Backup Overview

The high level steps involved in performing a full backup of MariaDB ColumnStore are:

• Suspend write activity on the system.
• Backup the MariaDB Server instance.
• Backup the ColumnStore data files.
• Resume write activity on the system.

Suspend Write Activity

To suspend data writes to column store the following command can be issued the admin console:

mcsadmin> suspendDatabaseWrites
suspenddatabasewrites   Thu Oct 13 13:18:40 2016

This command suspends the DDL/DML writes to the MariaDB Columnstore Database
           Do you want to proceed: (y or n) [n]: y

Suspend Calpont Database Writes Request successfully completed

Optionally y can be appended as an argument to suspendDatabaseWrites to avoid the confirmation prompt.

Backup the MariaDB Server instance

The MariaDB Server should be backed up using one of the available backup methods described in the server backup and restore overview. Since the column store data is not stored within the MariaDB Server backup should run very quickly. Utilizing either mysqldump or just backing up the directory under /usr/local/mariadb/columnstore/mysql/db are straightforward options. For example:

> /usr/local/mariadb/columnstore/mysql/bin/mysqldump --skip-lock-tables --no-data loansdb > mariadb_bkp.sql

Note the --no-data option since only the ddl is required for column store tables. The next step will backup the data files. If tables exist using other storage engines then this is likely not appropriate for these.

Backup ColumnStore Data Files

Backup can be achieved by simply copying the data directories or using vendor supplied backup or snapshot utilities for those directories. A files and directories in the data<N> directories where N represents a unique directory such as data1, data2, etc for each PM server.

> cp -rp /usr/local/mariadb/columnstore/data? .

Resume Write Activity

To resume data writes to column store the following command can be issued the admin console:

mcsadmin> resumeDatabaseWrites
resumedatabasewrites   Thu Oct 13 13:58:55 2016

This command resumes the DDL/DML writes to the MariaDB Columnstore Database
           Do you want to proceed: (y or n) [n]: y

Resume MariaDB Columnstore Database Writes Request successfully completed

Optionally y can be appended as an argument to resumeDatabaseWrites to avoid the confirmation prompt.

Restore Overview

The high level steps involved in restoring a backup are:

• Restore the MariaDB Instance
• Restore the ColumnStore data files.

Restoring the MariaDB Instance

The appropriate restoration method corresponding to the backup utility used should be performed first to restore the MariaDB server instance. If mysqldump was utilized then the backup script is run:

> mcsmysql

MariaDB [(none)]> create database loansdb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> use loansdb;
Database changed
MariaDB [loansdb]> source mariadb_bkp.sql
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
...
MariaDB [loansdb]> exit

Restoring the ColumnStore Data Files

The data<N> directories should simply be copied from the backup location or restored via an appropriate backup or snapshot utility. For example:

> rm -rf /usr/local/mariadb/columnstore/data?
> cp -rpf data? /usr/local/mariadb/columnstore
> mcsadmin startSystem