NUI: Offline Backup of eDirectory 8.8 on Linux

Offline Backup of eDirectory 8.8 on Linux

Problem

Even if you take regular backups of eDirectory with dsbk, it's always a good idea to have one or more full offline backups. You might need it to restore dsbk backup onto it. Or, if you're feeling more paranoid, you simply don't know when you might need it. Of course, you will need to determine which files and directories needs to be backed up.

Solution

Warning 1: Files/folders might be placed in different locations in your setup. Check and correct these if necessary.

Warning 2: The "p" switch is used in tar commands to have files/folders backed up with permissions. If you're going to restore to another system, the user you use to restore with must have the same UID as the user you ran the tar command before to backup. If you use "root" to backup and restore, it won't be a problem, as both will have UID=0.

Here are the steps:

1. Stop ndsd. You can use "/opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndsmanage" to do that.

2. Create a folder. 10012008 is the sample date here.

mkdir /backup/edirfullbackup/Backup10012008
cd Backup10012008

3. Back up NICI. Regarding my tests, if you're running edirectory 8.8, it is a MUST to backup NICI. I was NOT able to get it started until i restored the NICI backup!

The standard NICI file/folder locations are:

/etc/nici.cfg
/etc/opt/novell/nici.cfg
/usr/lib/libccs2.so
/opt/novell/lib/libccs2.so.*
/var/novell/nici
/var/opt/novell/nici

As you may notice, some of these files are just symbolic links, but there's no harm in backing them up, too. At least you'd know which symbolic links to create, without digging into documentation.

So the command would be:

tar cvzfp /backup/edirfullbackup/Backup10012008/edir_nici_10012008.tar.gz 
/etc/nici.cfg /etc/opt/novell/nici.cfg 
/usr/lib/libccs2.so /opt/novell/lib/libccs2.so.* 
/var/novell/nici /var/opt/novell/nici

4. Take an edirectory configuration backup. Note that it's "/etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/nds.conf" by default. In my setup it's "/etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/edir.conf", so i'm backing up this file.

tar cvzfp /backup/edirfullbackup/Backup10012008/conf_backup_10012008.tar.gz /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/edir.conf

5. Take an ndsd script backup.

tar cvzfp /backup/edirfullbackup/Backup10012008/ndsd_script_backup_10012008.tar.gz /etc/init.d/ndsd

6. Take an edirectory (DIB) folder backup. It's assumed that it's "/shared/edir" - the directory where "nds.01" file resides.

tar cvzfp /backup/edirfullbackup/Backup10012008/edir_w_permissions.tar.gz /shared/edir/

7. Start edirectory. Again, you can use "/opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndsmanage".