--- title: Backup Metadata slug: /deployment/backup-restore-metadata --- # Backup & Restore Metadata ## Introduction The goal of OpenMetadata is to enable company-wide collaboration around metadata. The more we use it, the more value this brings to the table, which means that keeping the metadata safe can become a critical activity for our Disaster Recovery practices. While there are cloud services that feature automatic snapshots and replication, the metadata CLI now allows all users to perform backups regardless of the underlying infrastructure. ## Requirements The backup CLI needs to be used with `openmetadata-ingestion` version 0.13.1 or higher. However, we recommend to make sure that you are always in the latest `openmetadata-ingestion` version to have all the improvements shipped in the CLI. ## Installation The CLI comes bundled in the base `openmetadata-ingestion` Python package. You can install it with: ```commandline pip install openmetadata-ingestion ``` One of the `backup` features is to upload the generated backup to cloud storage (currently supporting S3 and Azure Blob). To use this, you can instead install the package with the backup plugin: ```commandline pip install "openmetadata-ingestion[backup,mysql]" ``` ## Requirements & Considerations This is a custom utility. As almost all tables contain `GENERATED` columns, directly using `mysqldump` is not an option out of the box, as it would require some further cleaning steps to get the data right. Instead, we have created a utility that will just dump the necessary data. The requirement for running the process is that the target database should have the Flyway migrations executed. The backup utility will provide an SQL file which will do two things: 1. TRUNCATE the OpenMetadata tables 2. INSERT the data that has been saved You can then run the script's statements to restore the data. {% note %} Make sure that the migrations have been run correctly (find out how [here](/deployment/bare-metal#4-prepare-the-openmetadata-database-and-indexes)). Also, make sure that the target database does not already have any OpenMetadata data, or if it does, that you are OK replacing it with whatever comes from the SQL script. {% /note %} ## Backup CLI After the installation, we can take a look at the different options to run the CLI: ```commandline > metadata backup -h usage: metadata backup [-h] -H HOST -u USER -p PASSWORD -d DATABASE [--port PORT] [--output OUTPUT] [--upload-destination-type {AWS,AZURE}] [--upload UPLOAD UPLOAD UPLOAD] [-o OPTIONS] [-a ARGUMENTS] [-s SCHEMA] optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -H HOST, --host HOST Host that runs the database -u USER, --user USER User to run the backup -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD Credentials for the user -d DATABASE, --database DATABASE Database to backup --port PORT Database service port --output OUTPUT Local path to store the backup --upload-destination-type {AWS,AZURE} AWS or AZURE --upload UPLOAD UPLOAD UPLOAD S3 endpoint, bucket & key to upload the backup file -o OPTIONS, --options OPTIONS -a ARGUMENTS, --arguments ARGUMENTS -s SCHEMA, --schema SCHEMA ``` ### Database Connection There is a set of four required parameters, the minimum required for us to access the database service and run the backup: `host`, `user`, `password` and `database` to point to. Note that the user should have at least read access to the database. By default, we'll try to connect through the port `3306`, but this can be overridden with the `--port` option. ### Output The CLI will create a dump file that looks like `openmetadata_YYYYmmddHHMM_backup.sql`. This will help us identify the date each backup was generated. We can also specify an output path, which we'll create if it does not exist, via `--output`. ### Uploading to S3 To run this, make sure to have `AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID` and `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY` as environment variables with permissions to the bucket that you'd like to point to. Afterwards, we can just use `--upload ` to have the CLI upload the file. In this case, you'll get both the local dump file and the one in the cloud. ### Uploading to Azure Blob To run this, make sure to have Azure CLI configured with permissions to the Blob that you'd like to point to. Afterwards, we can just use `--upload ` to have the CLI upload the file. In this case, you'll get both the local dump file and the one in the cloud. ### Connection Options and Arguments You can pass any required connection options or arguments to the MySQL connection via `-o , -o [...]` or `-a , -a [...]`. ### Backup Postgres If you are saving the data from Postgres, pass the argument `-s ` or `--schema=` to indicate the schema containing the OpenMetadata tables. E.g., `-s public`. ### Trying it out We can do a test locally preparing some containers: 1. `sh docker/run_local_docker.sh` to start the `docker compose` service. 2. `docker run -p 9000:9000 -p 9001:9001 minio/minio server /data --console-address ":9001"` to start minio, an object storage S3 compatible. 3. Connect to [http://localhost:9001](http://localhost:9001) to reach the minio console and create a bucket called `my-bucket` 4. Finally, we just need to prepare the environment variables as: ``` export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin ``` An example of S3 CLI call will look as: ```commandline metadata backup -u openmetadata_user -p openmetadata_password \ -H localhost -d openmetadata_db --output=dir1/dir2 \ --upload-destination-type AWS \ --upload http://localhost:9000 my-bucket backup/ ``` And we'll get the following output: ```commandline Creating OpenMetadata backup for localhost:3306/openmetadata_db... Backup stored locally under dir1/dir2/openmetadata_202201250823_backup.sql Uploading dir1/dir2/openmetadata_202201250823_backup.sql to http://localhost:9000/my-bucket/backup/openmetadata_202201250823_backup.sql... ``` If we now head to the minio console and check the `my-backup` bucket, we'll see our SQL dump in there. {% image src="/images/v0.13.3/deployment/backup/minio-example.png" alt="minio" /%} An example of Azure Blob CLI call will look as: ```commandline metadata backup -u openmetadata_user -p openmetadata_password \ -H localhost -d openmetadata_db --output=dir1/dir2 \ --upload-destination-type AZURE \ --upload https://container.blob.core.windows.net/ container-name Folder-name/ ``` And we'll get the following output: ```commandline Creating OpenMetadata backup for localhost:3306/openmetadata_db... Backup stored locally under openmetadata_202212161559_backup.sql Uploading openmetadata_202212161559_backup.sql to https://container.blob.core.windows.net//container-name... ``` # Restore Metadata Make sure that when restoring metadata, your OpenMetadata server is **NOT RUNNING**. Otherwise, there could be clashes on cached values and specific elements that the server creates at start-time and that will be present on the restore SQL file as well. ## Introduction SQL file which is generated using Backup metadata CLI can restore using Restore metadata CLI. ## Requirements The restore CLI needs to be used with `openmetadata-ingestion` version 0.12.1 or higher. ## Restore CLI After the installation, we can take a look at the different options to run the CLI: ```commandline > metadata restore -h usage: metadata restore [-h] -H HOST -u USER -p PASSWORD -d DATABASE [--port PORT] --input INPUT [-o OPTIONS] [-a ARGUMENTS] [-s SCHEMA] optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit -H HOST, --host HOST Host that runs the database -u USER, --user USER User to run the restore backup -p PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD Credentials for the user -d DATABASE, --database DATABASE Database to restore --port PORT Database service port --input INPUT Local backup file path for restore -o OPTIONS, --options OPTIONS -a ARGUMENTS, --arguments ARGUMENTS -s SCHEMA, --schema SCHEMA ``` ### Output The CLI will give messages like this `Backup restored from openmetadata_202209301715_backup.sql` when backup restored completed. ### Trying it out An example CLI call will look as: ```commandline metadata restore -u openmetadata_user -p openmetadata_password -H localhost -d openmetadata_db --input openmetadata_202209301715_backup.sql ``` And we'll get the following output: ```commandline Restoring OpenMetadata backup for localhost:3306/openmetadata_db... Backup restored from openmetadata_202209301715_backup.sql ```