Backing Up and Restoring a Domain

Creating backups is part of regular administrative duties, and GlassFish Server supports two ways to perform this duty:

• Automatically on a scheduled basis, as described in Setting Up Automatic Backups of a Domain

• Manually, as described in this section

The following topics are addressed here:

• To Back Up a Domain

• To Restore a Domain

• To List Domain Backups

To Back Up a Domain

Use the backup-domain subcommand in local mode to make a backup of a specified domain.

When you use the backup-domain subcommand, GlassFish Server creates a ZIP file backup of all the files and subdirectories in the domain's directory, domain-root-dir/domain-name, except for the backups subdirectory.

The backup-domain subcommand provides several options to meet particular needs, including:

• --backupdir to specify a directory in which to store the backup instead of the default domain-root-dir/domain-name/backups.

• --description to provide a description of the backup to be stored in the backup itself.

1. Ensure that the domain is stopped or suspended.

   The backup-domain subcommand operates only when the domain is stopped or suspended.

2. Back up the domain by using the backup-domain(1) subcommand.
3. Restore the domain to its previous state, if necessary.

   Start or resume the domain.

Example 3-25 Backing Up the Default Domain

This example makes a backup of the default domain, domain1, storing the backup file in /net/backups.example.com/glassfish:

asadmin> backup-domain --backupdir /net/backups.example.com/glassfish domain1
Backed up domain1 at Mon Jan 17 08:16:22 PST 2011.
Command backup-domain executed successfully

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help backup-domain at the command line.

To Restore a Domain

Use the restore-domain subcommand in local mode to use a backup file to restore the files and subdirectories in a specified domain's directory.

The restore-domain subcommand can use backup files created by the backup-domain subcommand and by automatic backup configurations, both full backups and configuration-only backups. Automatic backup configurations are available only in Oracle GlassFish Server.

1. If necessary, notify domain users that the domain is being restored from backup.
2. Ensure that the domain is stopped.

   The restore-domain subcommand operates only when the domain is stopped.

   To determine whether the domain is running, use the list-domains(1) subcommand, as described in To List Domains.

   To stop the domain, use the stop-domain(1) subcommand as described in To Stop a Domain.

3. Restore backup files for a domain by using the restore-domain(1) subcommand.
4. Verify that the restore has succeeded.
5. If necessary, notify users that the domain has been restored and is available.

Example 3-26 Restoring the Default Domain

This example restores files for the default domain, domain1, from the most recent backup stored in a specified backup directory:

asadmin> restore-domain --backupdir /net/backups.example.com/glassfish domain1
Restored the domain (domain1) to /home/user1/glassfish3/glassfish/domains/domain1
Command restore-domain executed successfully.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin restore-domain --help at the command line.

To List Domain Backups

Use the list-backups subcommand in local mode to display information about backups of a specified domain stored in a specified backup directory.

The list-backups subcommand provides several options to meet particular needs, including:

• --backupdir to specify a directory where backups are stored instead of the default domain-root-dir/domain-name/backups.

• List backups by using the list-backups(1) subcommand.

Example 3-27 Listing Backups of the Default Domain

This example lists the backups of the default domain, domain1, that are stored in the /net/backups.example.com/glassfish directory:

asadmin> list-backups --backupdir /net/backups.example.com/glassfish domain1
CONFIG        USER   BACKUP DATE                   FILENAME
              user1  Mon Jan 17 08:16:22 PST 2011  domain1_2011_01_17_v00001.zip
monthly-full  user1  Wed Dec 01 00:00:00 PST 2010  domain1_2010_12_01_v00001.zip
monthly-full  user1  Sat Jan 01 00:00:03 PST 2011  domain1_2011_01_01_v00001.zip
monthly-full  user1  Tue Feb 01 00:00:01 PST 2011  domain1_2011_02_01_v00001.zip
Command list-backups executed successfully.

Note that this listing includes backups created automatically by a backup configuration. This feature is available only in Oracle GlassFish Server.

See Also

You can also view the full syntax and options of the subcommand by typing asadmin help list-backups at the command line.