Backing up the system configuration using the CLI

You can back up your configuration data using the command-line interface (CLI).

Before you back up your configuration data, the following prerequisites must be met:

No independent operations that change the configuration can be running while the backup command is running.
No object name can begin with an underscore character (_).

The backup feature of the svcconfig CLI command is designed to back up information about your system configuration, such as volumes, local Metro Mirror information, local Global Mirror information, storage pools, and nodes. All other data that you wrote to the volumes is not backed up. Any application that uses the volumes on the system as storage, must use the appropriate backup methods to back up its application data.

You must regularly back up your configuration data and your application data to avoid data loss, such as after any significant changes to the system configuration.

Note: The system automatically creates a backup of the configuration data each day at 1 AM. This backup is known as a cron backup and is written to /dumps/svc.config.cron.xml_serial# on the configuration node.

Use these instructions to generate a manual backup at any time. If a severe failure occurs, both the configuration of the system and application data might be lost. The backup of the configuration data can be used to restore the system configuration to the exact state it was in before the failure. In some cases, it might be possible to automatically recover the application data. This backup can be attempted with the Recover System Procedure, also known as a Tier 3 (T3) procedure. To restore the system configuration without attempting to recover the application data, use the Restoring the System Configuration procedure, also known as a Tier 4 (T4) recovery. Both of these procedures require a recent backup of the configuration data.

Complete the following steps to back up your configuration data:

Use your preferred backup method to back up all of the application data that you stored on your volumes.

Issue the following CLI command to back up your configuration:

svcconfig backup

The following output is an example of the messages that might be displayed during the backup process:

CMMVC6155I SVCCONFIG processing completed successfully

The svcconfig backup CLI command creates three files that provide information about the backup process and the configuration. These files are created in the /dumps directory of the configuration node canister.

Files created by the backup process describes the three files that are created by the backup process:

Table 1. Files created by the backup process
File name	Description
`svc.config.backup.xml_<serial#>`	Contains your configuration data.
`svc.config.backup.sh_<serial#>`	Contains the names of the commands that were issued to create the backup of the system.
`svc.config.backup.log_<serial#>`	Contains details about the backup, including any reported errors or warnings.

Check that the svcconfig backup command completes successfully, and examine the command output for any warnings or errors.
The following output is an example of the message that is displayed when the backup process is successful:
```
CMMVC6155I SVCCONFIG processing completed successfully
```
If the process fails, resolve the errors, and run the command again.
Keep backup copies of the files outside the system to protect them against a system hardware failure. Copy the backup files off the system to a secure location; use either the management GUI or scp command line. For example:
```
pscp  -unsafe superuser@cluster_ip:/dumps/svc.config.backup.*
 /offclusterstorage/
```
The cluster_ip is the IP address or DNS name of the system and offclusterstorage is the location where you want to store the backup files.
Tip: To maintain controlled access to your configuration data, copy the backup files to a location that is password-protected.