Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Backup and Restore

Create a backup of Oracle FPP Server to restore in the event of a failure, or to relocate the Oracle FPP Server to a different hardware.

About Oracle FPP Server Backup and Restore Options

Backup the Oracle FPP Server and use the restore and relocate features to restore the Oracle FPP Server to the same or another system.

Oracle FPP is used to manage large fleets of Oracle Grid Infrastructure and Oracle AI Database deployments on different types of hardware. To avoid data loss due to system failure, or to relocate your Oracle FPP Server to a different hardware, you can create a backup of the entire Oracle FPP Server. The following backup and restore options are available:

A full backup of the FPP server. It represents a recovery point-in-time of a complete and working Oracle FPP Server. The full backup is an auto-contained group of files and directories from where you can restore the Oracle FPP Server in case of a system failure or to relocate to a different hardware.
A full restore from an Oracle FPP Server backup to restore Oracle FPP Server after a disaster. You must have a full backup to perform a full restore.
A full restore to a different cluster, which relocates the current Oracle FPP Server to a new cluster. The original Oracle FPP Server converts into an Oracle FPP Client of the new server. You must move all Oracle FPP Clients to the new Oracle FPP Server after relocation.

Oracle FPP Server supports the following storage options for backup:

Local file system.
Network File System (NFS) accessible by the current Oracle FPP Server.

A full Oracle FPP Server backup includes metadata, credentials, list of the registered OS users, user actions, and gold images. Backup is stored in a zip format at the location that you specify during backup.

Note:

You should clean up the legacy gold images or archive the old gold images using the rhpctl archive image command.

Oracle FPP Backup and Restore Exclusions

Ongoing move operations are not supported for restore and metadata of these operations is cleared.
Incomplete images and working copies at the time of the backup are excluded from the backup and are removed from the metadata.
All pending jobs for the Oracle FPP Server with expired timer are set to UNKNOWN and all pending jobs with running timer are set to ABORTED .
For restore, working copies from the Oracle FPP Server are considered lost, thus their metadata is cleared. You can recreate or register them after the restore operation is complete.
Any operations done between the backup and the restore are lost, including any operations done after recreating the Oracle FPP Server when creating the new cluster, whether for disaster recovery or relocation.

Backing Up Oracle FPP Server

Create a backup of the Oracle FPP Server to restore in the event of a failure or to relocate to a different hardware.

Oracle FPP Server always creates full backup. Backup is stored in a zip format at the location that you specify during backup.

Provide an absolute path to an empty directory with write access.
Stop all ongoing operations on the Oracle FPP Server before attempting the backup, otherwise the backup will be rejected.
Do no store backup in the same cluster so that they are not lost in a system failure.
To relocate to a different server, stop Oracle FPP Server after creating a backup. New operations performed on the server makes the backup obsolete.

Create a full backup of the Oracle FPP Server.
```
rhpctl backup server -path backup_path
```
Oracle FPP Server creates a timestamped zip file, fppsBackup_ timestamp.zip, at the specified location. The backup includes metadata dump file, wallet file, text file with non-built-in Oracle FPP users, zip file for each gold image, and zip file of the user actions directory.

Note:
Incomplete images, working copy snapshots, and checkpoint files are excluded from the backup.

Restoring Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Server

Restore Oracle FPP Server from a backup to recover data after a system failure.

Oracle FPP Server always performs a full restore.

Provide an absolute path of a directory with write access where the backup zip file is either stored or extracted.
Stop all ongoing operations on the Oracle FPP Server before attempting the restore, otherwise the restore will fail.
Ensure that the Oracle Grid Infrastructure version, including the RU version, is the same as when the backup was done.
Check the cluster name. If the cluster name is the same as when the backup was done, Oracle FPP Server restores the services, otherwise it relocates the services to the new cluster.
Stop Oracle FPP Server before relocating Oracle FPP services to a new server.

Perform a full restore of the Oracle FPP Server.
```
$ rhpctl restore server -backup full_backup_location
```
Restore creates a timestamped directory, fppsRestore_ timestamp, at the backup location. This directory includes extracted backup files and other related information.
Note:
- Retry a failed restore, instead of starting from the beginning. Provide the path to the directory of the extracted backup created by the previous run, fppsRestore_timestamp, instead of the path to the backup zip.
- Resuming any operations marked as pending or ongoing in the metadata is not supported.
Open the osUsers.txt file to make sure that the listed operating system users exist in the cluster.

Relocating Oracle Fleet Patching and Provisioning Server

Relocate Oracle FPP Server to a new server on a new hardware and configure Oracle FPP Clients to associate with the new Oracle FPP Server.

Copy the Oracle FPP Server backup of the old server to the new server.
Perform a full restore of the Oracle FPP Server.
```
$ rhpctl restore server -backup full_backup_location
```
After the relocation is complete, the old Oracle FPP Server is marked as an Oracle FPP Client.
Open the osUsers.txt file to make sure that the listed operating system users exist in the cluster.
Copy the client data file for each Oracle FPP Client, located at backup_path /fppsRestore_ timestamp /clientData/ from the new Oracle FPP Server to the corresponding Oracle FPP Client.

Update each Oracle FPP Client, except the old Oracle FPP Server, with the new client data file.

$ srvctl stop rhpclient
$ srvctl modify rhpclient -clientdata new_client_data_file
$ srvctl start rhpclient

Perform a sanity check from the Oracle FPP Client to ensure that the client can connect to the server.
```
$ rhpctl query server
```
After all Oracle FPP Client clusters are associated with the new Oracle FPP Server, then convert the original Oracle FPP Server to an Oracle FPP Client.
```
$ srvctl stop rhpserver
# srvctl remove rhpserver -force
# srvctl add rhpclient -clientdata new_client_data_file
$ srvctl start rhpclient
```
Perform a sanity check from the converted Oracle FPP Client to ensure that the client can connect to the server.
```
$ rhpctl query server
```