Setting up Directory database failover through backup and restore - To protect the Directory database by regularly backing up the master database instance, you can set up Directory database failover using the backup and restore method. - Security Center 5.13

Security Center Administrator Guide 5.13

Product
Security Center
Content type
Guides > Administrator guides
Version
5.13
ft:locale
en-US
Last updated
2025-04-11

To protect the Directory database by regularly backing up the master database instance, you can set up Directory database failover using the backup and restore method.

Before you begin

What you should know

Changes made to the system configuration while you were operating from the backup database aren’t automatically restored to the master database when it’s restored to active service.
CAUTION:
Once the Backup and restore failover mode is enabled, you can no longer back up the Directory database from Server Admin, but only from Config Tool. If you restore a previous backup from Server Admin, you must then immediately run a full manual backup from Config Tool. Failing to do so causes your master and backup databases to become out of sync and the database failover mechanism no longer works.

Procedure

  1. From the Config Tool homepage, open the System task and click the Roles view.
  2. Select the Directory Manager () role, and click the Database failover tab.
  3. Switch the Use database failover option to ON.
  4. Select Backup and restore for Failover mode.
  5. Click Add an item ().
  6. In the dialog box that appears, specify the Security Center server, the database server, the database instance, and the folder where the backup files should be copied.
    Dialog box for adding a backup database with sample values.

    You can assign as many backup databases as you want. However, the more backup databases you have, the longer it takes to back up the Directory database content.

  7. Click OK.
    The new backup database instance is added.
    NOTE: The server flagged as (Master) is the one hosting the database. The green LED () indicates the database that’s active, which isn’t necessarily the master.
  8. To force all Directory servers to reconnect to the master database after it’s back online after a failover, select the Automatically reconnect to master database option. This option only works if the primary Directory server is online.
    CAUTION:
    Switching the active database causes a short service disruption, and all changes made to the system configuration while the master database was offline are lost. Use this option only if you’re ready to lose the changes made to the system configuration while you were operating from the backup database.
  9. Under Master backup, specify the frequency at which the full backup and the differential backup should be generated.
    A differential backup only contains the database transactions made since the previous backup, so it’s faster to generate than a full backup. Frequent differential backups ensure that your backup database is most up to date when you fail over, but might take longer to restore.
  10. Click Apply.

Example

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