Problem restoring an Alfresco 3.0 Backup

[jlabuelo]

Hi all

We are using Alfresco CE 3.0 and have a problem now when trying to restore the backup of the system.

We have a backup of the "alf_data" folder where the content and the indexes are, and also a backup of the MySQL Alfresco DB. To perform this backup of two items, we have stoped Alfresco, then performed the backups and then restared Alfresco.

Normally we move the information from the server where Alfresco is installed to another server using  a synchronization tool called "GoodSync" as now the alf_data folder is around 36GB and the DB is 32 MB.

We have tried to use the backup alf_data and MysQL Db in the backup server to restore the Alfresco system following these steps:

a) Install Alfresco 3.0 in the Server (Windows XP with MySQL DB) in C:\Alfresco (same version as we have in the "Production" server and also same dir.root directory)

b) Restore the Alfresco DB in MySQL in the Server

c) Rename alf_data folder to alf_data_old and move the backed up "alf_data" to the C:/Alfresco installation directory.

However the alf_start.bat process returns errors you can find in the attached log file

Is there anything we are doing wrong in the backup process? is it because we are using a Synchronization tool (Moving 36GB every day is too heavy and long)?

As you can see in the log, we have problems with the indexes & the dir.root, however instalation is the same in PRD and in backup Server.

Any suggestions will be very appreciated

Thanks a lot in advance!!


PD: Alfresco 3.0 CE - MySQL 5.1 - Java JDK 1.6 - Windows XP

14:02:52,437 INFO  [org.alfresco.config.xml.XMLConfigService$PropertyConfigurer] Loading properties file from class path resource [alfresco/file-servers.properties]
14:02:54,125 INFO  [org.alfresco.config.source.UrlConfigSource] Found META-INF/web-client-config-custom.xml in file:/C:/Alfresco/tomcat/webapps/alfresco/WEB-INF/lib/incis-wizard.jar
14:02:54,281 DEBUG [org.incis.web.bean.GenerarInformeDialog] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.web.bean.GenerarInformeDialog
14:02:54,296 DEBUG [org.incis.web.bean.GenerarDossierWizard] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.web.bean.GenerarDossierWizard
14:02:54,312 DEBUG [org.incis.model.actions.OCRTransformActionExecuter] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.model.actions.OCRTransformActionExecuter
14:02:54,375 DEBUG [org.incis.web.bean.GenerarEstadisticasDialog] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.web.bean.GenerarEstadisticasDialog
14:02:54,437 DEBUG [org.incis.web.bean.RecorteWizard] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.web.bean.RecorteWizard
14:02:54,484 DEBUG [org.incis.model.actions.DeleteTrashActionExecuter] preRegister called. Server=com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer@112e9e6, name=log4j:logger=org.incis.model.actions.DeleteTrashActionExecuter
14:03:03,796 INFO  [org.alfresco.repo.domain.schema.SchemaBootstrap] Schema managed by database dialect org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLInnoDBDialect.
14:03:05,718 INFO  [org.alfresco.repo.domain.schema.SchemaBootstrap] No changes were made to the schema.
14:03:11,718 WARN  [org.alfresco.repo.node.index.FullIndexRecoveryComponent] The indexes are not synchronized with the database.
14:03:12,906 INFO  [org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker] The Alfresco root data directory ('dir.root') is: C:\Alfresco\alf_data
14:03:12,968 ERROR [org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker] CONTENT INTEGRITY ERROR: Indexes not found for 2 stores.
14:03:13,000 INFO  [org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker] You may set 'index.recovery.mode=FULL' if you need to rebuild the indexes.
14:03:13,031 ERROR [org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker] Ensure that the 'dir.root' property is pointing to the correct data location.
14:03:13,078 ERROR [org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader] Context initialization failed
org.alfresco.error.AlfrescoRuntimeException: Ensure that the 'dir.root' property is pointing to the correct data location.
   at org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker.check(ConfigurationChecker.java:312)
   at org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker.access$000(ConfigurationChecker.java:72)
   at org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker$1.execute(ConfigurationChecker.java:178)
   at org.alfresco.repo.transaction.RetryingTransactionHelper.doInTransaction(RetryingTransactionHelper.java:320)
   at org.alfresco.repo.transaction.RetryingTransactionHelper.doInTransaction(RetryingTransactionHelper.java:246)
   at org.alfresco.repo.admin.ConfigurationChecker.onBootstrap(ConfigurationChecker.java:182)
   at org.alfresco.util.AbstractLifecycleBean.onApplicationEvent(AbstractLifecycleBean.java:62)
   at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster$1.run(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:77)
   at org.springframework.core.task.SyncTaskExecutor.execute(SyncTaskExecutor.java:49)
   at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:75)
   at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.publishEvent(AbstractApplicationContext.java:246)
   at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:355)
   at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:244)
   at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:187)
   at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:49)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3843)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4342)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:525)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:830)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWARs(HostConfig.java:719)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:490)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1149)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:311)
   at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:719)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
   at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:578)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
   at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
   at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
   at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)
14:03:35,156 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.site.FrameworkHelper] Successfully Initialized Web Framework
14:03:41,453 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.scripts.DeclarativeRegistry] Registered 67 Web Scripts (+0 failed), 71 URLs
14:03:41,484 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.scripts.AbstractRuntimeContainer] Initialised Presentation Web Script Container (in 772.5969ms)
14:04:42,734 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.scripts.DeclarativeRegistry] Registered 101 Web Scripts (+0 failed), 105 URLs
14:04:42,781 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.scripts.AbstractRuntimeContainer] Initialised WebFramework Web Script Container (in 61239.934ms)
14:04:42,937 INFO  [org.alfresco.web.site.FrameworkHelper] Successfully Initialized Web Framework
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[jlabuelo]

Hi again

Any ideas why we are getting this error with the backups?… What tools do you use to move the information backed up from one server to anoter?. I thought using a Synchronization tool would be enough and would reduce the traffic in the net, as we are not moving all the 36 GB every day (plus the db file backed up also), just only the bytes changed.

Any ideas, suggestions??

Thanks a lot in advance

Regards

[jlabuelo]

Hi there

We have tried it again this time, stoping the Alfresco system installed in the C:\Alfresco folder in the Production enviroment. We made the backup of the mysql db, and also the total copy of the C:\Alfresco\alf_data folder.

Then we moved to a testing enviroment where we installed same version of Mysql and Alfresco (also in the C:\Alfresco folder), copied in C:\Alfresco the alf_data folder with the content information, and restored the alfresco DB we got from the PRD system.

If we try to launch alfresco we get this error:

GRAVE: Excepci�n enviando evento inicializado de contexto a instancia de escuchador de clase org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.alfresco.error.AlfrescoRuntimeException: Ensure that the 'dir.root' property is pointing to the correct data location.‍‍

I have readed that sometimes this error happens when the information stored in the DB is not synchronized with the information stored in the alf_data folder, but it is is just a copy of the PRD system and the PRD system works… dont see why this fails.

Also I made sure that the dir.root variable is pointing to "./alf_data" in the repository.properties file, so everything should be ok, shouldnt be?

Please I know I have open this post time ago, but still nobady replied back and I am affraid that if the "PRD" system fails (it is not critical as it is our internal ECM, not for a customer) we will lose all the information there.

Anything we are doing wrong please let us know

Regards

[mabayona]

First, don´t worry. backup and restore works OK as far as I can tell you. It sounds that you are doing someting wrong.

¿Do you use custom models? If so, be sure that the system that is being restored has the custom models (and other customisations and configurations) in place BEFORE trying to restore the data.

Hope it helps.

[jlabuelo]

Hi thanks a lot for the help

Yes we have some customizations done, however we make sure that we have them in place before trying to restore the data. We have the CustomModel.xml and custom-model-context.xml configured to get it, and also the web-client-config-custom.xml, so in this case we think we have it correctly.

We have readed that the have to set the "index.recovery.mode=FULL", which we did not have, and we are doing it right now in custom-repository.properties …. do you think might be this?

Thanks a lot for the answer… as I said we are quite worried to know if our backups work or not 

[mabayona]

yes,

starting with parameter:

index.recovery.mode=FULL

will restore your indices and this could solve your out-of-sync problems.

[jlabuelo]

Hi there

Thanks for the info. Once we set the parameter

index.recovery.mode=FULL

we got the backup restored…ufff we started to be worried 😄

Thanks a lot