Huawei Cloud
Huawei Cloud
FAQs
Issue 02
Date 2020-04-08
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Contents
1 Concepts.................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 What Are Full Backup and Incremental Backup?.........................................................................................................1
1.2 What Are the Differences Between Backup and Disaster Recovery?.................................................................... 1
1.3 What Are the Differences Between Backups and Snapshots?................................................................................. 2
1.4 Why Is My Backup Size Larger Than My Disk Size?....................................................................................................4
1.5 What Are the Differences Between Backups and Images?.......................................................................................4
1.6 What Are the Differences Between Cloud Server Backup and Cloud Disk Backup?........................................6
1.7 Why Does the Used Capacity of a Vault Change Only Slightly After I Deleted Unwanted Backups?.......7
2 Billing......................................................................................................................................... 8
2.1 How Is CBR Billed?.................................................................................................................................................................. 8
2.2 How Large of a Vault Do I Need?................................................................................................................................... 10
2.3 What Is the Billing Cycle and Pay Time of the Pay-per-Use Mode?................................................................... 10
2.4 How Do I Disable CBR?.......................................................................................................................................................10
2.5 How Do I Unsubscribe from CSBS or VBS Resource Packages?........................................................................... 11
2.6 Why Is a Message Displayed Indicating Insufficient User Rights When I Create a Policy?........................ 13
2.7 What Can I do If a Yearly/Monthly-Billed Vault Is About to Expire?.................................................................. 13
2.8 How Do I Unsubscribe from a Vault?............................................................................................................................ 14
2.9 What Should I Do If the Fee Is Too High When I Expand the Capacity of a Vault?..................................... 15
2.10 Can I Change a Server Backup Vault to a Disk Backup Vault or the Other Way Around?...................... 15
2.11 Why Are CBR Backups Displayed on the VBS Console?........................................................................................ 15
2.12 What Charges Will I Incur When Using a Backup to Create an Image?......................................................... 16
2.13 How Do I Purchase a CBR Replication Traffic Package?.......................................................................................16
2.14 Can I Change the Protection Type of an Existing Vault?...................................................................................... 16
2.15 What Resources Do I Need to Buy for Cross-Region Replication Backup?.................................................... 17
3 Backup......................................................................................................................................18
3.1 Do I Need to Stop the Server Before Performing a Backup?.................................................................................18
3.2 Can I Back Up a Server Deployed with Databases?..................................................................................................18
3.3 How Can I Distinguish Automatic Backups From Manual Backups?..................................................................19
3.4 Can I Choose to Back Up Only Some Partitions of a Disk?....................................................................................19
3.5 Does CBR Support Cross-Region Backup?.................................................................................................................... 19
3.6 How Do I Migrate Server Data Across Regions Using Server Backups?............................................................ 19
3.7 Can I Back Up Two Disks to One Target Disk?........................................................................................................... 23
3.8 How Do I Replicate a Disk to the Same AZ in a Region as the Source Disk?................................................. 24
3.9 Can I Migrate Backups Between Vaults?...................................................................................................................... 24
3.10 Will the Server Performance Be Affected If I Delete Its Backups?.................................................................... 24
3.11 Can I Use Its Backup for Restoration After a Resource Is Deleted?.................................................................. 24
3.12 How Many Backups Can I Create for a Resource?..................................................................................................24
3.13 Can I Use an Incremental Backup to Restore Data After a Full Backup Is Deleted?.................................. 24
3.14 Can I Stop an Ongoing Backup Task?......................................................................................................................... 24
3.15 How Do I Reduce the Vault Space Occupied by Backups?.................................................................................. 25
3.16 How Do I View the Size of Each Backup?.................................................................................................................. 25
3.17 How Do I View My Backup Data?................................................................................................................................ 25
3.18 How Long Will My Backups Be Kept?......................................................................................................................... 26
3.19 How Do I Implement Periodic Full Backups for My Resources?........................................................................ 26
4 Restoration..............................................................................................................................29
4.1 Do I Need to Stop the Server Before Restoring Data Using Backups?...............................................................29
4.2 Can I Use a System Disk Backup to Recover an ECS?.............................................................................................. 29
4.3 Do I Need to Stop the Server Before Restoring Data Using Disk Backups?.....................................................29
4.4 Can a Server Be Restored Using Its Backups After It Is Changed?...................................................................... 29
4.5 Can a Disk Be Restored Using Its Backups After Its Capacity Is Expanded?.................................................... 30
4.6 What Can I Do if the Password Becomes a Random One After I Use a Backup to Restore a Server or
Use an Image to Create a Server?......................................................................................................................................... 30
4.7 What Changes Will Be Made to the Original Backup When I Use the Backup to Restore a Server?..... 30
4.8 How Do I Restore Data on the Original Server to a New Server?.......................................................................31
4.9 How Do I Restore a Data Disk Backup to a System Disk?..................................................................................... 31
4.10 Can I Use CBR to Restore Data to Any Point When the Data Was Backed Up?.......................................... 31
4.11 Can I Stop an Ongoing Restoration Task?................................................................................................................. 32
5 Policies..................................................................................................................................... 33
5.1 How Do I Configure Automatic Backup for a Server or Disk?.............................................................................. 33
5.2 Why Does the Retention Rule Not Take Effect After Being Changed?.............................................................. 33
5.3 How Do I Back Up Multiple Resources at a Time?................................................................................................... 35
5.4 How Do I Retain My Backups Permanently?.............................................................................................................. 35
5.5 How Can I Cancel Auto Backup or Auto Replication?............................................................................................. 35
5.6 How Can I Have the System Automatically Delete Backups That I No Longer Need?................................ 36
5.7 Why Aren't My Backups Deleted Based on the Retention Rule?......................................................................... 36
6 Optimization.......................................................................................................................... 37
6.1 What Are Common Problems During Cloud-Init Installation?..............................................................................37
6.2 What Can I Do If Injecting the Key or Password Using Cloud-Init Fails After NetworkManager Is
Installed?......................................................................................................................................................................................... 41
6.3 What Can Cloud-Init Do?................................................................................................................................................... 41
7 Others...................................................................................................................................... 43
7.1 Is There a Quota for CBR Vaults?....................................................................................................................................43
7.2 Can I Merge My Vaults?..................................................................................................................................................... 43
7.3 How Do I Delete a Backup That Has Been Used to Create an Image While Retaining the Image?....... 43
7.4 What Can I Do If the Vault Capacity Is Not Enough?.............................................................................................. 43
7.5 Will Backup Continue If the Usage of a Vault Reaches the Upper Limit?........................................................ 44
7.6 Can I Export Disk Backup Data to Another Server?..................................................................................................44
7.7 How Can I Reduce My Vault Capacity?......................................................................................................................... 44
7.8 Why Do I Need a Vault to Accept the Image Shared to Me?............................................................................... 44
7.9 Can I Download Backup Data to a Local PC?............................................................................................................. 44
7.10 How Do I Copy Disk Data to Another Account?..................................................................................................... 44
7.11 What Should I Do If I Receive an Email or SMS Message Indicating a Backup Failure?...........................45
1 Concepts
● The initial full backup covers only the used capacity of a disk. If a 100 GB disk
contains 40 GB data, the initial backup consumes 40 GB backup space.
● Subsequent incremental backup backs up data changed since the last backup.
If 5 GB data changed since the last backup, only the 5 GB changed data will
be backed up.
CBR allows you to use any backup, no matter it is a full or incremental one, to
restore the full data of a resource. By virtue of this, manual or automatic deletion
of a backup will not affect the restoration function.
Suppose server X has backups A, B, and C (in time sequence) and every backup
involves data changes. If backup B is deleted, you can still use backup A or C to
restore data.
NOTE
In extreme cases, the size of a backup is the same as the disk size. The used capacity in a
full backup and the changed capacity in an incremental backup are calculated based on the
data block change in a disk, not by calculating the file change in the operating system. The
size of a full backup cannot be evaluated based on the file capacity in the operating
system, and the size of an incremental backup cannot be evaluated based on the file size
change.
NOTE
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) specifies the maximum acceptable period in which data can
be lost.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) specifies the maximum acceptable amount of time for
restoring the entire system after a disaster occurs.
Possible Causes
Possible causes are as follows:
● The backup mechanism itself causes this problem. The cloud server backups,
cloud disk backups, and SFS Turbo backups created using CBR are all block-
level backups. Different from file-level backups, block-level backups are
performed by sector (512 bytes) each time.
● The metadata of the file systems on the disk occupies disk space.
● To reduce performance overhead, the file system adds a delete marker for the
deleted file, but does not erase the data that has been written to the sector,
and the metadata on the sector still exists. Block-level backups cannot detect
whether data on a sector is deleted or not, but only determine whether a
backup needs to be performed by checking whether all data blocks are zero
blocks.
● CBR determines whether data in each sector changes by comparing two
snapshots. Data changes include data addition, modification, and deletion.
Backup is not performed if there are no data changes. If there are data
changes, CBR further checks whether data blocks in the sector are all zero
blocks. If so, backup is also not performed. Backups are performed only when
there are non-zero blocks. If the data is deleted but metadata in the sector is
not, the data block is also recognized as a non-zero block, and backups will
be performed.
NOTE
Although backups and images are stored in OBS, you cannot view backup and image data
in OBS, because they do not occupy your resources. Backup fees are charged according to
the CBR billing standards, and image storage fees are charged according to the OBS billing
standards.
Table 1-4 Differences between cloud server backup and cloud disk backup
Item Cloud Server Backup Cloud Disk Backup
Resources to All disks (system and data One or more specified disks
be backed up disks) on a server (system or data disks)
or restored
Possible Causes
The backup mechanism of CBR:
● By default, CBR performs a full backup for a resource for the first time and
backs up all used data blocks. All subsequent backups are incremental. An
incremental backup backs up only the data blocks changed since the last
backup.
● Each incremental backup is a virtual full backup. Correlated data blocks are
indexed by using pointers.
● When you delete a backup, no matter manually or automatically, only data
blocks that are not referenced by other backups will be deleted.
2 Billing
Billing Examples
Case 1:
A user has a 100 GB cloud server and a 400 GB server backup vault purchased in
the CN-Hong Kong region, and the cloud server is associated with the vault. The
user is billed for the 400 GB server backup vault in CBR.
Case 2:
A user has a 100 GB cloud server running databases and an 800 GB database
server backup vault purchased in the CN-Hong Kong region, and the cloud server
is associated with the vault. The user is billed for the 800 GB database server
backup vault in CBR.
Case 3:
A user purchases a 100 GB server backup vault A in the CN-Hong Kong region,
and the backup data uses 40 GB of the storage space. This user also purchases a
200 GB replication vault B in the AP-Bangkok region and replicates data from
vault A to vault B, without using the acceleration service. In this case, the user is
billed for the 100 GB backup vault and the 200 GB replication vault, as well as the
40 GB cross-region replication data traffic.
Vault capacity (GB) = [Disk capacity (GB) + Backup retention period (days)/
Backup cycle (days) x Daily data volume changes (GB)] x 120%
NOTE
If you set that backups are retained based on backup quantity, you can calculate the vault
capacity you need by converting the number of retained backups to backup retention
period. For example, if a company backs up data once a day and the number of retained
backups is set to 7, then the retention period can be deemed as 7 days.
You are advised to adjust the value based on your actual needs after the
calculation.
Example
Financial company A has an 800 GB cloud server and has used 200 GB of it. Use
the disk capacity (800 GB) rather that the used capacity for calculation. The daily
data change volume is about 10 GB. As scheduled, the company's data is backed
up twice at 02:00 and 20:00 every day, and backups are retained for one month.
The capacity of a server backup vault required by the company can be estimated
using the following formula:
2.3 What Is the Billing Cycle and Pay Time of the Pay-
per-Use Mode?
The vaults are billed hourly and are paid after usage.
● If you have not migrated resources to CBR, switch back to the CSBS or VBS
console page to delete the backups.
● To delete CSBS backups displayed on the VBS console page, go to the
Backups tab page on CSBS Console.
----End
Step 4 Enter a description, for example, "unsubscribe from CSBS/VBS resource packages",
in the text box next to Problem Description and set other parameters as required.
Then click Submit.
----End
during the retention period, see Service Suspension and Resource Release. If the
resource package is not renewed before the retention period expires, the resource
will be deleted.
● If you want to continue to use the vault, choose More > Renew in the
Operation column of the vault to renew your subscription.
● If you do not need the vault anymore, choose More > Delete in the
Operation column of the vault, or you can wait for the system to
automatically delete it when the subscription expires.
Method 1
Step 1 Log in to CBR Console.
Step 2 Click the Vaults tab and locate the target vault. Click More > Unsubscribe in the
Operation column.
Step 3 Complete the unsubscription operations as prompted.
----End
Method 2
Step 1 Log in to CBR Console.
Step 2 Click Billing in the top navigation bar to go to the Billing Center page.
Step 3 In the left navigation pane, choose Unsubscriptions and Changes >
Unsubscriptions. The resources you purchased are displayed.
Step 4 Select an unwanted vault and click Unsubscribe. See Figure 2-5.
----End
Possible Cause
Due to system restrictions, when expanding a vault in the current yearly package,
the fee cannot be calculated on the common yearly/monthly basis.
Solution
1. Plan the vault capacity properly before you purchase a yearly/monthly vault.
2. If you still want to expand the vault capacity, renew the vault by making up
the used duration.
For example, if you have purchased a vault for two years and need to expand
its capacity after using it for six months, you need to renew the vault for
another six months to add up to a two-year package. Then you can expand
the vault on a relatively preferential price.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to CBR Console.
1. Log in to the management console.
2. Click in the upper left corner and select your region and project.
3. Choose Storage > Cloud Backup and Recovery > Cloud Server Backup.
Step 2 Click Buy CBR Replication Traffic Package in the upper right corner.
Step 3 Select a package type and usage duration.
Step 4 Confirm the information, click Next, and complete the payment.
----End
3 Backup
SQL Server Windows Windows Server 2008, 2008 R2, 2012, and 2012 R2
2008/2012 for x86_64
Database OS Version
SQL Server Windows Windows Server 2014, 2014 R2, and 2016
2014/2016/E Datacenter for x86_64
E
MySQL Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 for x86_64
5.5/5.6/5.7
SUSE SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, 12, 15 SP1, 15 SP2
for x86_64
backup replica to create a full-ECS image, and then uses the image to create an
ECS in AP-Bangkok. In this way, data on the ECS has been migrated to AP-
Bangkok.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to the ECS console, switch to the CN-Hong Kong region, and locate the
target ECS in the server list. See Figure 3-1.
Step 2 Choose More > Create Backup in the Operation column. Switch to CBR Console
to purchase a vault. Make sure that the target ECS is selected when purchasing a
vault.
Step 3 After the vault is created and associated with the ECS, back up the ECS. See Figure
3-2.
Step 4 Switch to the cloud server backup page on CBR Console, and confirm that the
backup has been created in the target vault. Then, choose More > Create Replica
in the Operation column to replicate the backup to AP-Bangkok. See Figure 3-3.
If the destination vault does not exist, go to the destination region to create a
replication vault first.
Step 5 Switch to the AP-Bangkok region. Choose Cloud Server Backups, find the
replicated backup replica_001 in the backup list. An R icon is displayed next to the
backup name. In the Operation column, click Create Image.
Create an image using the backup. See Figure 3-4. This backup can be deleted
only after the image is deleted.
Step 6 On the IMS console in AP-Bangkok, find the new image created and click Apply
for Server in the Operation column to create a server. See Figure 3-5. Set other
parameters based on service requirements.
Step 7 View the server details page. It can be seen that the ECS data has been migrated
from CN-Hong Kong to AP-Bangkok. See Figure 3-6.
----End
Suppose server X has backups A, B, and C (in time sequence) and every backup
involves data changes. If backup B is deleted, you can still use backup A or C to
restore data.
Possible Cause
After files are deleted from a disk, the data remains though it is no longer
available. When you use CBR to back up a disk, all disk data including the invisible
data will be backed up. For the backup principles, see Why Is My Backup Size
Larger Than My Disk Size?.
Solution
Currently, CBR cannot help reduce the backup size. You can use a third-party tool
to do this but need to evaluate the security of the tool by yourself.
To view server backup data, create an image from a server backup, use the image
to create a server, and then log in to the server to view your data.
Disk Backups
To view disk backup data, create a new disk from a disk backup, attach the disk to
a server, and then log in to the server to view your data.
To view SFS Turbo backup data, create a new SFS Turbo file system from an SFS
turbo backup, mount the file system to a server, and then log in to the server to
view your data.
CBR now allows you to implement periodic full backups in addition to the initial
backup. You can configure a policy to perform a full backup after every N
incremental backups. This further improves backup data security and meets
periodic full backup needs.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to CBR Console.
Step 2 Choose Policies and click the Backup Policies tab. In the upper right corner, click
Create Policy. See Figure 3-9.
Step 3 Set backup policy parameters according to Backup policy parameter description.
Step 4 Select Enable for Full Backup and set the full backup frequency. Then the system
automatically checks whether the configured frequency is appropriate. If message
shows that full backups cannot be executed, change the frequency. See Figure
3-10.
----End
4 Restoration
If you deselect Start the server immediately after restoration, you need to
manually start the server after the restoration is complete.
You can also use a backup of the system disk to create new disks. However, newly
created disks cannot be used as system disks.
If you have added a disk after backup and then use backups to restore data, data
on the newly added disk will not change.
If you have deleted a disk after backup and then use backups to restore data, data
on the deleted disk will not be restored.
If you have changed server OS after backup and then use a system disk backup to
restore the original system disk, the restoration will fail because the disk UUID has
changed.
If a new server has already been created, you can back up the disks of the original
server, create new disks using the backups, and then attach the new disks to the
new server. In this case, however, data consistency may not be ensured.
Procedure
Step 1 Log in to a server and create a file named test1.
Step 2 Log in to CBR Console and create a backup for the server.
Step 3 Log in to the server again and delete the test1 file.
Step 4 On CBR Console, use the server backup you created to restore data.
Step 5 Log in to the server and confirm that the data has been restored to the state
when the backup was created.
----End
5 Policies
5.2 Why Does the Retention Rule Not Take Effect After
Being Changed?
There are the following scenarios for a retention rule change:
immediately. If the user then perform manual backups or wait until the system
automatically create a backup at 02:00 a.m. on Friday, the system will verify and
use the latest retention rule after the backup task is complete. In this case, only
one most recent backup will be kept. Manual backups are not affected by policies,
so they will not be deleted.
Example: A user has a vault associated with a disk. At 10:00 a.m. on Monday, the
user applies a backup policy to the vault, based on which a backup task will be
executed at 02:00 a.m. every day and three most recent backups will be kept. At
10:00 a.m. on Thursday, three backups are kept. Then the user changes the
retention rule type from backup quantity to time period and sets to retain the
backups from the last one month. The new policy takes effect immediately. If the
user then perform manual backups or wait until the system automatically create a
backup at 02:00 a.m. on Friday, the system will verify and use the latest retention
rule after the backup task is complete. The three backups generated based on the
old policy still exist (the number of backups does not exceed the quantity set in
the old retention rule). They will not be automatically deleted and need to be
manually deleted if needed. Backups generated based on the new policy will be
kept based on the new retention rule.
Example: A user has a vault associated with a disk. At 10:00 a.m. on August 5, the
user applies a backup policy to the vault, based on which a backup task will be
executed at 02:00 a.m. every day and the backups generated from the last one
month will be kept. At 10:00 a.m. on August 8, three backups are kept. Then the
user changes the backup retention time from the last one month to the last three
months. At 02:00 a.m. on September 6, the backup generated on August 6 based
on the old policy will be deleted. The backup generated on August 9 will be
deleted two months later based on the new policy.
Example: A user has a vault associated with a disk. At 10:00 a.m. on August 5, the
user applies a backup policy to the vault, based on which a backup task will be
executed at 02:00 a.m. every day and the backups generated from the last one
month will be kept. At 10:00 a.m. on August 8, three backups are kept. Then the
user changes the retention rule type from time period to backup quantity and sets
to retain the most recent seven backups. At 10:00 a.m. on August 15, the backups
generated on August 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 will be kept. The backups
generated on August 6, 7, and 8 have been deleted based on the new policy.
Automatic Backups
To keep automatically generated backups permanently, set Retention Rule to
Permanent or set the retention period to 99999 days and make sure your account
balance is sufficient.
6 Optimization
● Solution
a. Run the following command:
systemctl unmask cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
b. Run the following commands to set automatic start again:
systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
Solution: Run the following command to copy the cloud-init file to the
usr/bin directory:
# cp /usr/local/bin/cloud-init /usr/bin/
Debian 9.5: Failed to Query the Cloud-Init Version and Set Automatic Start
1. After Cloud-Init is installed, run the following command to query its version:
cloud-init -v
Information similar to the following is displayed:
-bash:/usr/bin/cloud-init:not found this command
Cause analysis: The compilation fails because the GNU compiler collection
(GCC) is not installed.
Solution:
After GCC is installed, run the following command to install Cloud-Init:
yum -y install gcc
3. After Cloud-Init is installed, run the following command to set Cloud-Init
automatic start:
systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
Information similar to the following is displayed:
Solution:
a. Run the following command:
# systemctl unmask cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
b. Run the following commands to set automatic start again:
# systemctl enable cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
c. Run the following command to restart Cloud-Init:
# systemctl restart cloud-init-local.service cloud-init.service cloud-
config.service cloud-final.service
Run the systemctl status command to check the Cloud-Init status.
Information similar to the following is displayed:
CentOS 7/Fedora: Failed to Use the New Password to Log In to the Server
Created from a Backup After Cloud-Init Is Successfully Installed
● Symptom
After Cloud-Init is installed, the new password cannot be used to start the
new server. After logging in to the server using the old password, you find the
NIC is not started.
● Solution
Log in to the server, open the DHCP configuration file /etc/sysconfig/
network-scripts/ifcfg-ethX, and comment out HWADDR.
Solution
Uninstall the current version of Cloud-Init and install Cloud-Init 0.7.6 or an earlier
version.
Installation Methods
You are advised to install Cloud-Init or Cloudbase-Init on the server restored by
using backups.
● For Windows OSs, download and install Cloudbase-Init.
For details about how to install Cloudbase-Init, see Installing Cloudbase-Init.
● For Linux OSs, download and install Cloud-Init.
For details about how to install Cloud-Init, see Installing Cloud-Init.
For details about how to configure Cloud-Init, see Configuring Cloud-Init.
7 Others
You can expand the capacity of one vault and migrate the resources from another
vault to it.
However, backup stops once the usage of the vault exceeds the upper limit.
On CBR Console, locate the target vault and choose More > Reduce Capacity in
the Operation column. Ensure that the new capacity is greater than or equal to
the used capacity.
An accepted full-ECS image does not occupy the vault space. Do not delete this
vault. Or, ECSs will fail to be provisioned using the accepted image.