Backing up a Netdata Agent

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What You'll Learn

How to back up and restore Netdata Agent data including configuration, metrics, and identity files for disaster recovery scenarios.

important

User Responsibility

Users are responsible for backing up, recovering, and ensuring their data's availability because Netdata stores data locally on each system due to its decentralized architecture.

Introduction

When planning a Netdata Agent backup, it's essential to recognize the types of data that can be backed up, either individually or collectively:

Data type	Description	Location
Agent configuration	Files controlling configuration of the Netdata Agent	config directory
Metrics	Database files	/var/cache/netdata
Identity	Claim token, API key and some other files	/var/lib/netdata

Backup and Restore Scenarios

Backing up to restore data in case of a node failure

In this standard scenario, you're backing up your Netdata Agent in case of a node failure or data corruption so that the metrics and the configuration can be recovered. The purpose is not to back up/restore the application itself.

Backup Process

1. Verify directory paths

   Verify that the directory paths in the table above contain the information you expect.

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   Path Variations

   The specific paths may vary depending on the installation method, Operating System, and whether it is a Docker/Kubernetes deployment.

2. Stop the Netdata Agent

   It is recommended that you stop the Netdata Agent when backing up the Metrics/database files. Backing up the Agent configuration and Identity folders is straightforward as they shouldn't be changing very frequently.

3. Create a backup archive

   Using a backup tool such as tar you will need to run the backup as root or as the netdata user to access all the files in the directories.

   sudo tar -cvpzf netdata_backup.tar.gz /etc/netdata/ /var/cache/netdata /var/lib/netdata

   Stopping the Netdata Agent is typically necessary to back up the database files of the Netdata Agent.

Minimizing Service Interruption

If you want to minimize the gap in metrics caused by stopping the Netdata Agent, consider implementing a backup job or script that follows this sequence:

• Back up the Agent configuration Identity directories
• Stop the Netdata service
• Back up the database files
• Restart the Netdata Agent.

Restoring Netdata

Restoration Process

1. Prepare for restoration

   Ensure that the Netdata Agent is installed and is stopped

   If you plan to deploy the Agent and restore a backup on top of it, then you might find it helpful to use the --dont-start-it option upon installation.

   wget -O /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh https://get.netdata.cloud/kickstart.sh && sh /tmp/netdata-kickstart.sh --dont-start-it
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   Database File Restoration

   If you’re going to restore the database files, then you should first ensure that the Metrics directory is empty.

   sudo rm -Rf /var/cache/netdata

2. Restore from backup archive

   sudo tar -xvpzf /path/to/netdata_backup.tar.gz -C /

3. Start the Netdata Agent

   Start the Netdata Agent