Backup and recovery

The following section describes the backup and recovery features of the hosted MongoDB offering from ObjectRocket.

Overview

A typical configuration of a Mongodb instance utilizes a three-node replica set for a sharded cluster and for individual replica set instances.

This configuration ensures that if a component fails, the MongoDB replica set architecture provides the primary level of high availability, fault tolerance, and uptime. ObjectRocket also performs daily backups to complement the high availability and for overall data protection.

Backups

Note

ObjectRocket performs backups daily and retains 14 successful backups by default. You can contact the Support team to change the schedule or retention period. Backups are taken per instance. View a list of backups by selecting the name of a MongoDB or Elasticsearch instance and then by selecting Backups.

ObjectRocket performs snapshot backups by using mongodump. These backups are archived in cloud storage with the same Provider and Region that the instance runs. ObjectRocket runs backups concurrently on each shard to ensure that the snapshot is consistent.

In addition to snapshot backups, ObjectRocket also provides Point-In-Time-Recovery (PITR) backups, which are enabled by default. With PITR enabled, the operations log (an internal MongoDB log of all operations performed on the shard, also called oplog slices or chunks) will be backed up every 10 minutes, concurrently, from each shard. This, in conjunction with the snapshot backups taken by mongodump, enables the database to be restored to a given point in time covered by the backed up operations log. The most recent snapshot backup serves as starting point for PITR backups. Once a PITR-based restore has completed, a full snapshot backup will need to be immediately performed to serve as the starting point for the next PITR backup.

Recovery options

This section describes the available recovery options.

Download a backup

Each backup is available for download. Email the Support team and tell them which backup you need. You can access a list of backup images in the ObjectRocket control panel for each instance by selecting Backups. ObjectRocket can upload backups to S3 or Cloud Files, but other methods are also possible, if necessary.

In-place restore

You can replace or recover an existing instance with a backup image. The backup image data replaces all data in the existing instance, essentially rolling back the entire instance. Email the Support team to request an in-place recovery.

Data validation options

The following section describes the available data validation options.

Continuous data validation

You might need to validate data occasionally. To accomplish this, point a diff tool or other comparison tool that you created at a slave instance and compare it against some other known archive. You can do this on the ObjectRocket system by pointing the tools at either a regular or delayed slave. In the case of a regular slave, set read preference to secondary. In the case of a delayed slave, you should use the virtual IP address provided for access.

Point-in-time data validation

If you need a point-in-time comparison data set, use a downloaded backup image in your environment for comparison.