in the Automate configuration TOML file, then backup is already configured and you don’t need to configure data backup for Chef Automate. If a backup wasn’t configured during the initial deployment, then follow these instructions to configure it manually.

Chef Automate supports backing up data to the following platforms:

S3 (AWS S3, MinIO, non-AWS S3)
Google Cloud Storage (GCS)

Configure backup for S3

This section shows how to configure data back up on a Chef Automate high availability deployment to object storage on AWS S3, MinIO, or non-AWS S3.

Configure OpenSearch nodes

Add a secret key and access key for your S3 backup provider on every OpenSearch node.

Note

Encrypted S3 buckets are supported only with Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3).

Set the OpenSearch path configuration location.

export OPENSEARCH_PATH_CONF="/hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config"

Add your S3 access and secret keys to the OpenSearch keystore.

hab pkg exec chef/automate-ha-opensearch opensearch-keystore add s3.client.default.access_key
hab pkg exec chef/automate-ha-opensearch opensearch-keystore add s3.client.default.secret_key

Change ownership of the keystore.

chown -RL hab:hab /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/opensearch.keystore

Load the secure settings into the OpenSearch keystore.

curl -X POST https://localhost:9200/_nodes/reload_secure_settings?pretty --cacert /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/root-ca.pem --key /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/admin-key.pem --cert /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/admin.pem -k

Repeat these steps on all OpenSearch nodes until they are all updated.

OpenSearch health check

Use the following commands on OpenSearch nodes to verify their health status.

Verify that the Habitat service is running.
```
hab svc status
```

Check the status of OpenSearch indices.

curl -k -X GET "https://localhost:9200/_cat/indices/*?v=true&s=index&pretty" -u admin:admin

View logs of the Chef Habitat services.

journalctl -u hab-sup -f | grep 'automate-ha-opensearch'

Patch the Automate configuration

On the bastion host, update the S3 and OpenSearch configuration.

Before starting, make sure the frontend nodes and OpenSearch nodes have access to the object storage endpoint.

Create a TOML file on the bastion host with the following settings.

[s3]
  [s3.client.default]
    protocol = "https"
    read_timeout = "60s"
    max_retries = "3"
    use_throttle_retries = true
    endpoint = "s3.example.com"

Replace the value of endpoint with the URL of your S3 storage endpoint.

Add the following content to the TOML file to configure OpenSearch.

[global.v1]
  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup]
    enable = true
    location = "s3"

  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup.s3]

    # bucket (required): The name of the bucket
    bucket = "<BUCKET_NAME>"

    # base_path (optional): The path within the bucket where backups should be stored
    # If base_path is not set, backups will be stored at the root of the bucket.
    base_path = "opensearch"

    # name of an s3 client configuration you create in your opensearch.yml
    # see https://www.open.co/guide/en/opensearch/plugins/current/repository-s3-client.html
    # for full documentation on how to configure client settings on your
    # OpenSearch nodes
    client = "default"

  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup.s3.settings]
    ## The meaning of these settings is documented in the S3 Repository Plugin
    ## documentation. See the following links:
    ## https://www.open.co/guide/en/opensearch/plugins/current/repository-s3-repository.html

    ## Backup repo settings
    # compress = false
    # server_side_encryption = false
    # buffer_size = "100mb"
    # canned_acl = "private"
    # storage_class = "standard"
    ## Snapshot settings
    # max_snapshot_bytes_per_sec = "40mb"
    # max_restore_bytes_per_sec = "40mb"
    # chunk_size = "null"
    ## S3 client settings
    # read_timeout = "50s"
    # max_retries = 3
    # use_throttle_retries = true
    # protocol = "https"

  [global.v1.backups]
    location = "s3"

  [global.v1.backups.s3.bucket]
    # name (required): The name of the bucket
    name = "<BUCKET_NAME>"

    # endpoint (required): The endpoint for the region the bucket lives in for Automate Version 3.x.y
    # endpoint (required): For Automate Version 4.x.y, use this https://s3.amazonaws.com
    endpoint = "<OBJECT_STORAGE_URL>"

    # base_path (optional): The path within the bucket where backups should be stored
    # If base_path is not set, backups will be stored at the root of the bucket.
    base_path = "automate"

  [global.v1.backups.s3.credentials]
    access_key = "<ACCESS_KEY>"
    secret_key = "<SECRET_KEY>"

Use the patch subcommand to patch the Automate configuration.

./chef-automate config patch --frontend /PATH/TO/FILE_NAME.TOML

Configure backup on Google Cloud Storage

This sections shows how to configure a Chef Automate high availability deployment to back up data to object storage on Google Cloud Storage (GCS).

Configure OpenSearch nodes

Add a GCS service account file that gives access to the GCS bucket to every OpenSearch node.

export OPENSEARCH_PATH_CONF="/hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config"
export GCS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_FILE_PATH="/PATH/TO/GOOGLESERVICEACCOUNT.JSON"

Change ownership of the GCS service account file.

chown -RL hab:hab $GCS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_FILE_PATH

Add the GCS service account file to OpenSearch.

hab pkg exec chef/automate-ha-opensearch opensearch-keystore add-file --force gcs.client.default.credentials_file $GCS_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_JSON_FILE_PATH

Change ownership of the keystore.

chown -RL hab:hab /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/opensearch.keystore

Load the secure settings into the OpenSearch keystore.

curl -X POST https://localhost:9200/_nodes/reload_secure_settings?pretty --cacert /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/root-ca.pem --key /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/admin-key.pem --cert /hab/svc/automate-ha-opensearch/config/certificates/admin.pem -k

Repeat these steps on all OpenSearch nodes until they are all updated.

After updating all nodes, the above curl command will return an output similar to this:

{
	"_nodes": {
		"total": 3,
		"successful": 3,
		"failed": 0
	},
	"cluster_name": "chef-insights",
	"nodes": {
		"lenRTrZ1QS2uv_vJIwL-kQ": {
			"name": "lenRTrZ"
		},
		"Us5iBo4_RoaeojySjWpr9A": {
			"name": "Us5iBo4"
		},
		"qtz7KseqSlGm2lEm0BiUEg": {
			"name": "qtz7Kse"
		}
	}
}

OpenSearch health check

Use the following commands on OpenSearch nodes to verify their health status.

Verify that the Habitat service is running.
```
hab svc status
```

Check the status of OpenSearch indices.

curl -k -X GET "https://localhost:9200/_cat/indices/*?v=true&s=index&pretty" -u admin:admin

View logs of the Chef Habitat services.

journalctl -u hab-sup -f | grep 'automate-ha-opensearch'

Patch the Automate configuration

On the bastion host, update the OpenSearch configuration.

Before starting, make sure the frontend nodes and OpenSearch nodes have access to the object storage endpoint.

Create a TOML file on the bastion host with the following settings.

[global.v1]
  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup]
    enable = true
    location = "gcs"

  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup.gcs]

    # bucket (required): The name of the bucket
    bucket = "bucket-name"

    # base_path (optional): The path within the bucket where backups should be stored
    # If base_path is not set, backups will be stored at the root of the bucket.
    base_path = "opensearch"
    client = "default"

  [global.v1.backups]
    location = "gcs"

  [global.v1.backups.gcs.bucket]
    # name (required): The name of the bucket
    name = "bucket-name"

    # endpoint = ""

    # base_path (optional): The path within the bucket where backups should be stored
    # If base_path is not set, backups will be stored at the root of the bucket.
    base_path = "automate"

  [global.v1.backups.gcs.credentials]
    json = '''{
      "type": "service_account",
      "project_id": "chef-automate-ha",
      "private_key_id": "7b1e77baec247a22a9b3****************f",
      "private_key": "<PRIVATE KEY>",
      "client_email": "myemail@chef.iam.gserviceaccount.com",
      "client_id": "1******************1",
      "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
      "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
      "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
      "client_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/robot/v1/metadata/x509/myemail@chef.iam.gserviceaccount.com",
      "universe_domain": "googleapis.com"
    }'''

Patch the Automate configuration to trigger the deployment.

./chef-automate config patch --frontend /PATH/TO/FILE_NAME.TOML

Backup and Restore

Backup

To create a backup, run the backup command from the bastion host.

chef-automate backup create

Restore

Restore a backup from external object storage.

Check the status of the Automate HA cluster from the bastion host.
```
chef-automate status
```

Restore the backup by running the restore command from the bastion host.

For S3:

chef-automate backup restore s3://BUCKET_NAME/PATH/TO/BACKUPS/BACKUP_ID --skip-preflight --s3-access-key "ACCESS_KEY" --s3-secret-key "SECRET_KEY"

For GCS:

chef-automate backup restore gs://BUCKET_NAME/PATH/TO/BACKUPS/BACKUP_ID --gcs-credentials-path "PATH/TO/GOOGLE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT.JSON"

In an airgapped environment:

chef-automate backup restore <OBJECT-STORAGE-BUCKET-PATH>/BACKUPS/BACKUP_ID --skip-preflight --airgap-bundle </PATH/TO/BUNDLE>

Note

If you are restoring the backup from an older version, then you need to provide the --airgap-bundle </path/to/current/bundle>.
Large Compliance Report is not supported in Automate HA

Troubleshooting

Try these steps if Chef Automate returns an error while restoring data.

Check the Chef Automate status.
```
chef-automate status
```
Check the status of your Habitat service on the Automate node.
```
hab svc status
```
If the deployment services are not healthy, reload them.
```
hab svc load chef/deployment-service
```

Now check the status of the Automate node and then try running the restore command from the bastion host.

How to change the base_path or path. The steps for the File System backup are as shown below:

While at the time of deployment backup_mount default value will be /mnt/automate_backups
In case, if you modify the backup_mount in config.toml before deployment, then the deployment process will do the configuration with the updated value
In case, you changed the backup_mount value post-deployment, then we need to patch the configuration manually to all the frontend and backend nodes, for example, if you change the backup_mount to /bkp/backps

Update the FE nodes with the below template, use the command chef-automate config patch fe.toml --fe

   [global.v1.backups]
      [global.v1.backups.filesystem]
         path = "/bkp/backps"
   [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup]
      [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup.fs]
         path = "/bkp/backps"

Update the OpenSearch node with the below template, use the command chef-automate config patch os.toml --os

[path]
   repo = "/bkp/backps"

Run the curl request to one of the automate frontend node

curl localhost:10144/_snapshot?pretty

If the response is empty {}, then we are good
If the response has json output, then it should have correct value for the backup_mount, refer the location value in the response. It should start with the /bkp/backps

{
 "chef-automate-es6-event-feed-service" : {
 "type" : "fs",
 "settings" : {
 "location" : "/mnt/automate_backups/opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-event-feed-service"
       }
    },
 "chef-automate-es6-compliance-service" : {
 "type" : "fs",
 "settings" : {
 "location" : "/mnt/automate_backups/opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-compliance-service"
       }
    },
 "chef-automate-es6-ingest-service" : {
     "type" : "fs",
 "settings" : {
 "location" : "/mnt/automate_backups/opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-ingest-service"
       }
    },
 "chef-automate-es6-automate-cs-oc-erchef" : {
 "type" : "fs",
 "settings" : {
 "location" : "/mnt/automate_backups/opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-automate-cs-oc-erchef"
       }
    }
 }

If the pre string in the location is not match with backup_mount, then we need to to delete the existing snapshots. use below script to delete the snapshot from the one of the automate frontend node.

   snapshot=$(curl -XGET http://localhost:10144/_snapshot?pretty | jq 'keys[]')
   for name in $snapshot;do
       key=$(echo $name | tr -d '"')
      curl -XDELETE localhost:10144/_snapshot/$key?pretty
   done

The above scritp requires the jq needs to be installed, You can install from the airgap bundle, please use command on the one of the automate frontend node to locate the jq package.

ls -ltrh /hab/cache/artifacts/ | grep jq

-rw-r--r--. 1 ec2-user ec2-user  730K Dec  8 08:53 core-jq-static-1.6-20220312062012-x86_64-linux.hart
-rw-r--r--. 1 ec2-user ec2-user  730K Dec  8 08:55 core-jq-static-1.6-20190703002933-x86_64-linux.hart

In case of multiple jq version, then install the latest one. use the below command to install the jq package to the automate frontend node

hab pkg install /hab/cache/artifacts/core-jq-static-1.6-20190703002933-x86_64-linux.hart -bf

Below steps for object storage as a backup option

While at the time of deployment backup_config will be object_storage
To use the object_storage, we are using below template at the time of deployment

   [object_storage.config]
    google_service_account_file = ""
    location = ""
    bucket_name = ""
    access_key = ""
    secret_key = ""
    endpoint = ""
    region = ""

If you configured pre deployment, then we are good
If you want to change the bucket or base_path, then use the below template for Frontend nodes

[global.v1]
  [global.v1.external.opensearch.backup.s3]
      bucket = "<BUCKET_NAME>"
      base_path = "opensearch"
   [global.v1.backups.s3.bucket]
      name = "<BUCKET_NAME>"
      base_path = "automate"

You can choose any value for the variable base_path. base_path patch is only required for the frontend node.
Use the command to apply the above template chef-automate config patch frontend.toml --fe
Post the configuration patch, and use the curl request to validate
```
curl localhost:10144/_snapshot?pretty
```
If the response is empty {}, then we are good

If the response has JSON output, then it should have the correct value for the base_path

{
    "chef-automate-es6-event-feed-service" : {
      "type" : "s3",
      "settings" : {
        "bucket" : "MY-BUCKET",
        "base_path" : "opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-event-feed-service",
        "readonly" : "false",
        "compress" : "false"
      }
    },
    "chef-automate-es6-compliance-service" : {
      "type" : "s3",
      "settings" : {
        "bucket" : "MY-BUCKET",
        "base_path" : "opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-compliance-service",
        "readonly" : "false",
        "compress" : "false"
      }
    },
    "chef-automate-es6-ingest-service" : {
      "type" : "s3",
      "settings" : {
        "bucket" : "MY-BUCKET",
        "base_path" : "opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-ingest-service",
        "readonly" : "false",
        "compress" : "false"
      }
    },
    "chef-automate-es6-automate-cs-oc-erchef" : {
      "type" : "s3",
      "settings" : {
        "bucket" : "MY-BUCKET",
        "base_path" : "opensearch/automate-elasticsearch-data/chef-automate-es6-automate-cs-oc-erchef",
        "readonly" : "false",
        "compress" : "false"
      }
    }
}

In case of base_path value is not matching, then we have to delete the existing snapshot. please refer to the steps from the file system.