Note: Server snapshots are not a replacement for Tamr application backups. Therefore, do not take server snapshots with the intention of using them as Tamr backups. Server snapshots do not provide the correct backups of Tamr configuration. Additionally, if Tamr is running, taking a server snapshot can lead to a corrupt HBase configuration if you later attempt to restore from the snapshot. Instead, take Tamr application backups before introducing any changes.

Checklist before proceeding

• Backup is configured. See Backup Configuration.
• The backup location has sufficient disk space. When running the backup process, Tamr defaults to using a temporary directory, located within the Tamr installation directory. If this directory does not have sufficient disk space, the backup process fails. To configure Tamr to use an alternative backup temporary directory with sufficient disk space, set the value for the configuration variable TAMR_UNIFY_BACKUP_HADOOP_TMP_DIR to the full path of the new directory, such as /data/tamr-unify-backup-tmp-dir." See Backup Configuration.

Tamr recommends that you use a location on a distributed filesystem for storing backup files and not the local filesystem. In this case, the functional user who will be restoring from this backup can access these files on the destination server without having to copy them to the destination server's TAMR_UNIFY_BACKUP_URI.

Generating a Backup

To Generate a Backup:

1. Generate a backup of Tamr. Run:
   POST /v1/backups and note the relativeId of the backup from the response. See also backups (v1).

2. Poll for the backup status. Run the following API using the captured relativeId:
   GET/v1/backups/{backupId} and wait until status.state=SUCCEEDED is returned.

3. Locate the backup file location. In Tamr before v.2019.007, run the following command from the $TAMR_UNIFY_HOME directory:

./zk.sh
get -s TAMR_UNIFY_BACKUP_URI 

Beginning with Tamr v.2019.007, Tamr uses Apache Zookeeper for its backups. Run the following command from the $TAMR_UNIFY_HOME/tamr/utils directory:

./unify-admin.sh config:get TAMR_UNIFY_BACKUP_URI

2. Identify the version of Tamr from which the backup was taken. Navigate to the backup directory you identified in step 3. Choose the backup for which you want to find the version, and run the cat command on the manifest.json file.

cat $TAMR_UNIFY_BACKUP_URI/{backup_name}/manifest.json

The version shows up as the systemVersion, as follows:

{
"started" : "2020-05-07_17-38-43-469" ,
"user" :  "tamr-admin",
"systemVersion: "  "2020.004.01"
}