Setting up SFX backups

• Article Type: General
• Product: SFX
• Product Version: 3

Description:
How do I set up the SFX backup scripts?

Resolution:
The SFX System Administrator Guide describes the standard backup procedures in chapter 3 "SFX Backup". While it would be a good idea to read the whole chapter, you will probably be most interested in section 3.3 "Scripts" which describes the scripts that are provided by Ex Libris to perform backups. Please note that there are two different scripts: one that performs a backup while the SFX application is down, and one that performs a backup while the SFX is running. Each of these scripts is covered in a separate subsection of section 3.3.

Note that each script uses a configuration file. A base configuration file for each script is provided in the sfxglb3 admin/backup_scripts/ directory. You will most certainly use an edited version of the base script.
Please rename this edited version so that your edits are not accidentally overwritten by a future SFX update.

The configuration files contain comments that should assist you in properly defining any parameters. Please note that the required mysql password is entered in encrypted form, rather than in plain text. The server_admin_util program will provide the encrypted form of any plain text string you give it (choose option 3 "Change passwords" then option 4 "Generate encrypted password for use in configuration files").

Section 3.3.3 "Execution of backup scripts" of the document provides some advice on running the backup scripts. In general, you will need to run it as root. I recommend that you avoid scheduling it to run at the same time as the Metalib backup.