Associating the BART Server with a Database Server

After configuring the BART server, you need to associate it with the database server whose backup you want to manage with BART. You can do one of the following:

• Use the PEM console to modify the properties of an existing monitored database server to map it to the newly configured BART server.

• Use the PEM console to create a new monitored database server, and map it to the newly configured BART server.

To map the BART server to a new PEM database server, right-click the PEM Server Directory node and select Create > Server. Enter the details on all the generic tabs and then enter the BART-specific details on the BART tab.

Create Server dialog (BART - General tab)

Use the fields on the General tab to describe the general properties of the BART Server that will map to the PEM server:

• Use the BART server field to select the BART server name. All the BART servers configured in the PEM console will be listed in this drop down list.

• Use the Server name field to specify a name for the database server that you want to backup using the BART server. This name gets stored in the BART configuration file.

• Use the Description field to specify the description of the database server.

• Use the Backup name field to specify a template for user-defined names to be assigned to the backups of the database server. If you do not specify a backup name template, then the backup can only be referenced in BART sub-commands by the BART assigned, integer backup identifier.

• Use the Host address field to specify the IP address of the database server that you want to configure for backup.

• Use the Port field to specify the port to be used for the database that you want to backup.

• Use the User field to specify the user of the database that you want to backup using BART through PEM console. If you want to enable incremental backups for this database server, then the user must be a superuser.

• Use the Password field to specify the password for the user of the database that you want to backup.

• Use the Cluster owner field to specify the Linux operating system user account that owns the database cluster. This is typically enterprisedb for Advanced Server database clusters installed in the Oracle databases compatible mode, or postgres for PostgreSQL database clusters and for Advanced Server database clusters installed in the PostgreSQL databases compatible mode.

• Use the Override archive command? switch to specify if you want to override the archive command in the database server’s postgresql.conf file. If you override the archive command, the database server will be restarted or database configurations will be reloaded after the server gets added.

• Use the Archive command field to specify the desired format of the archive command string. Ensure to bind a PEM agent and provide Service ID to reload the database configuration or restart the server.

• Use the Archive path field to store the archived WAL files. The default location is the BART backup catalog. This parameter is added from BART version 2.5.2 onwards.

• Use the Allow incremental backup? switch to specify if incremental backup should be enabled for this database server.

• Use the Setup passwordless SSH? switch to specify if you want to create SSH certificates to allow passwordless logins between the database server and the BART server. You must ensure that a PEM agent is bound to the server before configuring passwordless SSH authentication. Passwordless SSH will not work for a database server that is being remotely monitored by a PEM agent.

Create Server dialog (BART - Misc tab)

Use the fields on the Misc tab to describe the miscellaneous properties of the BART Server:

• Use the Override default configuration? Switch to specify if you want to override the BART server configurations with the specific database server configurations.

• Use the Xlog method to specify how the transaction log should be collected during the execution of pg_basebackup.

• Use the Retention policy field to specify the retention policy for the backup. This determines when an active backup should be marked as obsolete, and hence, be a candidate for deletion. You can specify the retention policy in terms of number of backup or in terms of duration (days, weeks, or months).

• Use the WAL compression switch to specify if you want to compress the archived Xlog/WAL files in Gzip format. To enable WAL compression, the gzip compression program must be present in the BART user account’s PATH. The wal_compression setting must not be enabled for those database servers where you need to take incremental backups.

• Use the Copy WALs during restore field to specify how the archived WAL files are collected when invoking the RESTORE operation. Set to enabled to copy the archived WAL files from the BART backup catalog to the <restore_path>/archived_wals directory prior to the database server archive recovery. Set to disabled to retrieve the archived WAL files directly from the BART backup catalog during the database server archive recovery.

• Use the Thread count field to specify the number of threads to copy the blocks. You must set thread count to 1 if you want to take a backup with the pg_basebackup utility.

• Use the Batch size field to specify the number of blocks of memory used for copying modified blocks, applicable only for incremental backups.

• Use the Scan interval field to specify the number of seconds after which the WAL scanner should scan the new WAL files.

• Use the MBM scan timeout field to specify the number of seconds to wait for MBM files before timing out, applicable only for incremental backups.

• Use the Workers field to specify the number of parallel worker processes required to stream the modified blocks of an incremental backups to the restore host.