Webgisdr backup - automating and testing

[Dixie_MDavis]

Hello. We are a small, conservation non-profit with a single-machine 1071 enterprse configuration. In addition to the enterprise server, we have a web server and a dedicated data server that participate in the system. This configuration is our second run at an optimized design for our geospatial needs. We do not have an extensive amount of content in our system, we have a few web apps, less than 30 services (map image and hosted feature), and all our data is currently vector-based from FGDBs. Our webgisdr backup file is just a bit over 7GB. See included diagram below.

We are trying to implement a disaster recovery mitigation strategy using the webgisdr utility to replicate our primary enterprise server to a secondary enterprise server. We have followed the instructions outlined in these two resources:
+ https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-enterprise/administration/migrate-to-a-new-machine-... 
+ https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/overview-disaster-recovery-replica...

We want to automate the backup and restore, but so far, we have not yet been able to get consistent results with restoring to the secondary server. The restore takes over 9 hours using a local copy of the backup file and does not result in the secondary server's Portal being in a working state. We are hesitant to add a great deal more content or upgrade the system to include an imageserver until we know we can consistently backup and restore our environment.

We are curious to hear what others are doing to backup, restore and test their enterprise systems? Is anyone using built-in VM tools such as replication to accomplish the task?

Thanks in advance for any responses. Best, Dixie.

[DavidHoy]

Hi Dixie,

where did you get to with this?

We have done a fair bit of work with webgisdr recently, using it as a tool in a workflow to migrate a Large (>400 GB) Enterprise Site from one 10.6.1 environment to a different 10.7.1 environment.

There were certainly some issues, but the most recent patch set for 10.7.1 seems to have dealt with most of these.

[Dixie_MDavis]

Hi, David.

Thanks for the reply.  In regards to the "most recent patch set for 10.7.1", are you referring to the patch released in July (https://support.esri.com/en/download/7819)?  We have not installed this patch.  

We have resorted to doing VM snapshots as we were not able to resolve the issues and use the webgisdr utility to restore to a standby machine.  We worked for quite awhile with technical support on the issue, but decided it would be better to use snapshots as a backup/restore option until we could upgrade to 10.8.1 on a new system.  

[DavidHoy]

Dixie M Davis‌

That's the right patch number, but it wasn't released until October 8th : Portal for ArcGIS High Availability and Disaster Recovery Quality Patch 

you may find this covers many of the issues you were seeing previously.

However, there is not too much wrong with using VM snapshots as a backup mechanism

[Dixie_MDavis]

David Hoy‌

Unfortunately, the patch did not resolve our issues.  Applied the patch on our standby machine and tried to import a local export made from the Portal Admin, got the same error that we have seen many times with a failure to delete the database directory.  We have worked with several folks on your end regarding this, so we will just wait for our new system. 

It was definitely worth a shot!  Thanks for your time!

Best, Dixie.