1. Concepts Guide
  2. Compute Instance Concepts
  3. Instance Backup and Restore

Instance Backup and Restore

Oracle Private Cloud Appliance provides Compute Enclave APIs that enable you to back up instances. The commands are flexible to suit a variety of use cases.

Use Cases

  • Back up instances and any attached block volumes.
  • Store the backups on another server for safekeeping.
  • Restore a faulty instance and any attached block volumes.
  • Use the backup to create matching instances.
  • Use the backup and restore feature to migrate instances to another tenancy, or to another appliance.

The following sections provide an overview of the backup and restore processes. For step-by-step instructions, refer to "Backing Up and Restoring an Instance" in the chapter Compute Instance Deployment of the Oracle Private Cloud Appliance User Guide.

Instance Backup Process

  1. Use the Export operation to create an instance backup in an Object Storage bucket.

    The instance backup export operation performs these actions:

    • Creates the backup of the instance, which includes the source image, boot volume, and any attached block volumes.

    • Writes the backups into QCOW2 format files.

    • Creates an archive that includes all the backup files and metadata of the boot volume and block volumes.

    • Exports the backup to an Object Storage bucket of your choosing.

  2. Transfer the backup object from the bucket to another system in your data center for safekeeping.

Instance Restore Process

  1. Transfer the backup from the system in your data center to an Object Storage bucket in the appliance where you want to restore the instance.

  2. Use the Import process to import the instance backup from the bucket to internal resources of the appliance.

    The import function performs these actions:

    • Extracts the tar archive to get source image, boot volume, and block volume backups with attachment data.
    • Creates a source image.
    • Adds the block volumes to the compartment (unattached).

  3. Create an instance, and select the backup boot volume as the image source.

  4. Attach any block volumes.

The restored instance has some of the same characteristics as the source instance. For example:

  • The type and version of the OS.
  • The OS configuration matches the OS configuration of the source instance. This includes things like OS user accounts, installed applications, and so on.
  • The type of storage, high-performance or balanced-performance, matches the source instance.
  • All the software on the block volumes is available after you attached the block volumes to the restored instance.

Some aspects of the restored instance differ from the source instance, such as:

  • The restored instance and associated components, like boot and block volumes have unique OCIDs that don't match the source instance.
  • The source instance user account SSH keys are not included in the restored instance.
  • While creating the restored instance, you can configure the instance in a different compartment, with a different name, shape, subnet, and all the other attributes that you configure during the launch.