Backing Up Databases

Cloudera recommends that you schedule regular backups of the databases that Cloudera Manager uses to store configuration, monitoring, and reporting data and for managed services that require a database:
  • Cloudera Manager - Contains all the information about services you have configured and their role assignments, all configuration history, commands, users, and running processes. This relatively small database (<100 MB) is the most important to back up.
  • Activity Monitor - Contains information about past activities. In large clusters, this database can grow large. Configuring an Activity Monitor database is only necessary if a MapReduce service is deployed.
  • Reports Manager - Tracks disk utilization and processing activities over time. Medium-sized.
  • Hive Metastore Server - Contains Hive metadata. Relatively small.
  • Sentry Server - Contains authorization metadata. Relatively small.
  • Cloudera Navigator Audit Server - Contains auditing information. In large clusters, this database can grow large.
  • Cloudera Navigator Metadata Server - Contains authorization, policies, and audit report metadata. Relatively small.

Backing Up PostgreSQL Databases

To back up a PostgreSQL database, use the same procedure whether the database is embedded or external:
  1. Log in to the host where the Cloudera Manager Server is installed.
  2. Run the following command as root: 
    cat /etc/cloudera-scm-server/db.properties.
The db.properties file contains:
# Auto-generated by scm_prepare_database.sh
# Mon Jul 27 22:36:36 PDT 2011
com.cloudera.cmf.db.type=postgresql
com.cloudera.cmf.db.host=host:7432
com.cloudera.cmf.db.name=scm
com.cloudera.cmf.db.user=scm
com.cloudera.cmf.db.password=NnYfWIjlbk
  3. Run the following command as root using the parameters from the preceding step: 
    # pg_dump -h hostname -p 7432 -U scm > /tmp/scm_server_db_backup.$(date +%Y%m%d)
  4. Enter the password from the com.cloudera.cmf.db.password property in step 2.
  5. To back up a database created for one of the roles described in Creating Databases for Activity Monitor, Reports Manager, Hive Metastore Server, Sentry Server, Cloudera Navigator Audit Server, and Cloudera Navigator Metadata Server, on the local host as the roleuser user: 
    # pg_dump -h hostname -p 7432 -U roleuser > /tmp/roledb
  6. Enter the password specified when the database was created.

Backing Up MySQL Databases

To back up the MySQL database, run the mysqldump command on the MySQL host, as follows: 
$ mysqldump -hhostname -uusername -ppassword database > /tmp/database-backup.sql
For example, to back up the Activity Monitor database amon created in Creating Databases for Activity Monitor, Reports Manager, Hive Metastore Server, Sentry Server, Cloudera Navigator Audit Server, and Cloudera Navigator Metadata Server, on the local host as the root user, with the password amon_password: 
$ mysqldump -pamon_password amon > /tmp/amon-backup.sql
To back up the sample Activity Monitor database amon on remote host myhost.example.com as the root user, with the password amon_password: 
$ mysqldump -hmyhost.example.com -uroot -pcloudera amon > /tmp/amon-backup.sql

Backing Up Oracle Databases

For Oracle, work with your database administrator to ensure databases are properly backed up.