How to back up MAAS

Docs
1

MAAS uses standard command-line utilities for simple, familiar backups. The options described here allow you to either back up and restore everything MAAS-related, or just back up key packages and files.

Clean reset backup

The method uses pg_dumpall the entire database and make a complete snapshot of MAAS.

Back up procedure

  1. Find the PostgreSQL service:
    sudo systemctl list-units --type=service | grep postgres
  2. Create backup directory:
    mkdir -p <backup-path>/$(date +%s)
  3. Dump database:
    sudo -u postgres pg_dumpall -c > "<backup-path>/$(date +%s)_dump.sql"
  4. Stop MAAS:
    sudo snap stop maas
  5. (Optional) Stop PostgreSQL:
    sudo systemctl stop postgresql.service
  6. Snap backup:
    sudo snap save maas
  7. Export snapshot:
    sudo snap export-snapshot <snapshot-id> <backup-path>/$(date +%s)_snapshot
  8. Restart services:
    sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
sudo snap restart maas

Restore

  1. Stop MAAS & remove instance:
    sudo snap stop maas && sudo snap remove maas
  2. Restore database:
    sudo -u postgres psql -f <backup-path>/<dump.sql> postgres
  3. Import & restore snapshot:
    sudo snap import-snapshot <backup-path>/<snapshot>
sudo snap restore <snapshot-id>
  4. Restart services:
    sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
sudo snap restart maas

Package backup

Backs up PostgreSQL and key MAAS files.

Backup

  1. Find PostgreSQL service:
    sudo systemctl list-units --type=service | grep postgres
  2. Create backup directory:
    mkdir -p <backup-path>/$(date +%s)
  3. Dump database:
    sudo -u postgres pg_dumpall -c > "<backup-path>/$(date +%s)_dump.sql"
  4. Stop MAAS services:
    sudo systemctl stop maas-dhcpd.service maas-rackd.service maas-regiond.service
  5. (Optional) Stop PostgreSQL:
    sudo systemctl stop postgresql.service
  6. Archive MAAS files:
    sudo tar cvpzWf <backup-path>/$(date +%s)_maas_backup.tgz --exclude=/var/lib/maas/boot-resources /etc/maas /var/lib/maas
  7. Restart services:
    sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
sudo snap restart maas

Restore

  1. Reinstall Ubuntu (if possible).
  2. Ensure PostgreSQL is installed.
  3. Restore database:
    sudo -u postgres psql -f <backup-path>/<dump.sql> postgres
  4. Install MAAS from packages.
  5. Stop MAAS services:
    sudo systemctl stop maas-dhcpd.service maas-rackd.service maas-regiond.service
  6. Extract backup:
    sudo tar xvzpf <backup-path>/<backup.tgz> -C /
  7. Restart services:
    sudo systemctl start postgresql.service
sudo systemctl restart maas-dhcpd.service maas-rackd.service maas-regiond.service
2

This document assumes MAAS is installed on Bionic and it is missing instructions how to backup on Focal.
Those maas-*.service which should be stopped are not present in MAAS 3.1 on Focal.

3

thanks, @marosg. making a note to test backup on focal and see what else might have changed.

4

Found a bug.

I had a borked snap upgrade of MAAS - it was an upgrade from MAAS 2.9 to 3.0 on Bionic, and it got stuck on a migration which I presume isnā€™t totally compatible with Postgres 10. The migrations which did run look harmless enough, but as a side effect of the upgrade errors, views were dropped.

I found the reference to ā€œsudo maas-region dbupgradeā€ on this page, however for the snap what I really needed was ā€œsudo snap run --shell maas -c ā€˜maas-region dbupgradeā€™ā€ (which I found from others internally). After running that, the views were restored.

TL;DR: The docs should note the appropriate ā€œmaas-region dbupgradeā€ command to use when running MAAS from snaps.

1 Like
5

The following lines in the documentation are numbered the same and are out of order. If you run the second command to restore the database, the server isnā€™t up because it was stopped in step #3.

#8. Restore the PostgreSQL dump with the following command:
sudo -u postgres psql -f dump.sql postgres

#8. Restart the PostgreSQL service:
sudo systemctl start postgresql.service

These should be swapped and re-numbered to #8 and #9.

6

@jfleach, edited; thank you for pointing out this error.

7

The backup procedure of the deb package install mentions a snap command to start maas again. It should be systemctl commands instead.

8

@camille.rodriguez :: gaah! thanks for the close review! will fix.

9

I believe we are missing a step in ā€œDo a clean restore of a snap installā€;

MAAS isnā€™t reinstalled during this process, so this command should fail (restoring a snapshot doesnā€™t reinstall the snap, it merely restore $SNAP_COMMON and things). Add a step to reinstall MAAS (with perhaps a link-out to the install and upgrade pages?)

This likewise appears in ā€œDo a minimal downtime restore of a MAAS snap installā€.

10

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