Backing up a tarball installation

This topic describes how to manually back up an existing DataStax Enterprise (DSE) tarball installation.

Before continuing, make sure you have sufficient disk space to store a complete data snapshot as well as a compress TAR archive of that snapshot.

To back up a DSE installation, do the following:

Back up the schema to schema_filename.cql using cqlsh.
```
/installation_location/resources/cassandra/bin/cqlsh host_ip_address:port  -e 'DESC SCHEMA;' \
 > /backup_path/schema_filename.cql
```
A schema backup ensures that even if data is lost you can rebuild the database structure.

Back up the token ranges to token_range_filename`using `nodetool.

/installation_location/resources/cassandra/bin/nodetool  ring  > /backup_path/token_range_filename

Back up your DSE configuration files.

Add the following configuration file types to a plain text file listing, backup_file_listing.
- *.yaml
- *.sh
- *.xml
- *.properties
- *.default
  find /<installation_location> -type f -name "*.yaml" -o -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.xml" \ -o -name "*.properties" -o -name "*.default" -type f >> "/backup_path/backup_file_listing"
  The prior command results in a comprehensive list of all possible customizable file types. You can customize this list depending upon your requirements.

Create a full snapshot, snapshot_name, using nodetool and add the snapshot filenames to a plain text file listing, backup_file_listing.

/<installation_location>/resources/cassandra/bin/nodetool  snapshot -t snapshot_name
find /data_directory_location/ -path */snapshots/snapshot_name/* -type f >> "/backup_path/backup_file_listing"

Make note of the snapshot name in case a restore is required.

Add the commit logs to the plain text file listing, backup_file_listing.

sudo find /data_directory_location/commitlog -type f >> "/backup_path/backup_file_listing"

Tar up all the backup files into a single archive, backup_archive_name.tar, using the file list, backup_file_listing.

sudo /bin/tar -pzcvf /backup_path/backup_archive_name.tar --files-from=/backup_path/backup_file_listing

For large snapshots, consider using the nice command to reduce the load on the node:

sudo /usr/bin/nice -10 /bin/tar -pzcvf /backup_path/backup_archive_name.tar --files-from=/backup_path/backup_file_listing

Copy backup_archive_name.tar, token_range_filename, and schema_filename.cql to a secure location in case you need to restore your existing installation.

Backing up a tarball installation

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