1. Configure backup and disaster recovery for Compute Cloud@Customer using Rackware
  2. Prepare

Prepare

Rackware disaster recovery (DR) backs up workloads grouped as a collection and the collections are referred to as waves. A collection can be a set of applications or user requirements for migration or disaster recovery. To begin using Rackware, point a browser at the public IP address of the instance on which you installed RMM. Log in using the admin username and password provided in the install procedure.

Prepare the Origin Environment

Each origin and target host must have passwordless ssh access set up and can be enabled from the RMM. TCP port 22 is the default, however, other ports may be used by specifying the desired port.

Linux

  • Access Credentials: root user or an account with sudo privileges
  • Storage: If Logical Volume Manager (LVM) is used, the volume groups on the origin must have at least 15 percent of the used space available as free extents.
  • no-exec: /tmp and /var/tmp filesystems should not be configured with no-exec properties in fstab.
  • Grub: Origin servers should have /etc/default/grub file.
  • Antivirus: If any antivirus program is running on Origin, it should allowlist /mnt/rackware/ directory.

Windows

  • Access Credentials: SYSTEM user or local user with administrative privileges.
  • Storage: Each volume should have sufficient free space (approx. 20 percent) for VSS snapshots.
  • Antivirus: Origin should allowlist rsync.exe, rwattr.exe, rwchangesvc.exe, and rw_tngsync_util.exe for any antivirus program or Windows Defender.
  • Language: For support in any language other than English for SYSTEM locale, contact Rackware Support.

Prepare the Target Environment

The target environment has the following essential needs:

  • A system administrator ensures that there are enough resources to back up the origin environment, such as CPU, memory, or storage.
  • Register a clouduser with RMM.

Oracle recommends that the system is set up for continuous and automatic monitoring and also set up with notifications for resources approaching low thresholds.

Create a clouduser

A user who can provision VM instances as well as other resources is required, whether you're using Private Cloud Appliance, Compute Cloud@Customer, or OCI as a target. Autoprovisioning allows RMM to self-provision target instances identical to the origin using API calls. RMM requires a user with sufficient privileges in the destination management node. Autoprovisioning also requires that the TCP/443 port is open to the destination API service.

The following is a list of required permissions a user must have for basic autoprovision to work. Permissions required for additional autoprovision features are listed by feature below:

  • read permission on the instance-images resource.
  • manage permission on the instances resource.
  • inspect permission on the VCNs resource.
  • use permission on the subnet resource.
  • inspect permission on the private-ips resource.
  • read permission on the public-ips resource.
  • use permission on the vNIC resource.
  • inspect permission on the vNIC-attachments resource.
  • inspect permission on the compartments resource.

To use reserved public IP addresses, these additional permissions are required:

  • manage permission on the public-ips resource.
  • use permission on the private-ips resource.

To attach additional volumes to instances, these additional permissions are required.

  • manage permission on the volumes resource.
  • manage permission on the volume-attachments resource.

If a simpler set of permissions is desired at the cost of being slightly more permissive, these permissions can be used in place of the above:

  • manage permission on the instance-family, volume-family, and virtual-network-family resources.
  • inspect permission on the compartments resource.

If simplicity in the policy is highest priority, a single permission can be used:

  • manage permission on the all-resources resource.

To create the user, log into your endpoint control plane and follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Dashboard, Identity, Users, and click Create User. We've used Private Cloud Appliance as the example. However, the process is nearly identical on Compute Cloud@Customer and OCI.
  2. On Private Cloud Appliance, add clouduser to the Administrators group to provide all the necessary permissions. On Compute Cloud@Customer, use the administrative user. On OCI, use an individual user with appropriate permissions.
  3. Once you create clouduser and grant the appropriate permissions, you can register clouduser in RMM.