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Manage Blockstore Snapshot Storage

Ops Manager can back up MongoDB databases as snapshots to one or more of the following storage options:

• Another MongoDB database, called a blockstore,
• As files stored on a local or network-attached file system, and/or
• An AWS S3 bucket.

This tutorial covers backing up your MongoDB databases to snapshots stored in other MongoDB databases. Blockstores can exist on any MongoDB instance that Ops Manager can access.

Note

You might have issues that require you to use more than one snapshot store. These issues could include needing more capacity, localizing data, or meeting privacy regulations.

To learn how to assign snapshot stores to different data centers, see Assign Snapshot Stores to Specific Data Centers.

Prerequisites

Before creating any blockstore snapshot stores:

• Ensure storage volumes with sufficient capacity to store the blockstore connected to Ops Manager. The Oplog Store doesn’t need to reside on the same host as the blockstore. The Oplog Store can be created using the same replica set as the blockstore if you need to conserve storage and compute resources.
• Deploy the dedicated MongoDB instance(s) to host the blockstore database.
• Ensure the host running the Ops Manager Backup Daemon service has sufficient capacity to store the head database.
• Secure the instance that stores your blockstores using authentication and TLS. Blockstores support all authentication mechanisms.

Procedures

The format of the Username and Password depend upon the authentication mechanism. Select one of the following tabs:

• Username and Password
• X.509
• Kerberos
• LDAP

Add One Blockstore

1

Navigate to the Snapshot Storage page.

1. Click the Admin link.
2. Click the Backup tab.
3. (Optional) If you have not previously set the head directory, set it in the Head Directory box.
4. Click the Snapshot Storage page.

2

Click Create New Blockstore.

3

Provide the blockstore details.

Field	Necessity	Action
Name	Required	Type a label for the blockstore.
Datastore Type	Required	Select Standalone, Replica Set or Sharded Cluster.
MongoDB Host List	Conditional	Type a comma-separated list of mongod instances (for a Replica Set) or mongos instances (for a Sharded Cluster) in the <hostname:port> format that comprise the blockstore database. Example host1.example.com:27017,host2.example.com:27017,host2.example.com:27018 This field displays only if you set Datastore Type to Replica Set or Sharded Cluster.
MongoDB Hostname	Conditional	Type the hostname of the standalone MongoDB instance. This field displays only if you set Datastore Type to Standalone.
MongoDB Port	Conditional	Type the port number of the standalone MongoDB instance. This field displays only if you set Datastore Type to Standalone.
Username	Optional	If you set this value: Type the name of the user authorized to access the this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring SCRAM authentication, see SCRAM. Type the RFC 2253-formatted subject from the client certificate of the user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring x.509 authentication, see x.509. Type the UPN of the user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring Kerberos authentication, see Kerberos. Type the name of the LDAP user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring LDAP authentication, see LDAP.
Password	Optional	If you set this value: Warning If you did not use the credentialstool to encrypt this password, it is stored as plaintext in the database. Type the password associated with the username that can access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring SCRAM authentication, see SCRAM. Leave it blank. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring x.509 authentication, see x.509. Kerberos retrieves the password from its keytab file. Don’t type a password into this field. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring Kerberos authentication, see Kerberos. Type the password of the LDAP user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring LDAP authentication, see LDAP.
Connection Options	Optional	Type any additional connection string options for the MongoDB instance. This field supports unescaped values only. For proper syntax, see Connection String URI Format in the MongoDB manual.
Encrypted Credentials	Optional	Select if the Username and Password for the database were encrypted using the credentialstool.
Use TLS/SSL	Optional	Select if the blockstore database requires TLS encryption. Beyond this checkbox, to connect this blockstore using TLS, you must enable TLS on the blockstore database.
New Assignment Enabled	Optional	Select if you want to enable this blockstore after creating it. This is selected by default so the blockstore can be assigned backup jobs. If you clear this checkbox, the blockstore is created but you cannot assign backups to this blockstore.

4

Click Create.

Edit One Existing Blockstore

Ops Manager lists blockstores in a table on the Snapshot Storage page. Each row contains the settings for one blockstore.

1

Navigate to the Snapshot Storage page.

1. Click the Admin link.
2. Click the Backup tab.
3. (Optional) If you have not previously set the head directory, set it in the Head Directory box.
4. Click the Snapshot Storage page.

2

Go to the row for the blockstore you want to edit.

3

Update any values that need to be changed.

In the MongoDB Connection column, update any values that need to be changed in the following fields:

Field	Contents
<hostname>:<port>	Type in one or more hosts that comprise the blockstore database in the <hostname:port> format. Important If these hosts are changed, the blockstore database they host must have the same data as the original blockstore database. Changing the host to a new blockstore databases results in data loss. If the blockstore database is a Replica Set or Sharded Cluster, type a comma-separated list of mongod instances (for a Replica Set) or mongos instances (for a Sharded Cluster). Example host1.example.com:27017,host2.example.com:27017,host2.example.com:27018 If the blockstore database is a standalone MongoDB instance, type the hostname:port of the instance.
MongoDB Auth Username	If you set this value: Type the name of the user authorized to access the this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring SCRAM authentication, see SCRAM. Type the RFC 2253-formatted subject from the client certificate of the user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring x.509 authentication, see x.509. Type the UPN of the user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring Kerberos authentication, see Kerberos. Type the name of the LDAP user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring LDAP authentication, see LDAP.
MongoDB Auth Password	If you set this value: Type the password associated with the username that can access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring SCRAM authentication, see SCRAM. Leave it blank. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring x.509 authentication, see x.509. Kerberos retrieves the password from its keytab file. Don’t type a password into this field. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring Kerberos authentication, see Kerberos. Type the password of the LDAP user authorized to access this database. Note If your Ops Manager Application Database uses authentication or TLS, you must have connections configured to the application database. To learn more, see Configure the Connections to the Application Database. To learn more about configuring LDAP authentication, see LDAP. Warning If you did not use the credentialstool to encrypt this password, it is stored as plaintext in the database. Note Ops Manager doesn’t display the existing MongoDB Auth Password.
Encrypted Credentials	Select if the Username and Password for the database were encrypted using the credentialstool.
Use TLS/SSL	Select if the blockstore database requires TLS encryption. Beyond this checkbox, to connect this blockstore using TLS, you must enable TLS on the blockstore database.
Connection Options	Type any additional connection string options for the MongoDB instance. This field supports unescaped values only.
Assignment Labels	Type a comma-separated list of labels to assign the blockstores to specific projects.
Blockstore Max Capacity (GB)	Type a maximum size for a blockstore.
Load Factor	Type any positive integer that expresses how much backup work you want this snapshot store to perform compared to another snapshot store. Important If you have only one snapshot store, skip this setting. Backup work includes running backups, restoring snapshots or grooming blockstores. The term of backup work ratio assigned to a single snapshot store is called its Load Factor. By default, Ops Manager assigns each snapshot store a Load Factor of 1. This means each snapshot store would perform the same amount of backup work. As a snapshot store’s Load Factor increases, it performs more backup work compared to another snapshot store. If the Load Factor of snapshot store A is set to 2 and the Load Factor of snapshot store B is set to 1, A performs two times the backup work of B. Example How to estimate Load Factor Consider a five-shard sharded cluster with the following backup storage configuration: File system store (F) manages the backup work for one shard in the cluster. F is running on a single two-core physical server. Blockstore (B) manages the backup work for four shards in the cluster. B is running as a four-node sharded cluster on four physical servers with two cores on each server. In this example, B has four times the capability of F. B should receive the greater part of the ratio of backup work: 4:1. For every one backup task F performs, B performs 4. Set the Load Factors of B to 4 and F to 1. Snapshot stores with greater compute or storage performance should be given a greater Load Factor: A file system store with 16-cores and 128 GB of RAM can back up more databases in less time than a file system store with only 2 cores and 8 GB of RAM. A blockstore backed by a 10-node sharded cluster can back up more databases and groom more databases than a blockstore backed by a single replica set. Load Factor can be set to 0. When one snapshot store’s Load Factor is set to 0, it performs no backup work at all. If a snapshot store’s Load Factor is changed while backup work is in progress, all jobs or tasks running on that snapshot store are allowed to finish. All future backup work then is re- distributed among the remaining snapshot stores with a Load Factor of 1 or greater and have Assignment Enabled selected.
Write Concern	Select your preferred Write Concern: Default Deployment Type Default Write Concern Standalone Journaled Replica sets or sharded clusters W2 Journaled A primary or standalone MongoDB instance acknowledged the write and wrote that write to their on-disk journals. Acknowledged A primary or standalone acknowledged the write. W2 More than one of the cluster members acknowledged the write. Majority A majority of the replica set members acknowledged the write.

4

Select the checkbox in the Assignment Enabled column.

Select if you want to enable this blockstore after creating it. This is selected by default so the blockstore can be assigned backup jobs. If you clear this checkbox, the blockstore is created but you cannot assign backups to this blockstore.

5

Click Save.

6

Optional: Restart Ops Manager instances if needed.

If you change any connection string values or the Write Concern, restart all the Ops Manager instances including those running Backup Daemons.

Warning

Modifying the connection string values or the Write Concern for an existing blockstore requires you to restart all Ops Manager components, including those only running the Backup Daemon to apply those changes. Connection parameters include:

• <hostname>:<port>
• MongoDB Auth Username
• MongoDB Auth Password
• Encrypted Credentials
• Use TLS/SSL
• Connection Options
• Write Concern

If you change to another blockstore host, the data on the existing blockstore is not copied automatically to the other blockstore.

See also

For more details on the MongoDB connection string uri, see Connection String URI Format in the MongoDB Manual.

Delete One Blockstore

1

Navigate to the Snapshot Storage page.

1. Click the Admin link.
2. Click the Backup tab.
3. (Optional) If you have not previously set the head directory, set it in the Head Directory box.
4. Click the Snapshot Storage page.

2

Deselect ASSIGNMENT ENABLED.

3

Click the Delete <blockstore> link under the name of the blockstore you want to delete.

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